Attacking exams when you've run out of time? (1 Viewer)

[thinkinghard]

Generally to maximise chance of getting marks while running out of time, would it be better to continue forward doing as much as you can? or skip from question to question trying to complete parts of everything/give the high marker ones a go - which you wouldn't have time for, if you had completed the question you were working on.

 

[ahri]

Depends what subject this is, but generally, I would skip from question to question to get the easiest marks. Assuming this is science, you can usually get a few marks by defining the term or providing some sort of example for the question. It's better to scab 1-2 marks from 3 remaining questions each (so up to 6 marks gained in total) than wasting time to get an extra 2 marks to get the full marks for a question you already started (and miss out on the 3 questions by not attempting them at all).

 

[quickoats]

For HSIE subjects, if you run out of time at the end (where the essays are) just write dot points to finish and a short conclusion tying everything back together. Some people like to do their HSIE exams like this: Essay -> some short answer -> some MC -> finish short answer -> MC - > essay, just to "break things up" so your hands don't get too tired doing 2 essays in a row. This ensures that the short answer/mc are sandwiched in between and you've guaranteed that you've attempted everything. I never did this cos I'd probably forget where I was up to and end up getting stressed but my friends seemed to like this strategy.

With English, don't put yourself in the position where you're strapped for time! Time goes really fast in paper 2 so make sure you stick with 40 minutes per section. If you feel like you're lagging behind, then with ~3 minutes to go in each section, quickly wrap up your paragraph, and if you had another paragraph planned, write it in like 3 sentences, then write like a 1 sentence conclusion which fully answers the essay question just to wrap things up.

For maths, it can be hard at the end as you might have a bunch of unanswered questions which you're just stuck on. I'd try to get something written down for each question, and then come back to the question you might have a shot at.

 

[#RoadTo31Atar]

For eco I like to look flick thorough the exam during reading time to see what kind of questions there are, at this point I make a not in my head of what is easier/harder to answer. I'll start with MC by doing the questions really quickly and if something requires calculation or I'm not sure of the answer within 20-30sec I put an asterisk and leave for later if there is time, this usually guarantees 16-17 MC marks within like 10 minutes of the exam (maybe even less) and since the allocation for MC is 35 minutes I have gained an extra 25 or so minutes for essays or short answer + it gives you the ability to just sit there and think about ur essays for a bit. After MC I will do the easiest short answer questions in no order, literally flicking through the test over and over from the stuff I remember that is easy. By doing this you get in a pretty good mindset too because you basically guarantee 50-60% very quickly and confidently making everything else extra marks which you have lots of time to work on.

 

[mcchicken]

Agree with all of the above - two strategies
1. Find easy marks by scribbling down 2-3 marks worth of an answer down
2. For longer questions with lots of marks up for grabs, just dot point that shit. Every teacher I had told me to do this if I was running out of time on the last question.

 

[Saxtoni]

generally, I would skip from question to question to get the easiest marks.