Worried about essay-based second year exams

Hi,

I'm a second year Biochemistry student at the University of Manchester. I love my course, and last year I got a decent grade without putting a great amount of work into it. But the exams were multiple choice. This year they will be essay based, which is fair enough since I guess it's a better way of testing students to see if they gained broader knowledge, but I am worried about this type of exams because:
- as a science student I'm not great with words
- some courses have A TON of information (for example tens of molecules involved in each biochemical process, and there are loads of processes, etc.)
And I'm not sure if the principles will be tested, as in we'll be tested to see if we understood what's going on, or if we'll be tested to see if we remembered all the terms plus the principles.

Anyway, I would like to hear from other science students who went through essay-based exams, how it was.

Thanks a lot!

Hi,

I'm a second year Biochemistry student at the University of Manchester. I love my course, and last year I got a decent grade without putting a great amount of work into it. But the exams were multiple choice. This year they will be essay based, which is fair enough since I guess it's a better way of testing students to see if they gained broader knowledge, but I am worried about this type of exams because:
- as a science student I'm not great with words
- some courses have A TON of information (for example tens of molecules involved in each biochemical process, and there are loads of processes, etc.)
And I'm not sure if the principles will be tested, as in we'll be tested to see if we understood what's going on, or if we'll be tested to see if we remembered all the terms plus the principles.

Anyway, I would like to hear from other science students who went through essay-based exams, how it was.

Thanks a lot!

Hi! I've finished my second year (doing a placement year then will be back for final year). Most of my exams were essay-based. First of all, do your best with coursework - it saved me on a couple of modules. Like you essays aren't my strong point but I still came out with a 2:1. I really worked hard on my coursework and for my exams the words aren't so much of a concern, rather it's to do with just stating facts and building up points. So introduce your essay, list the points in a couple of paragraphs then summarise/conclude. You will need to talk about what you learnt but also expand - you need to give examples of everything you state and you must include examples you've found yourself and may be expected to reference. You will need to do background reading for this. You'll be tested on your understanding and recalling the principles. Your uni may provide you with past papers so do those too.