Closed book exams

jovichick123

Hi all,

Just wondered if anyone has any advice on how to revise for closed book exams? I am a second year English Literature degree student and this is the first time I have had to face these kind of exams (I am a mature student and prior to this, my only exams were 10 years ago when I completed GCSE's which were all open book) :eek:

I know which books are going to be on the exam for each unit but I have no idea how to revise for them - if anyone has any tips, they would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Sarah xx

pinginal

All my exams are closed book and you just get used to them. Best advice I can give is go through a lot of practise/past papers. Look back at the past papers and try and guess what the question might be. Don't try and revise everything, if you know the exam could be on three topics revise 2 for example. I also like to use a number/lettering system for remembering key techniques/points.

kittiwoz

I had closed book exams for English Lit A-level. You have to know the text really well. I found the best thing is to pick dominant themes in the book and really go through the book looking at those themes and picking out important quotes. If you read critics you will find they are often commenting on the same key passages. For A-level I wrote a lot a lot of essays, sometimes timed which is useful to get used to quickly picking out salient reports, devising a structure and getting your argument across within the time limits, where the question addressed a particular key theme. There was often some overlap between themes and it meant that by the time I did the exam I had a thorough knowledge and understanding of the text and a store of good essays in my head that I could take relevant parts from and apply to the question.

At A-level at least it was not really possible to predict what topics the questions might be on except that they would obviously be to do with topics that are important within the text of the book itself or to the style of it so I do not think you could selectively revise as is often possible within science subjects. I think it requires a very thorough knowledge so that you can answer whatever questions you may get. I think you actually have to be quite rigorous so that if a question comes up which you have not explicitly considered the themes it relates to must be ones you are familiar with.

Oldernotwiser

I think that you can't go far wrong by rereading any texts you've studied and possibly reading other works by the writer. Think about the themes and issues in them and illustrations you could give and appropriate quotations (from poetry particularly). University exams should enable you to show your range of reading and your ability to respond to the question in a pressurised situation by thinking "on your feet". Good luck.

katmad99

reading other secondary sources such as published critical analyses of the text is useful to get a better idea of themes of the book etc, and to see some alternative views of its meanings.

dalumsden1

For Higher English I wrote lots of essays on lots of different things in the literature I read and I read other peoples essays/revies and memorised every main item I could.