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How to Answer questions during Examination

By Emmanuel Asiedu
Education Education is the Key to Success
JAN 13, 2012 LISTEN
Education is the Key to Success

EXPERIENCE has shown that not all students are good at exams. Some don't take advantage of the opportunity to gain credit for what they know or can do. Here are some simple techniques that can improve your exam result.

Exam philosophy: The aim in marking exams is to find out what you know, what you can express, what you understand and what you can do. You can only get credit if show evidence of your abilities. A skeleton answer might get some credit for a correct conclusion, or the right jargon, but it does not constitute evidence that you actually know what you are doing!

EXAMS HINT

o If a question asks you to "explain", "describe", etc something, then write in proper English sentences - don't just jot down buzz-words. Usually notes do not provide convincing evidence, because they are indistinguishable from vaguely remembered phrases.

o If you are asked to work something out, or "to show that ...", then include your working out (neatly) as part of your answer - then you may be able to get some credit for your method, even if you make a mistake or get the wrong answer.

In particular:
• Read the exam paper carefully: The "rubric" at the start provides important information: e.g. make sure that you know how long the exam is, how many questions you have to do, and check whether there are special directions given.

You may wish to read the whole paper thoroughly before selecting the questions that you wish to answer, but, even if you don't, do read carefully each of the questions that you do answer.

In particular, read the whole of a question before attempting to answer it: Often exam questions to be informative and direct, but sometimes it is not possible and the tail end of question (or part thereof) may contain a qualification, hint or additional instruction that must be taken into account.

Candidates sometimes forget to answer parts of questions, for no apparent reason, and lose credit that otherwise would have easily been gained. Make sure that you have dealt with everything that has been asked.

• Read the instructions on the cover of the exam answer booklets: In particular the statement about writing clearly.

• Keep to a rigid timetable: Usually each question on the exam paper is worth the same amount (check this). Divide the time available equally among the questions that you have to do (you might even consider dividing the time up between the individual parts of a question). It is usually not worth struggling on with a question that is proving too difficult: if you have reached the end of the question's time slot then you should definitely go on to a fresh question (the early parts of the next question are almost certainly more easily won credit than the struggle you are currently having); if the time slot is not up, then either attempt other parts of the current question if there are any, or go on to a fresh question and come back to the current one if you have time left at the end (and you should have if you stick to the timetable)

• Count the questions that you do carefully: On the one hand make sure that you do enough - if you are required to do four, and you only attempt three, then your maximum possible total mark is reduced by 25%! On the other hand make sure that you don't do too many (unless the rubric makes it clear that you simply have to as much as you can). If we ask you to do four questions and you do five, then we will simply not count one of your answers: so you might as well have spent the time checking and polishing just four answers (it may sound ridiculous, but students actually do make this mistake every year).

• About crossing out: Examiners have no time to read any more than they have to. Therefore anything which is crossed out they tend to simply ignore (whatever stupidities it may contain). So feel free to put jottings in your exam book and then cross them out. Equally, if you have done something wrong then simply cross it out and carry on. This applies to a reasonable amount of correction within written text - but if there are too many crossings out and rearrangements then it is probably better to put a line through the whole paragraph and re-write it. Here are some criteria to apply: neat and fast. One or two diagonal lines through a paragraph are enough to remove it from our view - no need to frantically scrub the paper with your pen (that takes a long time too!). You should be very wary of using Snowpake or Tipp-Ex to make corrections: they take so long to use for little or no benefit over a simply horizontal or diagonal stroke of the pen. Admittedly, there are occasions on which Tipp-Ex is probably useful (for example, to correct mistakes in diagrams), so I will just caution care.

Long questions vs. short questions: Questions which occupy a lot of space on the exam paper look intimidating, but this may be an illusion. Often, long questions consist of many small, well defined parts which can be answered independently: so you can probably gain straightforward marks from any part that you answer. In contrast, questions which appear to be short often consist of just a few parts, each of which requires sustained creative and compositional effort - and, although the marks are certainly available, it can be far from obvious how to guarantee that you win them!

CONCLUSION
Every child is unique. Every child has different skills and potential. The same goes with every child's ability to learn at school. Some student can grasp school lessons faster as compared to other children. How your child performs in school should not be compared to other children because each child has a different learning pace.

If you are brilliant students you would need to compete with other students who get good grades for you to be able to keep your rank in school. At the same time, average students would also need to strive also hard in order for them not to fail the class. This is the reason is why having a home tutor can be very beneficial to fast, average, and slow learners alike.

One of the best and most proven methods of ensuring that parent and their wards are free from the stresses of school, homework's and Examinations battle is to get a professional and well qualify home tutor who will give closer attention to your wards need than is possible in a classroom environment.

To learn more about private tuition and how you can request for a home tutor Visit http://excellent-tution.webs.com

Also note that no matter your class/form/level of your education, it is always great to read personal development books like these. We have copies of these E-books and it is available on our web page for free download. The good news is that you can download and forward to your friends, relatives, workmates and even neighbors for free.

REFER THIS BOOK TO FRIENDS
Is there any one in your friends list that you believe could benefit from this information? May be one or two people you've known at work, school, church or even in your neighborhood………..?

Perfect. Why not give this special report to the person as a free gift and believe me you would be surprise of how grateful he/she would be to you.

Try it and you will be glad you did.
Best Regards.
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