Exam Tips

telly-addict

Personally I would steer clear of revision timetables as they have a knack of taking much longer than you think and you (well me, anyway) end up doing no revision. Also, I find housework incredibly attractive when I am revising so if you can do it somewhere else, like a library, this can help focus your mind.

I would re-iterate the last post - read the question carefully and answer it. I mark a lot of taxation exams and get fed up with writing WHY all over the papers because the student doesn't bother to explain why they have made the point they have. I guess for law exams that would mean a lot of case names and statutory references.

Writing all you know about a subject doesn't give you any extra marks, although that doesn't stop a lot of students. It also eats up your time.

Attempt every question you are meant to and allocate the time between questions accurately. It is easier (and preferable from an exam technique point of view) to get the first few marks on a new question than running over your time allocation by trying to get the last few marks on another one - after all, you probably only need half marks anyway?

Good luck and keep calm - whatever method you use!

paddycr

As someone who spent more time devising revision timetables than revising, I too would recommend staying clear of rigid timetables..it can make you more stressed if you don't keep to the schedule and you'll feel that you are always behind.

Best piece of advice really is

1. Dont see the exam as someone testing you.See it as a chance of letting the examiner know how much you know about the subject.Even if you feel you dont know much about it, pretend..if you go in with confidence, it will show in your answers.

2. Try using pneumonics for remembering lots of info. i.e. when considering a manual handling assessment, you must consider, the task, the load, the individual and the environment.Using some creative re-arranging, the word TILE is easier to remember

(T) Task
(I) Individual
(L) Load
(E) Environment

If you can remember the main words, it should hopefully, trigger other info.

Hope this helps...it certainly worked for my undergraduate and masters degrees.

:beer:

Poppy9

In one statistic exam I did I had learnt all the formulae as we were told the exam board doesn't give it on exam papers. One of the questions on the exam paper though had the formula but it looked wrong to me. Some brave sole put his hand up and said he thought they had given us the wrong formula. Exam was stopped and we had to sit there while they rang exam body to check. They came back and put the correct formula on a flip chart.

Glad he did speak up as I would have assumed I had made a mistake.

student100

Yeah reading the rubrics and questions properly is a must!

For the last few years my Mum has marked AS-level exams, her most common complaint is people that don't follow the instructions. e.g. they are only meant to answer questions from one section of the exam paper (on the topic they have studied) but some people still try to answer all three. Or a question says "using an example from the United Kingdom..." and people give an example from somewhere abroad...or no example at all, or whatever.

Also read all parts of a question before you attempt it, often the latter stages relate to the earlier stages in some way. If they ask you to calculate a result for the first stage or two the chances are you might need to use the result - or at least refer to it somehow - in the latter parts of the question. Don't write more than you need to for the first part of a question when in fact the extra detail is asked for in a later part, you might not get the marks.

jazzyjustlaw

student100 wrote:

Yeah reading the rubrics and questions properly is a must!

For the last few years my Mum has marked AS-level exams, her most common complaint is people that don't follow the instructions. e.g. they are only meant to answer questions from one section of the exam paper (on the topic they have studied) but some people still try to answer all three. Or a question says "using an example from the United Kingdom..." and people give an example from somewhere abroad...or no example at all, or whatever.

Also read all parts of a question before you attempt it, often the latter stages relate to the earlier stages in some way. If they ask you to calculate a result for the first stage or two the chances are you might need to use the result - or at least refer to it somehow - in the latter parts of the question. Don't write more than you need to for the first part of a question when in fact the extra detail is asked for in a later part, you might not get the marks.

I often find that I answer the second question in the first question because I have written too much lol

skiddy2k

its all about doind past exam papers, quite often you'll see trends in the past exam papers and the questions they have asked in the papers.

do as many past papers as you can, trust me, they are sometimes better than just doing any old questions out of a text book.

also,
if you've been given e.g. 5 essay 'type questions in advance to help you out in your exam, and lets say, in your exam, you've been told that you'll have 3 questions and you only anwser one.

out of the 5 essay type questions you were given leading up to your exam, know three of them inside out!!

this way, HOPEFULLY, your likely to get at least one of them in your exam!

worked for few people i know,

anybody agree?

p.s. or... you can revise all of them! haha!!

pavlovs_dog

make sure you have all the equipment you need for the exam

lucky pants
clear pencil case
plenty of pens (they always die at worst possible moment)
calculator etc etc etc
sharp pencil


also, i was once told by my history teacher (who was a pretty senior examinor for ocr in his spare time) that exam scripts always look more impressive when written in black ink. just how true this is, i dont know, but i've never written in blue ink since....

student100

pavlovs_dog wrote:

also, i was once told by my history teacher (who was a pretty senior examinor for ocr in his spare time) that exam scripts always look more impressive when written in black ink. just how true this is, i dont know, but i've never written in blue ink since....

Hmm... I've ALWAYS used blue ink for exams...and I've done OK so far! It contrasts better with the dark blue/black lines they usually have on exam answer booklets than black would. My handwriting doesn't look great at the best of times.
In fact I have a Parker ballpoint pen which only ever gets used for exams, it wouldn't seem right if I wasn't using it...

Savvy_Sue

student100 wrote:

In fact I have a Parker ballpoint pen which only ever gets used for exams, it wouldn't seem right if I wasn't using it...

I hope you have a refill for it somewhere handy!

To the OP and all other sufferers, check (with tutors etc) whether you are one of the lucky souls who generally understands what the question is asking, or whether you need to work it out. I don't know if that makes sense: my eldest has mild Asperger's syndrome and it was noticed that he struggles to answer questions properly. He's had some help with that: my husband told him "Never underestimate the stupidity of the examiner."

The problem was that our son knew that the examiner knows the answer to the question, so didn't know how to answer a question to which the answer was already known ...

jazzyjustlaw

Pottymouth wrote:

HI Justine, I only skimmed the other posts, but I am an exam veteran (o levels, a levels, degree, MBA) and the following occur to me:

Split your time out effectively:

Some people have a tendancy to revise what they are good at, which is OK, as long as the other weak areas get at least equal attention.

Generally you know which exams you are dreading (and therefore likely to need more work on) - therefore work on these first.

The hardest part of revising is sitting down in that chair. The second hardest is opening that book with the right frame of mind. If you can do these two with some structure, reliability and frequency - the rest will come easy.

Your attitude is everything. Eventually, I got to enjoy exams (yes really!), as I saw them as an opportunity to show off! If you are able to get into this frame of mind - it totally up-ends the way you approach exams.

Everyone has their way of doing things - but I think a slightly cool room with plenty of lighting, a desk, a comfortable chair and most importantly QUIET. i know some people talk about radios and TV to drown out the white noise - but I don't subscribe to this.

many have mentioned past papers - these are absolutly critical. make yorself do them in exam conditions and exhaustively review the results - where you went wrong, why etc...

Then do another paper.

and another one etc...

Often, my last 2 weeks before exams was mostly past papers.

There is a technique and there is no-way to learn this apart from doing papers in exam conditions - sit there without inturruption for 3 hours.

On the first page of your answer booklet, on the left - do your outline, key points and plan. These can result in points and at the very least will structure your mind. Put yourself in the markers shoes and hit the points you'd expect to see in your outline

READ the EXAM PAPER. he number of times people have come out and said "4 questions, I thought it was 3!!". No matter what all the past papers were - you really need to look at the instructions.

Lastly, read the whole exam paper - all of the questions without exception, all the way through. And cocentrate on what the whole question is REALLY asking.

Mostly - good luck Justine. And it may seem perverted - but enjoy the experience - you are gettig the opportunity to show off how much you know! :-)

Potty.

Funny enough I have 10 years experience of exams but found it hard to find a revision technique that shows off my true potential. As I have said I get high in assignments but not in exams was same on law degree lol! Thanks for the advice though. I have done quite a few papers over the last three weeks but have a really poor memory and have been trying Mneumonics today and that has improved things.

Will let you know how it goes.

Justine