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What's your biggest exam mistake uni version

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Switching off in my GCSE History exam and writing about American history on a German paper to the last essay question :tongue:
Original post by charjb
Ok, well my calamitous event happened this summer. First, let me set the scene.

At 18 decided I wanted to study medicine and made a tough decision to start my A levels at 19. The way my college did exams was to sit most, if not all, of the units in the final year of study.
I thought that I should try and do all the AS modules in at least one subject, to avoid too much workload and pressure building up in my final year.
Despite not having been taught the 2nd AS unit in physics at all, it was my best subject, and so I independently asked the school if I could sit paper by myself.
I thus worked solidly for a week, and despite scoring well in practise papers, in the actual unit 2 exam I scored (for me), a poor score of 94/120 UMS (high B), but did well in the other modules (110/120 - unit 1, 59/60 - unit 3).

No matter.

Physics was my best subject, and at the end of the day I had learnt the unit from scratch by myself in a week, performed badly on exam day, and still achieved a high B. I was continually improving, had a nice buffer of AS UMS marks for that A grade, and I was aiming for that A* that the 'better' medical schools want.
The possibility that I wouldn't get an A overall didn't even cross my mind.

Cut to the following summer.

I decided against re-sitting the unit 2 physics module because every possible indicator throughout that year showed there was no risk of me getting a B overall, and was on track for A*. AS marks don't go towards A*, and so I just got on with preparing for the A2 units.

I prepared more for my first A2 physics exam (unit 4) more than I have ever prepared for an exam, and perhaps ever will do.
I scrupulously dissected the physics book from cover to cover, answered all the questions, and sat every past paper available... twice.

Cut to the exam.

Turn the page, and I start at the first question, which was allocated a lot of marks... and for some reason, I just can't seem to come to an answer I'm satisfied with. I know I'm close to getting it right and getting all the marks, but I'm just getting this ONE thing wrong. This weird pressure gradually fills my mind and starts pushing against the inside of my skull, and my thoughts become disorganised. I just can't get it, but it seems so close? What am I doing wrong..? Time goes by, I look at my watch, and my heart sinks.. I've taken far too long on this, and so I rustle up and move on. At this point, I realised the paper isn't going well, and I have a time debt to pay to the other questions. I start to rush, and things go from bad to worse. My hands start sweating, and I have difficulty with the second question. At this point I go into full panic, smash and grab mode, rushing through the questions without diligence or organised thought.

I come out of my exam distraught. I couldn't believe it. It was the worst exam performance I have ever given in practice or for real. My A* was certainly over, my A overall on the brink of destruction, and therefore my future on medicine was literally hanging in the balance. There was little chance of me getting in to med school as a mature student who took three years to complete A levels, so I had to perform and get it right first time...

As everything rested on my final Physics exam, unit 5, the pressure I felt was unreal. The weeks zipped past, I didn't focus on my other exams, and thus in my mind relinquished the prospect of getting A*'s in the other subjects. I was in tatters, putting everything I had into preparing. I figured I absolutely had to achieve a high A or A* in unit 5 in order to get an A overall... Sod getting in to a 'better' med school, I just wanted to study medicine!

Cut to exam day of unit 5

I knew that this exam was possibly the most important exam I would ever have to sit. I had prepared hard, it was my best unit, but I absolutely MUST perform.
I get into the exam, and it starts to go well. My thoughts feel well oiled, and I flow through the 1st paper with good pace and rhythm. I get onto the second paper, and find it a little harder. Still, I complete the final essay, and, unusually, I have time to go back over the paper.

We are dismissed, and I breathe a sigh of relief... Yeah, that had gone well, but it was still going to be touch and go.

And heres where it happened folks. Something that I've never done, nor will I think it will ever happen again.

I'm there chatting with my mates about the exam, I'm feeling decent, until one chap perked up "Ah yeah and what did you think about the relativity question...?"

My heart went cold.

'Err... What relativity question?' - I asked, disbelief in my voice

"You know, the one after the essay at the end?"

At this point, everything seemed to go black and white and I immediately walked away from the group without another word. I couldn't revise for the remaining A2 exams. I had literally just wasted 2 years of my life... Because I hadn't turned a ******* page, and missed an entire ******* question worth a decent proportion of the marks. Everything about the exam seemed over, and the format was deceiving and unconventional, but still. I had completely messed up, and I was in bits.

Everyone assured me that I must get an A. They saw me in class get A* after A* in the mocks, but they just didn't understand.

The ensuing months I literally had an existential crises, it was a really weird time. I couldn't believe I pissed away my dream of becoming a doctor. Maybe I didn't deserve it.

Well, it all seems a bit funny now, lol, but such is life. Sorry for the essay, I love writing :smile:


What did you get in the end out of interest?
I think my biggest mistake was my very first exam in my first year of university. I study art history so I was given an image of a fresco painted by leonardo da vinci. That's fine, I was supposed to talk about the painting, and guess it's name and the artist. We'd been shown the image before, I recognised it. I wrote plenty about it, describing details that fit leonardo's style, but then said that this shouldn't be used to identify him as the painter because these details suggest this other artist, and these details suggest a third artist, so I conclude that it is the second artist who painted it, and definitely not leonardo. Idiot.
It was in that same essay that I said the gathering of kings was actually a group of peasants. What a failure. I passed, magically, but that was my worst exam.
Original post by charjb
Ok, well my calamitous event happened this summer. First, let me set the scene.

At 18 decided I wanted to study medicine and made a tough decision to start my A levels at 19. The way my college did exams was to sit most, if not all, of the units in the final year of study.
I thought that I should try and do all the AS modules in at least one subject, to avoid too much workload and pressure building up in my final year.
Despite not having been taught the 2nd AS unit in physics at all, it was my best subject, and so I independently asked the school if I could sit paper by myself.
I thus worked solidly for a week, and despite scoring well in practise papers, in the actual unit 2 exam I scored (for me), a poor score of 94/120 UMS (high B), but did well in the other modules (110/120 - unit 1, 59/60 - unit 3).

No matter.

Physics was my best subject, and at the end of the day I had learnt the unit from scratch by myself in a week, performed badly on exam day, and still achieved a high B. I was continually improving, had a nice buffer of AS UMS marks for that A grade, and I was aiming for that A* that the 'better' medical schools want.
The possibility that I wouldn't get an A overall didn't even cross my mind.

Cut to the following summer.

I decided against re-sitting the unit 2 physics module because every possible indicator throughout that year showed there was no risk of me getting a B overall, and was on track for A*. AS marks don't go towards A*, and so I just got on with preparing for the A2 units.

I prepared more for my first A2 physics exam (unit 4) more than I have ever prepared for an exam, and perhaps ever will do.
I scrupulously dissected the physics book from cover to cover, answered all the questions, and sat every past paper available... twice.

Cut to the exam.

Turn the page, and I start at the first question, which was allocated a lot of marks... and for some reason, I just can't seem to come to an answer I'm satisfied with. I know I'm close to getting it right and getting all the marks, but I'm just getting this ONE thing wrong. This weird pressure gradually fills my mind and starts pushing against the inside of my skull, and my thoughts become disorganised. I just can't get it, but it seems so close? What am I doing wrong..? Time goes by, I look at my watch, and my heart sinks.. I've taken far too long on this, and so I rustle up and move on. At this point, I realised the paper isn't going well, and I have a time debt to pay to the other questions. I start to rush, and things go from bad to worse. My hands start sweating, and I have difficulty with the second question. At this point I go into full panic, smash and grab mode, rushing through the questions without diligence or organised thought.

I come out of my exam distraught. I couldn't believe it. It was the worst exam performance I have ever given in practice or for real. My A* was certainly over, my A overall on the brink of destruction, and therefore my future on medicine was literally hanging in the balance. There was little chance of me getting in to med school as a mature student who took three years to complete A levels, so I had to perform and get it right first time...

As everything rested on my final Physics exam, unit 5, the pressure I felt was unreal. The weeks zipped past, I didn't focus on my other exams, and thus in my mind relinquished the prospect of getting A*'s in the other subjects. I was in tatters, putting everything I had into preparing. I figured I absolutely had to achieve a high A or A* in unit 5 in order to get an A overall... Sod getting in to a 'better' med school, I just wanted to study medicine!

Cut to exam day of unit 5

I knew that this exam was possibly the most important exam I would ever have to sit. I had prepared hard, it was my best unit, but I absolutely MUST perform.
I get into the exam, and it starts to go well. My thoughts feel well oiled, and I flow through the 1st paper with good pace and rhythm. I get onto the second paper, and find it a little harder. Still, I complete the final essay, and, unusually, I have time to go back over the paper.

We are dismissed, and I breathe a sigh of relief... Yeah, that had gone well, but it was still going to be touch and go.

And heres where it happened folks. Something that I've never done, nor will I think it will ever happen again.

I'm there chatting with my mates about the exam, I'm feeling decent, until one chap perked up "Ah yeah and what did you think about the relativity question...?"

My heart went cold.

'Err... What relativity question?' - I asked, disbelief in my voice

"You know, the one after the essay at the end?"

At this point, everything seemed to go black and white and I immediately walked away from the group without another word. I couldn't revise for the remaining A2 exams. I had literally just wasted 2 years of my life... Because I hadn't turned a ******* page, and missed an entire ******* question worth a decent proportion of the marks. Everything about the exam seemed over, and the format was deceiving and unconventional, but still. I had completely messed up, and I was in bits.

Everyone assured me that I must get an A. They saw me in class get A* after A* in the mocks, but they just didn't understand.

The ensuing months I literally had an existential crises, it was a really weird time. I couldn't believe I pissed away my dream of becoming a doctor. Maybe I didn't deserve it.

Well, it all seems a bit funny now, lol, but such is life. Sorry for the essay, I love writing :smile:


what did you get ??
Mine is misreading a six mark question at psychology GCSE and getting 0 marks ended up with 1 away from an A- a B lol
Hmm, I haven't made any calamitous mistakes. I should have revised more for Biology Unit 1 and I should have started my English revision earlier and done more further reading...and also have not trusted my psych teacher when she taught us how to do 10 mark questions :tongue:
My worst mistake occured several months before my finals.

The house I lived in adopted a stray puppy.

It was VERY friendly and good fun, we called it "ten past nine" because of its cock ears .... but it grew

and grew...

and grew...

It was put out during the day

It literally chewed the back kitchen door down.

We eventually found a home for it with a family in the next street but

they also put it out during the day.

On the morning of one of my finals exams I was walking to Uni over the park and it saw me. Pleased with itself was an understatement. It nearly knocked me down with love and affection and great big slobbery kisses. And then it happily started accompanying me. Nothing I could do to persuade it to go away and I ended up outside the exam hall in a crowd of people where I gave it the slip.

We all entered the exam hall for the final exam and sat in our individual places. I heard a howl outside and laughing inside I started the exam....

... but someone arrived late and opened the door and the hound joyfully came lolloping in. The invigilators chased it all around the hall. It was having a great time and everyone was laughing hysterically as invigilators fell over themselves. The hound finally found what it was looking for - me. Jumped up with its massive fore paws on the single desk and tried to lick me. The invigilators finally grabbed it and accused me of planning the whole thing. I pleaded innocence and the exam proceeded (no extra time).

I spent the next couple of hours trying to concentrate, but the recent images were too deeply engraved on my mind. Needless to say, the exam did not go at all well ....
Original post by charco
x


Aww, that's so cute! Dogs are so blissfully unaware of everything :lol:
Reply 28
Original post by Idomaths
what did you get ??


Original post by Comeback
What did you get in the end out of interest?


I am still sure that I must have gotten a load of marks for my working out for the disastrous paper, because I know for a fact I got half of the questions wrong. I ended up getting an A overall in physics. I scraped an A in the second paper. Best moment of my life so far :smile:
Was supposed to make my own essay question for a course but just gave it an ordinary title instead, meaning I wrote an entire essay that didn't answer a specific question.
Original post by Arieisit
I think this is a common problem uni students have, studying too much material. You end up with basically a big mess of information in your head.

Posted from TSR Mobile

hello, i am currently studying my gcses and you guys have said that a common problem is students studying too much material. what does that mean? are you nit supposed to learn everything you have been taught? and how can you selectively choose which 40-60% you want to learn?
Original post by thecoolestkid
hello, i am currently studying my gcses and you guys have said that a common problem is students studying too much material. what does that mean? are you nit supposed to learn everything you have been taught? and how can you selectively choose which 40-60% you want to learn?


Once you move into higher education GCSE's are irrelevant. I did no work and still got the third highest in my year for GCSE's they are bull**** qualifications, have fun would be my only advice because soon you woould have to work hard.
Reply 32
Turning up prepared for the wrong module... Thankfully it overlapped with the one I'd prepared fully for but I didn't get a very good mark :facepalm2:
Must admit one of mine was not studying enough.
Though in the module handbook we were told it would be a multiple choice exam. Get to the exam hall and it's all short answer questions and we had never been given any ideas as to what sort of format the short answer questions would be or what they would be on or any sort of practice whatsoever...considering we weren't supposed to have them in the first place.

I think the majority did poorly in that exam.
Reply 34
Original post by may348
-Thinking an exam was on Thursday when it was on Tuesday and finding out Tuesday morning
-Not studying enough
-Studying too much material and filling my brain with extraneous details that ultimately hindered my performance because I wasn't able to remember important stuff


BIB.
Same happened to me last week.
I had a Physics Mock, on Wednesday, but I thought it was next Wednesday, as all my other Science exams were then. I found out, after my English mock, the morning before. I only got around 45 minutes of revision.
The mock went terribly. I had to rely on the equations to gain marks, and I was under a lot of pressure, as I knew I'd fail, so I probably got about 18/60. :frown:
That has to be the most awful story i have ever heard. I wish if you could just forward said story to your preferred MED school they would accept you.
writing about the wrong prime minister in a history exam :facepalm:
Reply 37
2014 Edexcel C3 Maths: realising that the back page was actually two pages, one of which having the entire question 9. on it, 5 minutes before the end of the exam.
Reply 38
Speaking of exams, I had one this morning. We were told the big essay question would be comparing one of the readings to another one, but we weren't told what the second reading would be. I was SO SURE I knew what it would be though. I figured there was no way it could be anything else. It gave a rebuttal to the first reading and everything. I studied that reading thoroughly, thinking I knew exactly what the question would ask.

Guess what happened lol.
Eight lecture/seminar topics.
Eight exam questions and have to answer two.
Study 3/8 thinking in theory one for each should come in the exam.
Look at exam, two do come up but one is on one aspect of the topic I didn't revise.
Two questions on the one topic that my tutor was a leading expert in that I didn't bother revising.

Still managed to get a 2.1 though.

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