I found these on Brunel's Economics Department web site - it's got some really useful help on passing examinations. Please take time to read it now.
First the good news:
Now the bad news, some known to you already:
By the time they reach university, most students have had much experience of examinations, although in some cases it was gained some years ago. No matter how often you have prepared for and taken formal examinations, you are likely to benefit from rethinking your strategy or - if you do not have a strategy - defining one for the first time.
Although there are lots of potentially helpful things to say about preparing for examinations, nothing is gained if you do not have the patience to read them. Hence this documentation starts with a quick overview; look at it even if you cannot be bothered to consider the more detailed advice given later. It is regrettable that much of the advice is so extensive, but many aspects of your behaviour can significantly affect your success in coping with examinations.
Control the examination:
It is usually thinking time that is in short supply, rather than writing time.
Give what the examiner asks for, rather than generally related thoughts that come into your head.
From earlier experience you should have some ideas about preparing for examinations, in keeping with your own way of learning. Whatever your way preparing, the first step is to prepare a plan of campaign - a timetable for revision.
A warning: The examination periods are known well in advance, but detailed schedules are prepared centrally, and actual dates and times may not be known until after your revision has started. Preliminary indications will be given, but you must watch the relevant notice board/web site until the final version of the examination timetable has been posted.
Step 1 Plan your work on assignments to avoid interference with revision, leaving a few weeks clear before the examinations.
Step 2 Using the examination schedule, mark the relevant sessions and locations on a timetable. (Check carefully, to avoid arriving on the wrong day.)
Step 3 Mark in the periods that you can devote to revision.
Step 4 Divide the total time between the subjects to be examined. This allows you to balance the needs of subjects in which you believe you are strong against those about which you are not as confident. Be sure not to shy away from the weaker areas. If possible, retain flexibility by including one or more spare days.
Step 5 Allocate time for each subject. You should, of course, assign time to each subject in the period just before it is examined.
Two warnings:
- Do not leave all your revision till this final period; nasty surprises can occur.
- Do not use the period just before the examination too intensively; you should not arrive exhausted at the examination.
Treating individual subjects
Apply the preceding Steps 4 and 5 to the sections of each subject. This will involve further difficult decisions, in allocating time to the various topics.
Guiding principles:
- Match your revision to what you think examiners will expect you to know.
- Take account of choice allowed by the examination rubric. Usually examiners seek and are required to cover much of the syllabus, but they will focus on what they see as its most important aspects.
- It is often useful to concentrate on the central parts of a course. The earlier sections may be superficial and are probably reinforced later; the last sections may be specialised applications rather than core material.
- At the same time, do not neglect the fundamental principles of the subject.
- Decide whether matters covered in assignments should be given less attention; you are likely to have been given prior advice on this.
It is never too early to start thinking about the inevitable examinations. Everything you do during the academic year influences your examination performance, and your day-to-day programme of study should be designed with this in mind. Before considering your activities during the time set aside for revision, we note some supporting activities that should be maintained throughout the academic session:
- The notes made as you progress through the syllabus should not only support your learning, but should be designed for use during revision.
- Throughout the course you should concentrate on the core of widely applicable concepts and methods. Indeed, a central aim of your studies should be to identify them.
- Concentrating for long periods. Changes of activity or location and short breaks will help. They also serve to avoid physical discomfort.
- Keeping awake. Your revision should not be so intensive that this is a real problem. Making notes, rather than just reading, will help.
- Needing to work undisturbed. If you can, arrange for a special degree of privacy during this period. Some students choose to revise at home; if you do this, be sure you take everything you need, and that you know the final details of the examinations before leaving the campus.
- Maintaining flexibility. Review your progress daily to see if your revision programme needs to be altered.
- Remembering. This may not be as big a problem as you fear. The primary interest of university examiners is not memory, but understanding. Complicated formulas and detailed data are usually provided with the examination paper.
- Getting bored. Some people find that background music helps. Working with other students may be helpful, although socialising is not.
- Panicking. Examiners do not expect superhuman performance. The best way to reduce pressure is keeping up with your work throughout the year.
1. Break down the syllabus into components. Taking account of past examinations and advice on emphasis from tutors, decide which you will prepare, and pick out the principles and key results for each.
2. Prepare summary notes, possibly boiling them down further to the really essential features, as the examination approaches.
3. Set realistic targets for each study session, to give yourself a psychological boost when each is met.
4. Study the style and format of the examination and tackle some past questions in the time that will be available during the examination.
5. Make sure you understand the questions on past papers and the solutions to them.
6. List and check your memory of key ideas, definitions and (simple) equations.
7. Do not try to cram in fresh information just before the examination; consolidate what you already know.
If you do not have much experience of university examinations, it is worth noting some ways in which they differ from those you have taken earlier. This requires you to understand what the examiners are trying to do.
They are naturally interested in the final answer, but also in your understanding of the question, and in your approach to the solution.
They usually do not require students to remember complex equations, but do expect you to recall simpler results that embody important concepts or define significant quantities.
They will also expect you to understand the assumptions that lie behind equations that you introduce or that they quote for you to use.
They will generally assign marks to the individual steps that lead to the final answer, such as:
- identifying the problem and putting it into a tractable form
- preparing an appropriate diagram of the situation to be considered
- electing appropriate principles, techniques and assumptions
- identifying data defining the situation of interest
- writing down or deriving appropriate equations
- carrying out the detailed calculations needed to get from equations to answer
- Determine precisely what the examiner wants: Read each question carefully and more than once; underline the words that specify the kind of the answer required. In the examiner's model answer, marks will be assigned for moving in that direction, although you may pick up some marks by addressing peripheral matters.
- Build a foundation for your answer. Time is seldom wasted when spent in picking out and analysing key words, converting the verbal specification to a diagram or sketch, and setting down the relevant principles, assumptions and equations.
- Match the length of your answers and the time spent on the distribution of marks among the parts of each question (this will normally be given).
- Do not allow a single question to absorb much more than its proper fraction of the total examination time. There is no iron-clad rule for moving to another question. Although you must be willing to abandon a question when its time has gone, there is little point in doing so if you are still scoring marks rapidly. Points to note:
- the rate of scoring marks is often fastest when you begin to answer;
- the last few marks take disproportionate time;
- unless there is time to spare, do not get bogged down in detailed algebra, calculations or long explanations.
- Points on numerical answers: Include units; do not state results to an unrealistic degree of accuracy; if a numerical result looks unrealistically large or small, point this out to the examiner.
- Before you abandon a question, indicate quickly the steps that would have followed, if there had been more time.
- If you run short of time before answering the full number of question, jot down notes to show how you would have finished off the paper.
Thorough preparation is undoubtedly the key to success in examinations. What you do on the day is important too. Some pointers are given below.
- Make sure you know the right day and time, and what aids you are allowed to take into the examination room.
- Arrive early. Take your seat when allowed into the examination room. Prepare your writing materials. When permitted, fill in the cover sheet. This routine will reduce nervous tension.
- Before starting to write, read the paper to the end and pick out the questions that appear best for you. If you have not finished reading when permitted to start writing, continue a little longer with your planning. This preliminary reading is harder than it sounds. Many candidates start to write at once; resist being stampeded into starting before you have done your reading and thinking.
- Start with the question that you can answer most quickly and most fully. It may not be the first question on the paper. By starting with the easiest question will increase your confidence.
- Read each question when you start it. Look back at the question as you work, to check that you have not misunderstood or forgotten it.
- Keep an key on the clock, and try to match your progress through the examination to the passage of time.
- Do not jump into the middle of the answer, but work to a plan, which should be set down where the examiner can see it.
For an answer in the form of an essay, the plan will probably have two stages:
(i) a list of ideas and facts;
(ii) the structuring of that material into sections and paragraphs.
For an analytical question, the plan will identify the principles, equations, and methods on which the answer will be based/
If you have time at the end, re-read the questions and amplify or correct your answers.
Make sure that every piece of paper on which you have written gets to the examiner. A much-needed mark could be lurking in your rough-work.