Limiting simple mistakes (1 Viewer)

[90atar]

Does anyone have some good advice on limiting in-test simple mistakes, I find at the moment that It is killing my marks.

I know that you should check over and over but realistically when your in the test and you know the content, you think you have gotten every answer correct.

 

[Peeik]

How do you normally check your working out in an exam??

May I suggest re-doing the question quickly again without looking at your answer in the exam? If the answer from your second attempt matches your 1st attepmt, then your answer is likely to be correct. Never check your answer by reading what you have done in the first attempt; if you do this then there's a good chance you may overlook mistakes.

Also, some students like to do HEAPS of questions leading up to an exam to maintain consistency and eliminating chances of making silly mistakes in the real exam (dunno if that helps, but it does to some people).

Hope this helps!

 

[Shadowdude]

Set out your working logically so you can follow it step by step, that really helps.

And don't skip steps when you're working out. Per line, simplify one or two things - and perhaps even put explanations for what you do, so it's not just numbers.

 

[90atar]

How do you normally check your working out in an exam??

May I suggest re-doing the question quickly again without looking at your answer in the exam? If the answer from your second attempt matches your 1st attepmt, then your answer is likely to be correct. Never check your answer by reading what you have done in the first attempt; if you do this then there's a good chance you may overlook mistakes.

Also, some students like to do HEAPS of questions leading up to an exam to maintain consistency and eliminating chances of making silly mistakes in the real exam (dunno if that helps, but it does to some people).

Hope this helps!

Yeah thanks, I am sure to try the idea of not looking at my answer when I am checking.

I have also bought a study book with heaps of past papers, So I'll be sure to be studied up when it comes exam time.

Thanks for that, I've just had a shocker in my first assesment after dropping 4-5 marks when I could have easily had them and made it a convincing band 6.

 

[nightweaver066]

What i do is that i redo each question in the question booklet. I then compare that answer to the one i wrote in my answer booklet and if it's fine, i'll move on to the next one. If not, i go through my working out for each, trying to pick out mistakes as to why i had received different answers.

I usually repeat this 1-2 times for my math tests and so far have only made 3 silly mistakes from the past 5 math tests i have done.

 

[Drongoski]

90atar

Are you referring to maths tests?

 

[90atar]

90atar

Are you referring to maths tests?

Yes, I thought that might have been fairly self-explanatory

 

[Carrotsticks]

Do lots of textbook questions and every time you make a tiny mistake (even if its forgetting to put a minus), write it down.

You should have a list now. Every time you do a question next time, check with that list and see if you think you could have repeated any mistakes. Once you're sure that you have stopped making a particular type of mistake, you can cross it off the list. Keep doing this until you have nothing else on your list.

Oh and also when doing textbook questions, don't do the question, then check answer, then do another, then check again etc. Do a WHOLE exercise without checking solutions. If you got even the tiniest bit wrong and you did the whole exercise incorrectly as a result, do the entire exercise again. This 'self punishment' system forces you to remember it for next time. It has most surely worked for me. I must have done the Cambridge series at least twice because of this, and it cut my silly mistakes by more than 90%. I now only make silly mistakes if I'm really tired, or if I'm distracted by something else.

 

[90atar]

Do lots of textbook questions and every time you make a tiny mistake (even if its forgetting to put a minus), write it down.

You should have a list now. Every time you do a question next time, check with that list and see if you think you could have repeated any mistakes. Once you're sure that you have stopped making a particular type of mistake, you can cross it off the list. Keep doing this until you have nothing else on your list.

Oh and also when doing textbook questions, don't do the question, then check answer, then do another, then check again etc. Do a WHOLE exercise without checking solutions. If you got even the tiniest bit wrong and you did the whole exercise incorrectly as a result, do the entire exercise again. This 'self punishment' system forces you to remember it for next time. It has most surely worked for me. I must have done the Cambridge series at least twice because of this, and it cut my silly mistakes by more than 90%. I now only make silly mistakes if I'm really tired, or if I'm distracted by something else.

This seems like a very useful and successful technique. I know that I am always doing one answer and then checking straight away, nerves of getting the whole thing wrong and having to complete it again I guess.

 

[D94]

90atar

Are you referring to maths tests?

Check out which forum s/he's posted in

@90atar, you should be learning the method approaching certain questions through practice papers and textbook questions. The method is very important as that is the framework for your working out. From practice, you may even know what type of answer to expect from just looking at the question, and if your final answer doesn't appear to be correct, you may want to go over it again. Working out is important, but so is time management. If you can manage your time, you will most likely have time to go over your answer again.

 

[90atar]

Check out which forum s/he's posted in

@90atar, you should be learning the method approaching certain questions through practice papers and textbook questions. The method is very important as that is the framework for your working out. From practice, you may even know what type of answer to expect from just looking at the question, and if your final answer doesn't appear to be correct, you may want to go over it again. Working out is important, but so is time management. If you can manage your time, you will most likely have time to go over your answer again.

Yeah, I'm never robbed of time in the General Maths exams but I always find that my 5-10 minutes of checking ends up being insufficient when I receive my results.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

This is a thread of good advice. Looking through my first assessment task, I was so cut when I got 0 marks for a 3 mark question, after on holidays did the simple question in a minute, all because I did a simple thing wrong that killed the whole Q. Shouldn't have been worth 3 marks for how simple it was :0

I think I have to work on time management though, it was probably cause I rushed it because it was one of the later questions. So yeah, just gotta keep practicing

 

[SpiralFlex]

I tend to rush my examinations. Probably does not work for other people. However, another tip of checking your mistakes it through re-attempting the question with a different booklet. You might want to hide your previous solution so your "mindset" does not change.

 

[90atar]

I've now completed a majority of my Maths work for the holidays, and I must say, I found it a breeze in terms of limiting mistakes through the method of going a whole exercise without flipping to the back.

 

[Kimyia]

Yeah, in prelim I lost 5 marks in a test for a very very dumb mistake.
Another idea with mistakes, in particular those you make quite commonly with a certain type of question, is to make a list of these mistakes and things you need to look out for. Then before your test, go over your list to help you remember the things you tend to screw up and remind you for what to look out for.