Exam Timing
Most student have some issues with exam timing, whether approaching GCSE’s or if you are a retake student with AS and A2 modules to tackle, getting your timing right in the exam is critical. Before taking (or retaking) exams it is a good idea to do some work on your timing.
Finding out where your time goes.
If you have issues with timing in exams then the following little experiment may be worth doing. Get an exam paper and do it and time exactly how longer each question takes. The easiest way to do this is with a digit clock or watch – write down the exact time you start and the times when you finish each question. For short answer questions you will also need to write down the seconds. Alternatively you can get someone to time you.
However you decide to do this you should end up with something like the following:
- Question 1: 5:20
- Question 2: 9:10
- Question 3: 17:10
- Question 4: 11:00
- Question 5: 14:50
- Question 6: 13:15
- Question 7: 22:20
Now this information is only useful if know how long the questions were supposed to take. You can calculate this manually – take the time for the whole exam, minus some reading time, divide by the number of marks, then calculate the time per question (time per mark times marks per question). Alternatively you can use the following widget: Exam timing widget - this will give you the time you should be spending on each question:
Now you can compare the time you took with the time you should have taken (90 minute exam with 5 minutes allowed for reading time):
- Question 1: 5:20 versus 6.1 minutes – ahead of schedule
- Question 2: 9:10 versus 7.3 minutes – a bit behind, but not a disaster
- Question 3: 17:10 versus 9.7 – clearly a problem question – spent nearly twice as long as you should
- Question 4: 11:00 versus 10.9 – close to perfect
- Question 5: 14:50 versus 13.4 – a bit behind, but not a disaster
- Question 6: 13:15 versus 13.4 – close to perfect
- Question 7: 22:20 versus 24.3 – ahead of schedule
This example tells us that things are not too bad – it’s really just one question (question 3) that is causing problems. So, if you had this kind of score then you need to analyse what went wrong with question 3.
Consider the following possible problems
Did you just get stuck? It easy to do – it’s a question you know you can do but it just won’t come to you, but you don’t give up. Although not giving up is often a noble thing to do in an exam it is not a good strategy. Sometimes you just have to quit on a question as you may be losing the opportunity to gain questions elsewhere.
Did you read the question? Sometimes answers are too long because you haven’t read the question carefully enough – you end up answering a bigger question than they are actually asking, or answering a question that isn’t there.
Did you answer the question? This problem can be closely related to the above – if you don’t read the question carefully it may be that you end up not answering it. Alternatively, some students go off at a tangent – writing lots about what they know rather than what answers the question.
Did you write too much? If a question should take around 10 minutes then the examiners are expecting only 10 minutes worth of writing or working. No matter how brilliant your answers are examiners cannot give you more than the maximum number of marks.
Did you get it wrong then have to redo the question? Sometimes when you make a mistake you need to just move on. This is really just another way of getting stuck.
Taking too long on all questions?
So far we have look at a specific type of exam timing problem – one where just one or two questions are over-running. What if you are taking too long on all questions? This is a trickier problem. For essay or even short answer question see the section below titled “Never finishing exam essays?”; for non-essays it is even more problematic.
If they are short answer questions, e.g. a couple of marks, then you are probably writing too much. It is surprising how few words can get all the marks you need. For example if a question is worth 2 marks, then it is very likely that you only need 2 points to your answer. Which in most cases means a maximum of two sentences – each sentence score one of the points. It may well be possible to get both points in just one sentence. For short answer questions then the best guide to how much to write is how many marks and hence how much time you should spend on a question. You can use the exam timing widget to calculate the time you have.
For example if you have 50 second per mark then a three mark question is 150 seconds or two and a half minutes, which for most people is roughly fifty words – which isn’t very much. Allowing for thinking time you may only have enough time for thirty or so words.
So how much is fifty words? Well, rather conveniently the above paragraph is exactly 50 words (a complete fluke by the way), this one is just under thirty.
Never finishing exam essays?
The above example is obviously for an exam with shortish answers. Obviously there are many exams where longer answers are required – for example three 45 minute essays. So if your timing if not so good with essay the above question by question approach isn’t going to help.
Exam essays need to be dense and to directly answer the question. You simply do not have the time for flowery language or to include random asides. If you are someone whose essays tend to be too long then I would suggest a bit of self-editing along the following lines.
Does each sentence get you marks? If you have a sentence in an essay which doesn’t add to your overall marks then what is it doing there? OK, sometimes you need a sentence or two that links things together, but as a rule if it doesn’t get marks then it shouldn’t be in your essay.
Are you answering the question? You should avoid going off on a tangent. Footnotes and asides might be very interesting, but do they help answer the question? Do they get you marks?
Too many words? In everyday writing and speech you will often include unnecessary words – to spice your language up a bit – however in an exam you probably don’t have time to add spice. Consider the following examples:
- “In this essay I am going to…” could be “Here I will..”
- “I personally think…” could be “I think…”
- “There are many objections to this argument, these include…” could be “objections include…”
It is all too easy to right more than you need to; and often, under non-exam conditions, it is the thing to do. So, it is essential to practice exam style writing, as for most people it is radically different from their usual writing style.
Abbreviations and bullet points
Suppose you have a long essay about knowledge, you might find yourself using the phrase “justified truth belief” a dozen or more times. Providing you define your abbreviation the first time you use it, i.e. “justified truth belief (=JTB)” there after you can use JTB rather than the full version. This might seem a small point, but if you use JTB fifteen, you’ve saved a couple of minutes of writing time.
Bullet points get a bad press – but they can have their uses. In short answers, science papers and some arts papers, they are a good way to present information in a condensed, clear fashion. I would be very cautious with their use in English literature or language. Some of the examiner’s reports actively encourage the use of bullet points - I think to discourage long waffly answers.
Numbering or naming paragraphs or arguments can, if used wisely, be a good method for some essays. Suppose you are righting an essay on abortion and are presenting two arguments for and two against, numbering these 1 to 4 will make writing the conclusion much quicker. It is better if you can name the arguments, for example you might put forward the Catholic argument against abortion and obviously this name be named “the Catholic position” or similar.