Exam Techniques
- Always use your reading time to completely understand the questions.
- Do the longer, written questions first; those that are worth the most marks and do the multi-guess questions last.
- If you still run out of time, pick one letter and put them all in the multi-guess. C is usually a good letter to pick.
- Calculation how long you have for each mark. ie if the exam is 100 minutes long and you have 100 marks, then you have 1 minute per mark. Thus a 5 mark question should not take you longer than 5 minutes.
How to read the questions
- Underline the key words in the question. The first key word is the first word which is usually: define, contrast, compare, evaluate etc. Learn what is expected when it comes to these words. This is available in the syllabi (or ask your teacher).
- With number questions, as you read the question, set up a databank of information on the right hand side of your working page. Once you have all your data equated to their symbols, you can look at those symbols and determine which equation to use.
- Make sure you have your equation sheet handy. Know the use of each equation. Know the quantitiy defines by each letter in that equation.
- If a question is worth 3 marks, they are expecting at least 3 bits of information.
- Sometimes questions give you too much information to mask the equation you might need to use. Don't be fooled. Look at what you are trying to find.
Type of questions that are likely to appear in exams
- Look over past HSC exams for this. Sometimes questions that were once multi-guess may reappear in some form but as longer answer questions and vice versa.
Common mistakes
Can really help you here, as I have not been a marker. But the main mistake I have seen as a teacher is that students do not put every step of working into their number questions. And, in skipping steps, make simple calculation errors.
- Forgetting to put units after quantities or not highlighting the answer in their chaotic working.
- Not giving enough information in a multi-mark question (ie worth 5 marks but only giving 2 pieces of information).
- Not properly understanding the use of equations and using the wrong ones for the wrong situations.
- Not having spare batteries or using a faulty calculator in the exam.
- Not watching the time left and running out of time.
- Spending too much time on a simple question.
- Not matching answers for multi-guess questions onto the right place on the answer sheet.
- Using the left hand when trying to do the right hand rule in electromagnetics. Remember, put your pen down and do the right hand rule correctly.
That's all I can think of, off the top of my head.
