How to do an exam
Exam Preparation that’s not Revision.
At first sight this might seem like a contradiction – surely preparing for an exam is revision? Well actually there’s a lot of not revision stuff you can do, such as reading through mark schemes, examiners’ reports, the syllabuses, etc. What I want to focus on here is knowing exactly what you are expected to do in the exam, for example how many questions there are, how are the questions weighted, what options you have and so.
The first thing you need to do is to get the relevant exam papers (most recent) and check with your teacher that there haven’t been any changes to the exam requirements. It is worthwhile carefully reading the front cover to find out exactly what will be expected of you.
Let’s have a look at the following example:
Assuming you’ve checked that this is the correct paper, then what else can be gleaned from it?
Obviously the time allowed is useful information, though you will probably already know that.
The fact that they give you a 12 page answer book does also tell you something: obviously they don’t expect many people to use more than 12 pages. You can – you need to ask for another book – but this does give you an upper limit to what they are expecting.
It is very tempting to just gloss over the instructions; however, this would be a mistake. So let’s take a careful look at the front page of an exam.
“Use black ink or black ball-point pen.” Really? Does it matter? Actually it might – frequently the papers are photocopied. So that the subtle power blue ink you like so much may more or less disappear when copied. In theory they could just give you 0% as you have failed to follow the instructions. They probably won’t but why take the risk? Exactly what point would you be making by writing in powder blue ink? If you want to rebel, then writing in an unusual coloured ink is pretty lame.
The stuff about how many question is obviously useful – make sure you know what your options are.
“Do all rough working in your answer book.” Yep, that seems fair enough. In any case you won’t have much else to work on.
“Cross through any work that you do not want to be marked.” No, don’t do that, do the following. Only ever cross out anything once you have replaced it with something better. If you write an essay plan, leave it until you have written your essay and are certain you have everything from the plan. Even then, why cross it out, providing it is clearly marked “Essay plan”? If you make a mistake, only ever cross it out once you have written the replacement. Why cross out something that might get you a few marks unless you are certain you have replaced with something that will get you more marks. The only reason to cross out something without replacing it would be if it contradicted something you had written earlier.
Similarly it is definitely worth having a good look at the information section.
The total marks and the fact that the marks per question are given in square brackets is obviously useful. However, we cover this in the exam timing section.
The bit about text is obviously important – so you should ensure that you do have a “clean” copy of the text – if you don’t then buy one.
Hopefully it is reasonably obvious that in an English exam you will be marked on your ability to write good English. However, in terms of marks organising information clearly is much more important. An incoherent argument with flawless grammar and spelling will score very few marks, whereas a brilliant argument with less than perfect spelling and grammar, providing it is still intelligible, can still score highly. You will obviously lose marks for poor spelling and/or grammar, but poor arguments or incoherent texts are much more costly in terms of marks.
The specialist vocabulary is an important point – correct use of specialist terms will help you can marks. Check the syllabus for key terminology. If a syllabus specifies that students are expected to know the meaning of post-modernism then make sure you do. The syllabus may give you a definition, if not, make sure you have one that is specific to your subject. A definition of Post-modernism for architecture is not going to be the same as for literature. If you are studying a subject that has its jargon (and most do) it is worth making a jargon dictionary.
The advice is only a guideline, but is almost certainly a good guide. As rule follow this advice.
How much to write in an exam
It is all too easy, when considering an issue of this magnitude, to get side tracked by many abstruse arguments that fail to address the issue, or for that matter provide any useful information that addresses the key point, which is how much to write: “don’t write to much” as G.K.Blinkinsop-Smythe stated in his landmark essay of 1842 – is noteworthy and sound advice.
That is a good example. That paragraph waffles and takes too long to get to the point. Your writing style in exams needs to be dense – get to the mark scoring point quickly without using unnecessary words. Who cares about G.K.Blinkinsop-Smythe’s essay? No one – I made him up. Much of the above is waffly pretentious nonsense.
Some students want to show off their flowery prose – there is a time and a place for this – and mostly it is not in an exam (the notable exception may be English – even then don’t go over the top). If you want to show off, make sure you don’t waste time doing it. For example, if you are writing an essay about Hitler and you know his dates then write:
“…Adolf Hitler (b.1899 d.1945)…” (25 characters)
Rather than:
“ … Adolf Hitler was born in eighteen-ninety-nine and died in nineteen-forty-five…” (68 characters)
Both contain exactly the same information – though the second version will take over twice as long to write it will gain you exactly the same number of marks.
Worse still would be including spurious information:
“… Adolf Hitler was born in eighteen-ninety-nine – being born in April he was a Taurus (what else would you expect!!) and died in nineteen-forty-five…” (123 characters)
This will take you 5 times as long to write and makes you look a little ridiculous or flippant and could be seen as a little offensive to those born in April/May.
It is quite likely that the dates won’t actually gain you marks, so:
“…Adolf Hitler…” (12 characters)
May be sufficient – and it’s 10 times shorter than the longest version.
If you feel that you usually write too much in an exam then get a mock exam you have done and a red pen… Then cross everything that probably doesn’t get you marks/does directly answer the question. This might help you find out where the marks are going.
How much can you write?
How should I know? However, this is something that is easy enough to measure. Sit down with a pen, a piece of paper and stopwatch and write for 10 minutes. It is best if you can actually do the type of writing you would do in an exam – i.e. write something that will include a bit of pausing and thinking time. If you’ve written 220 words you know that write roughly 22 words per minute – so if you have 40 minutes of writing time for an exam essay then roughly 880 words in your upper limit. You will probably want some rereading/correcting time – so practically 750 words may be more realistic.
At tops it should only take you about 15 minutes for you to work out your writing rate. And it will provide you with a very useful guide as to how much you can expect to write in an exam.
Why do questions in order?
Generally doing questions in the order they appear on the paper is not the best way to do things.
Consider the following example for a 2 hours essay exam.
- Question 1 [15 marks] – this is question which you are just not very good at, you get half marks and takes for too long (around 15 minutes too long).
- Question 2 [20 marks] – this is an OK question for you, you get 65% though it takes you 10 minutes too long.
- Question 3 [20 marks] – this is good question for you, you get 72% though it takes you 5 minutes too long.
- Question 4 [25 marks] – this is your best question, you get 81% and you finish on time.
The whole paper is worth 80 marks so if you do a bit of maths then allowing about 9 minutes reading time you should spend the following on each question:
- Question 1: 21 minutes
- Question 2: 28 minutes
- Question 3: 28 minutes
- Question 4: 34 minutes
The amount of time you actually spend is:
- Question 1: 36 minutes
- Question 2: 38 minutes
- Question 3: 33 minutes
- Question 4: 34 minutes
If you do then in order then you would run out of time only 4 minutes into the question that you would have got your highest mark for. Your overall mark would be about 47%.
Now suppose you did them in reverse order (best question first, worst question last), you would have just 6 minutes for question 1, but it is the lowest scoring question that you wouldn’t do very well in anyone. In this case your overall mark would be about 62%.
Now your mark has increased from 47% to 62%, that maybe a grade E to a grade B. Your knowledge and ability haven’t changed – it’s just the way you have done the paper…
Presentation
It is important that your work is clear and easy to follow. The writing has to be legible. However, don’t spend too long making it pretty – it won’t gain you marks irrespective of how fabulous it is.
Being a complete mess can lose you marks as the examiner may simply have no idea what you are trying to get across.
It has to be clear, legible and easy to follow...
But don’t waste time going over the top...
