Exam Strategy (1 Viewer)

[Sy123]

Now, sometimes when I get my math results back, they arent as high as I know they should be because of stupid mistakes, my last assesment task, 100% of my mistakes were due to silly mistakes, such as forgetting the minus sign, or adding like terms the wrong way for some reason, or even just for some reason become momentarily blind, and miss a really really easy question worth 2 marks.

So I want to think of an exam strategy to try and minimise this as much as possible, even wipe it out completely, I do have a good nights sleep, I do have a good breakfast, and I am one of the most relaxed people in my class when it comes to exam pressure.

I am thinking of either, in the 90 min assesment task for log and applications of calculus to the physical world, that I either:

A) Rush as fast as I can in the exam, and get enough time leftover to do the exam a second time, (on past papers I average 50 min - 1 hour, however I will try and speed myself up to about 45 min per paper)

B) I go through the exam slowly, and take a lot of time, by for example, entering my results in my calculator if need be, or calculating stationary points when Im graphing etc. (these are just examples). However hypothetically, if I go slowly, I am guessing I will have 5-10 minutes left to do an overall check

C) Go at a normal rate, do the exam in 1 hour, do a 5 min brief check, and 15 min big check of certain suspicious questions etc. and the last 5 min do another brief check

I feel as though A) might be a good option, even though you are told not to rush, and take your time. If I go slowly, via option B, then I might find out that I cant finish the last question in the 20-30 min I have left
C) is what I normally do.

If none of these options are good, please post, and tell me what your strategy you have for a math exam (if any). And also how you try and reduce stupid errors that cost marks. And turn a possible 100% into something less preferable

Thanks

 

[RealiseNothing]

You shouldn't rush, rather get to a stage where you know maths so well that you are naturally fast at doing tests with good accuracy, but still have time to check for silly mistakes.

 

[Shadowdude]

You shouldn't rush, rather get to a stage where you know maths so well that you are naturally fast at doing tests with good accuracy, but still have time to check for silly mistakes.

^ That.

 

[qwerty44]

Maybe you are too relaxed and confident.

 

[deswa1]

As you do the test, circle questions that are really easy to make sillies on. Anything involving trig for example is so easy to get wrong with minuses in the wrong place etc. Finish the paper quickly (don't rush though- you want to be clinical. Things like differentiation you should just do, not even really have to think). At the end of the test, redo the suspect questions from scratch and then go over the whole paper. Sub every value you get from an equation back into the original and make sure it works. Make sure your answers look reasonable.

 

[Galapagos]

I do this all the time! In my last exam I lost 4 marks due to stupid, stupid mistakes.

What I tend to do is go through the exam at average pace, but leave anything that takes longer than I think is worth it i.e. over 1 minute for a 1 mark question. So I highlight those and move on, until I reach the end. Then I go back and do those that I highlighted.

After, I go through the entire exam paper again, checking everything that I can with the calculator, and re-doing the other questions on scrap paper to see if I get the same answer. When I do this last step I ALWAYS find TONNES of little mistakes (probably because my brain is screwed up from the initial exam nerves or something?).

Of course this method won't work if you don't have the time, and this is where timed practice at home really helps. If you can get through a 1 hour exam paper in 45 minutes on first go, you'll have plenty of time to read over it.

BTW, this stuff will only work if you have studied properly i.e. not just the night before, and you are confident with the topic!

 

[Sy123]

Thank You all for your responses, also in relation to not rushing, our examiner always puts a crazy question for last. I also know the topic quite well, and am able to do many questions fast and nicely. Its just the last question that is sometimes a barrier to overcome. I do try to know my math really well, as I do study quite a lot of math compared to everything else.

Thank you, I really appreciate it