Time management in psychology exam?

So my biggest problem right now regarding psychology is time-management during exams. I recently sat my last set of mocks and realised that I ran out of time on all 3 papers. I know that one reason for this is that I spend too much time thinking about and perfecting my answers on shorter questions (4/6 marks etc.) This is a problem I’ve had pretty much my entire life and am working on. But my main problem is running out of time to do my 16 markers. On my most recent mocks, there were 2-3 16 markers on each paper. I found it almost impossible to complete them all. If I recall correctly, there was one 16 marker that I spent almost 40 minutes on, which left me rushing to complete the rest of the paper. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me but I just cannot get all the information down in 25 minutes. Even when revising, I time myself doing essays and I can never complete them under 25 mins. I almost always have to give myself half an hour or more. I’m not sure if this is because I’m writing too much. My teacher told me to aim for 5 paragraphs of A03, which is what I try to do. Is this excessive, should I focus on doing less? Also, for 8 markers, how many A03 points should I make? On my last mock, I made 4 A03 points for an 8 marker. Is this too much or?

Reply 1

username5058598

Hey, I had this same problem. My teacher said that in the exam, you’re supposed to write a 16 marker in 20 mins and she told me that the only way to write a 16 marker in 20 mins is to practice practice practice until you hit that target. You only need two paragraphs for AO1 and four paragraphs for AO3 and for the 8 markers, it’s one paragraph for AO1 and two paragraphs for AO2 and you’re supposed to spend 10 mins.

When you revise a topic, do a 16 marker based on that topic and time yourself, and if you’ve past the 20 mins, try to see if there’s anything that isn’t really important and don’t need to mention it and remove it, then do the essay again, but this time try to write faster, don’t waste time making your handwriting really neat because the examiner doesn’t care about that, write the essay as if your life depends on it.

I’ve recently been practicing writing the essays and I got better and better. I wrote my last essay in 22 mins and handed it to my teacher to mark it and she gave me 14/16 (and I only wrote one page and 1/3) so if I can do it, you can too. You’ve just got to practice :smile:

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 2

absolutelysprout

you need to practice doing essays in time and untimed conditions, short mark answers do not need to be perfect so don't spend too long on those as it's just pointless. 40 minutes is a long time to spend on a 16 marker, no more than 20-25 min if that. you'll likely improve w practice so start making essay plans and writing actual essays if you haven't already.

Reply 3

giella

It could be down to your essay structure. Efficient essay structure will save you time and score better marks.
How are you organising your information and ideas?

Reply 4

annac29

guys i’m ******* cooked. paper 1 is tomorrow and i have the exact same issue, no time left to practice over and over. just going to drink coffee before and write as if there is a gun to my head xx

Reply 5

ghostpostsstuff

Original post by annac29

guys i’m ******* cooked. paper 1 is tomorrow and i have the exact same issue, no time left to practice over and over. just going to drink coffee before and write as if there is a gun to my head xx

sameeeee, my time management is terrible (which is not ideal for my other subjects since they're essay ones, and i never finish them...) but a tip I've had from a friend (which is useful when you don't have time to do tons of timed essays or questions) is write down somewhere on a piece of paper where you will be able to see it throughout the exam with what time you need to have moved on to each part/essay - i do ocr psychology and i will probs write next to me that i need to be on section b by at 9:15 or something similar (depends how prompt we start) so that I know throughout the paper if i am running over the set amount of time, if that makes sense?