Posts tagged what to do in an exam

If you’re coming up to your first lot of University exams and aren’t too sure what to expect, take a tip from Barney, whose golden exam mantra is ‘go for minimum effort for maximum marks’.  I took five with Barney to find out exactly what he meant by this…

In essay questions, following this mantra, write down some bullet points to get you started and then make sure you’re essay has an intro, main body and  conclusion.  Barney uses something similar to this:

I’m arguing X, I’ll proved that there are reasons for X, but also for Y
Argue points for X
Argue points against X
Argue points against Y
Argue points for Y
Conclusion – confirm what you stated in your introduction, and wrap up the essay. DONE!

If your exam is based on non-essay questions, make sure you quickly, but thoroughly read and understand the topics of your questions, and answer those you know well first.

As a general rule of thumb, your list of exam questions will often start easy and finish with harder questions worth more marks.  As well as answering the questions you can answer easily first, go for the ones that are shorter.

If your answers require complex equations or are in two parts, one you can answer, the other you’re not so sure on, write the answer up to the equation or go as far as you can.

And lastly, if you don’t get the answer right, you can get marks for your opinion – write what you think the question means.

Remember, you can ask your study questions on BlikBook - our team of experts and academics are standing by to help you with revision questions, essay and assignments, and pre-exam help.

If you’re in Business, Economics, Information Systems or Computer Science, click on the links to look through some great questions already asked on BlikBook!

This is the stuff in every students’ nightmares. You’re in the exam, and you’re acing it. There’s not that long till the end - but that doesn’t matter, ‘cos you’re on the last question or paragraph… and… you’re done.

With the last 30 minutes left in the exam, you decide to flip through the exam paper – to make sure you’ve covered everything – and SH!T – You’ve read the exam directions wrong, misinterpreted them, or just completely made you’re way up the proverbial creek and lost your paddle.

This is exactly what happened to BlikBook’s Front End Developer, Dan, who a few years ago, managed to get his paddle back, sail towards calm waters, and a top grade.

What exactly happened? Just your average read the question and misinterpreted it. Worked through the exam, read back over the question and realised that it wasn’t right.

The important thing to remember if you find yourself in this situation, is to keep calm!

In Dan’s case, he wrote a note on the exam paper, explaining how he had initially read and interpreted the question. He followed up with in depth bullet points on how he would have answered the question, had he interpreted it as intended at the beginning of the exam, which demonstrated to the examiner that he knew what he was talking about.

Not only did Dan get a great mark on this grade, we’re giving him 10/10 for creativity and thinking on his feet!

Has this ever happened to you? What did you do and how did you go?