Examination Techniques

There is a technique and strategy involved when sitting an exam. Many able students have not been able to convey their maximum potential due to the lack or non-existence of examination technique. The exams you are about to sit require you to put to paper two whole years of theory in a few hours. Examiners take a lot of thought and planning when designing an exam paper they make sure that they structure the paper in such a way that it covers two years worth of studying and gives them a good measure of the ability of the student. PassMyExams recommend the following before and when sitting an exam.

Your teachers should tell you how long the paper will be and how many questions it will contain and if a choice is available. But you should know this of your own back and can find out by consulting the syllabus or contacting the examining boards or the most simplest method is by asking your teacher if he/she forgot to mention it. From this information you can work out how much time to spend on each question. When allocating time be sure to include time to read through the paper and check your answers. Do not be working out time allocations during the exam as you will waste precious time.

This will save you time during the exam as you will not be referring to the formulae sheets looking to see which equations and information is given.

Make sure you have all the relevant stationary and some back up pens and pencils. Make sure the battery in your calculator is not on its last legs.

Do not just turn to the first page and start writing from question 1 straight away. You are not required to answer the questions in the order they appear in the exam. Do the ones you are confident with first, as you will make up time, which can be spent on the question you are not to sure about.

Read the questions carefully, try and understand what the examiners are getting at. If information is provided in the question i.e. a diagram, graph set of data, instructions etc use it as it is there for a reason.

If a question is worth one mark then that should tell you that the examiners are looking for one key point and not an essay, if however a question is worth 3 marks or more then the examiners are looking for a structures answer containing three key points or three distinct steps.

The steps allow the examiner to see your approach to the question and in the case where the answer is wrong due to some small calculating error some marks will still be awarded for the correct steps included. In the case when just a final answer is provided and it is wrong then no marks will be awarded.

Be neat and systematic when providing answers and demonstrate a good command over the language you are answering the paper in. A messy answer will make it very hard for the examiners to mark and see what you are trying to say.

If stuck on a question do not waste time on it, move on and do the other questions and come back to it. Make sure you leave some room in the answer paper for when you come back to the question. The main thing to remember is not to panic as firstly it is a waste of time and secondly it will destroy your composure and affect you on questions you can solve comfortably.

If your not certain then go for a sensible guess. Even if you get a fraction of the mark by sensibly guessing its better than no marks for not attempting the question.

If you finish early resist the temptation of walking out of the exam use the time to thoroughly check your solutions. Only leave when you fully satisfied with your answers.