Lesson 14 Exam technique
The best thing you can do to improve your exam technique is to improve your time management and planning followed by improve your stress management.
Timing
* Think about timing in advance of the exam. You should be able to find out or base your estimate on past papers of the number of questions and time allowed. Exam anxiety can make it hard to do this in the exam room. Especially work out what time you need to be doing things e.g. if a 2 exam starts at 9.30 and there are 4 questions with equal marks then by 10.30 you will have completed or nearly completed 2 questions.
* 5 minutes spent planning your strategy and timing will be time well spent
* If you feel better just rushing in to settle yourself answer a question with a few marks. If they are all essay type questions break this habit.
* Plan all the questions before answering
* Consider doing all the plans first. If you mess up your timing then the plans will get you marks – but this does need discipline on the timing.
* Draw little clocks on a bit of paper with the times you need to start each question.
* You don’t have to answer in the order on the paper as long as they are clearly numbered and you have answered the required number of questions
* You can only get marks for questions answered. REMEMBER the first 50% of marks are the easiest to get, 25% harder, last 25% hardest – poor timing means that you miss out on easy marks.
* Think about the examiners’ marking strategy – put possible marks on the plan to help with emphasis.
* Remember question answering techniques – turn all the parts of the question into a question – use the Elements of Reasoning
Stress Management
Stress in exams is good. You should be feeling adrenaline coursing around your body in an exam. An athelete relies on adrenaline for optimum mental and physical performance and during an exam you can welcome those feelings by reminding your self a little stress improves performance.
However too much stress, especially being overwhelmed by adrenaline, has a negative effect on our bodies and minds. Deep breathing is often recommended to counter this however it can make things worse as it often hyperventilates the body and makes you feel more panicky and light headed.
What is needed is deep breathing using the diaphragm. The stomach muscles should be gently pushed out as you breath in counting about to 5 or what ever is comfortable, then drawn back in as you breath out to the count of 5. This at first is counter intuitive to what the body wants to do but it stops the adrenaline flowing and prevents hyperventilation.
Other stress control methods such as visualising before the event how the exam is going to go (well, you remain calm, you are in control etc), counselling, relaxation techniques can also be considered.
Timing
* Think about timing in advance of the exam. You should be able to find out or base your estimate on past papers of the number of questions and time allowed. Exam anxiety can make it hard to do this in the exam room. Especially work out what time you need to be doing things e.g. if a 2 exam starts at 9.30 and there are 4 questions with equal marks then by 10.30 you will have completed or nearly completed 2 questions.
* 5 minutes spent planning your strategy and timing will be time well spent
* If you feel better just rushing in to settle yourself answer a question with a few marks. If they are all essay type questions break this habit.
* Plan all the questions before answering
* Consider doing all the plans first. If you mess up your timing then the plans will get you marks – but this does need discipline on the timing.
* Draw little clocks on a bit of paper with the times you need to start each question.
* You don’t have to answer in the order on the paper as long as they are clearly numbered and you have answered the required number of questions
* You can only get marks for questions answered. REMEMBER the first 50% of marks are the easiest to get, 25% harder, last 25% hardest – poor timing means that you miss out on easy marks.
* Think about the examiners’ marking strategy – put possible marks on the plan to help with emphasis.
* Remember question answering techniques – turn all the parts of the question into a question – use the Elements of Reasoning
Stress Management
Stress in exams is good. You should be feeling adrenaline coursing around your body in an exam. An athelete relies on adrenaline for optimum mental and physical performance and during an exam you can welcome those feelings by reminding your self a little stress improves performance.
However too much stress, especially being overwhelmed by adrenaline, has a negative effect on our bodies and minds. Deep breathing is often recommended to counter this however it can make things worse as it often hyperventilates the body and makes you feel more panicky and light headed.
What is needed is deep breathing using the diaphragm. The stomach muscles should be gently pushed out as you breath in counting about to 5 or what ever is comfortable, then drawn back in as you breath out to the count of 5. This at first is counter intuitive to what the body wants to do but it stops the adrenaline flowing and prevents hyperventilation.
Other stress control methods such as visualising before the event how the exam is going to go (well, you remain calm, you are in control etc), counselling, relaxation techniques can also be considered.
posted by Miz John at 9:36 AM
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