Facing Examination Questions
- Introduction. The conditions which you will meet in a practical examination are too varied to discuss here. Normally specialist teachers will be available to help you if necessary. Here we are only considering theory examinations. Most examination answers are essays written under special conditions. All that has been said on essay-writing applies here also.
- Some extra points to remember in an examination bearing in mind the functions set out above:
(i) Read the instructions at the top of the paper very carefully. Note:
- that you have the correct question paper;
- how many questions you are required to answer;
- from where these questions must be selected;
- any compulsory questions which must be tackled;
- how long the examination lasts and therefore, how long you can spend on each answer.
(ii) Read the whole paper through and spend time choosing the questions you will answer. Never look only at the first questions before you start writing. The reasons for this are:
- in the tenseness of the examination situation the preliminary perusal period allows you to calm and collect yourself and get into the right frame of mind for efficient writing;
- once the questions to be answered have passed into your mind, you unconsciously start preparing answers to them even while tackling other questions. For this reason always answer the easiest question first so that your mind has time to organize material for the more difficult ones;
- often reading a statement in one question will spark off a train of ideas in answering ones;
- as a confidence-boosting technique tackle the easier questions first (unless instructed otherwise).
(iii) Keep a close watch on the time. Divide your time up according to the number of questions to be answered. It is a useful guide to allocate time in proportion to the number of marks given per question. If no question is compulsory, all questions will carry equal marks (unless otherwise stated). Stick to the time allocation for each question. At the end of the time you allowed yourself for an answer stop writing, even though you have not finished. Leave space so that you may, if time permits, return to complete the answer later. Go on to the next question and give it its allocated time. In this way you cut your losses. A certain number of marks are allocated to each question. It is comparatively easy to obtain the first few marks for an answer but it becomes progressively harder until your each the last few marks, which are virtually impossible to obtain. Therefore, time is better spent and marks more easily obtained by tackling less well all the questions required of you than by exhaustively completing a smaller number of answers.
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