If you have exams this afternoon, there isn’t much more revision you can do. What is important now is the right exam technique. These tips may sound like common sense and stating the obvious, but, every year a significant % of candidates make these mistakes and so reduce their grade. Although they may sound obvious tips, make sure you implement them!
Answer the Question.
This is the biggest cause of doing badly. You write brilliant economics, but, it is not relevant to the question. One tip is at the end of each paragraph, write one sentence to summarise how you have just answered the question.
- For example, if you are asked – Discuss how to reduce poverty? Don’t write what causes poverty or whether we should be concerned about poverty.
- Another example. One year there was a question. Discuss whether higher taxes will reduce consumption of cigarettes. A lot of candidates started talking about demerit goods, social efficiency and why we should reduce demand for cigarettes. But, this doesn’t gain any marks because it is not relevant to the question.
Evaluate where appropriate.
If you have questions which start with these keywords, then you will need to add evaluation to the answer: See: Tips for writing evaluative answers.
- Discuss
- Evaluate
- To what extent
- Assess
Note: Evaluation can give 40% of the mark so give it importance.
Manage Time.
If you have 60 mins and the exam is worth a total of 40 marks, that gives a guide on how long to spend on each question. For 15 mark questions you should have at least 22 mins. One mistake students sometimes make is to spend 15 minutes on a 6 mark question and write too much. Then then have only 5-10 minutes for the last 15 mark question.
Use Data
If a question says ‘using the data explain…’ Then do use the data. Again this sounds obvious, but over 50% of candidates usually ignore the first 3 words. You don’t have to use a lot of data and you have to be selective. But, you will not get full marks unless you attempt to use the data for answering the question.
Don’t Panic
Do you know why the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the galaxy was the best selling book of all time? Because on the front of the book, it had (in big letters) DON’T PANIC.
This does help. For example, if students turn over and see a really difficult exam, then they will be unhappy and think they are going to fail. But, it doesn’t work like that. If it is a very difficult paper the A grade boundary will be reduce. Exam boards have a target to give say the top 25% of candidates an A. All you need to do is to get in that top 25%. Therefore, don’t be discouraged by a difficult exam paper, it will be difficult for all. (I marked one Economics unit 3 paper where the A grade was 54% (much to the displeasure of the principle examiner, but that’s another story)
Be Prepared for Questions
You need to know what kind of questions have come up in the past. To a large extent what has come up in the past will come up this year. On some multiple choices I have noticed exactly the same questions appeared in different years.
Don’t Cheat
Every year some candidate’s get caught trying to cheat in exams. It could lead you to being disqualified from all exams for a couple of years. Techniques are getting increasingly sophisticated to catch cheaters.
Exams Aren’t Everything.
Don’t forget exams are not the be all and end all. Many people make it in the world, who fail their exams.
See also:
A bit of light relief:
You are just brilliant ! Thanks again !