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Article: How to do better without knowing more

Can you trick your examiner into giving you more marks? Read our techniques for doing better without knowing more here.

What are your top exam technique tips? What do you always make sure you do in an exam? Join the conversation below!

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Always flick through the questions and complete the ones you'll find the easiest first. Chances are you'll have done them in half the time you're supposed to 'allocate' to them, and will have even more time to try and answer the harder questions. I do this in every exam!
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Avatar for Fox Corner
Fox Corner
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Original post by carrotstar
Always flick through the questions and complete the ones you'll find the easiest first. Chances are you'll have done them in half the time you're supposed to 'allocate' to them, and will have even more time to try and answer the harder questions. I do this in every exam!


That's such a good idea! I think it can also give you a confidence boost as it feels like you've just flown through the first couple of questions :bee2:
Original post by Fox Corner
That's such a good idea! I think it can also give you a confidence boost as it feels like you've just flown through the first couple of questions :bee2:


Defnitely! Makes me feel more positive about the content of the paper and how well I'll do.
Highlight key words in the question title as it prevents you misreading it and means if you look back at it during an essay the thing you should focus on stands out
i was told that if you write the correct answer they can't dock any marks. simple and easy concept. i don't know why people don't do this.
Explain your answer brief and to the point.

I sometimes ended up starting my answer neatly and thoroughly like I did in my notes, but time is finite so I ended up answering the question briefly.
Original post by chemistrybro
i was told that if you write the correct answer they can't dock any marks. simple and easy concept. i don't know why people don't do this.


Assuming the exam system is fair, accurate and reliable. Which it 100% is not.
Original post by aeroline1999
Assuming the exam system is fair, accurate and reliable. Which it 100% is not.


how is the exam system not fair, accurate and reliable?
Original post by carrotstar
Defnitely! Makes me feel more positive about the content of the paper and how well I'll do.


As an extension of this, my teacher used to say, do some easy at the beginning, so you start positive, do the harder ones, and then leave one easy one till the end so that when you come out the exam, you're feeling positive about nailing that final question!
Original post by chemistrybro
how is the exam system not fair, accurate and reliable?


There are numerous articles on this but I'll explain:

1) Lots of different exam boards --> inconsistency
2) Poor quality marking --> many markers are only university students and are very poorly paid and rush through scripts as fast as possible
3) Quite often grades given are simply the predicted grades given to boards by centres --> this means if you were predicted a bad grade but put in loads of effort and improve hugely since the mocks, this effort is often in vain
4) Exam standardisation is nowhere near as good as they pretend it is and there is no real way to correlate results between exam boards for the same subject
5) Often markers aren't standardised before they get given papers
6) Exam boards are private and so profit focused above all else, there's big money in the exam system, and its at the expense of students
Reply 11
Avatar for CAStAR
CAStAR
1
In science if you contradict yourself they can dock marks 😔 But otherwise it's all positive marking ( if you write something correct and something incorrect they give you the mark for the right thing and ignore the wrong part)
If you are doubtful with any question or haven't completed any, just draw a star or an asterisk and cicrle it near the question so that once you are rechecking the paper, you can think about it and change your mind or complete it. Trust me, the best answers pop in your mind during the last few minutes.
x.
Definetly read the question carefully. Try you best. Definetly answer the question, make sure you understand the question and what you are being expected to write.
Original post by Fox Corner
That's such a good idea! I think it can also give you a confidence boost as it feels like you've just flown through the first couple of questions :bee2:


it's a really good idea thanks
:smile:
Original post by carrotstar
Always flick through the questions and complete the ones you'll find the easiest first. Chances are you'll have done them in half the time you're supposed to 'allocate' to them, and will have even more time to try and answer the harder questions. I do this in every exam!


Mmm but what if you use up your brain power on the easy questions? :P I worry that on my GCSE Maths I'll be unable to focus on the hard questions at the end if I do the easy questions first...
Original post by aeroline1999
There are numerous articles on this but I'll explain:

1) Lots of different exam boards --> inconsistency
2) Poor quality marking --> many markers are only university students and are very poorly paid and rush through scripts as fast as possible
3) Quite often grades given are simply the predicted grades given to boards by centres --> this means if you were predicted a bad grade but put in loads of effort and improve hugely since the mocks, this effort is often in vain
4) Exam standardisation is nowhere near as good as they pretend it is and there is no real way to correlate results between exam boards for the same subject
5) Often markers aren't standardised before they get given papers
6) Exam boards are private and so profit focused above all else, there's big money in the exam system, and its at the expense of students


1) I'm an examiner for several different exam boards, and this is probably the case for many examiners (i.e. they don't work for only one board). So that will even things out a bit - although the system will be flawed whether you have one board or several.

2) I wouldn't say 'many', lol. A few, possibly. Examiners are experienced teachers, for the most part, and they don't accept everyone who applies, either.

3) Only in exceptional cases (e.g. the paper is lost).

4) This is basically Ofqual's job (i.e. to standardise between boards). And as with 1), it's possibly flawed but better than nothing. Not sure where your evidence comes from in terms of WITHIN individual exam boards, though; I've been standardised by many different exam boards and never had any problem with the quality of the process. Furthermore, you are standardised for each exam series/each paper you mark - you don't just do it once and that's it for your whole examining career. Equally, if after standardisation, your marking is not of good quality, exam boards can and will terminate your contract.

5) See above

6) Believe it or not, the people in the exam system are human. We want to be fair to you and want you to get the result you deserve. Hard as it may seem to believe, we're not in it primarily for the money.
Original post by chemistrybro
i was told that if you write the correct answer they can't dock any marks. simple and easy concept. i don't know why people don't do this.


True, the right answer gives you full marks, but what if you write the wrong answer? Don't rest on your laurels in exams. A slight error in writing, such as units in science papers, can screw it all up. It's best to ALWAYS write working, so that should it go south, you snag as many marks as possible. You really can't "overdo" it in that sense.
Original post by MrMoogle
True, the right answer gives you full marks, but what if you write the wrong answer? Don't rest on your laurels in exams. A slight error in writing, such as units in science papers, can screw it all up. It's best to ALWAYS write working, so that should it go south, you snag as many marks as possible. You really can't "overdo" it in that sense.


just don't write the wrong answer.
Original post by chemistrybro
just don't write the wrong answer.


not always that easy especially in essay based exams, as you can think you are writing the right thing but have missed the point of the question. sometimes you can completely blag the answer and get a good grade other times you can't. it all comes down to how much attention you paid in lessons to begin with as you could do all of the revision in the world but it isn't going to help if you didn't pay attention to begin with.

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