As you can see from the top heading, this page comes from the exam discussion session I ran at Summer School. This session involved consideration of some specimen questions and example answer scripts to give students some idea of the marking process.
A sheet giving summary descriptions of "Process Words" was distributed.
A brief consideration of the usual exam results statistics offers encouragement to students. If you've stayed the course, submitted your TMAs, tried the CMAs to get feedback - and written at least a little bit of sense in the exam ---- then you ought to pass!
Some thoughts are given below relevant to Part 1
of the exam, which comprises multiple choice questions, and Part
2, the essays.
Much of this advice given here is just an echo of the tactics
sent to you in one of the course "Stop Press" bulletins.
Why not do some dummy runs of the exam at home?
Don't take a solid three hours over it, but just look at some old questions or the specimen paper - and make out some possible (good) plans for what you'd put in the essays.
Just looking up the course material as you do this will help with your
revision.
ALSO - you won't pass if you don't do the exam! Make sure you know when (date and time) and where the exam is - don't assume it's the same as last year. How long might it take you to get there? - make sure to give yourself plenty of time so you have no anxieties over that sort of thing.
Part
1:Improve your chances of guessing the right answer by first eliminating those which are obviously wrong.
Average student mark on this Part is over 60%; best ever = 98%. This means that half of the students score >60% - so they could almost pass the exam on this part alone (worth 40% of exam).
Take no more than about 2 minutes for each question - in total ca. 50mins.
You've probably taken about 10 mins to settle down, read over exam paper etc., - so that leaves 2hrs for essays in Part 2.
You don't have to pass each part separately; exam mark is based on combined parts 1 and 2.
Do Part 1 before Part 2 - gives you some information and reminders about
material re. the essay topics. Probably worth having a brief glance at
the essay Qs, before concentrating on Part1 --then you might find it easier
to come up with ideas as you do the essays.
Part
2:Answers based solely on course material - aimed to assess whether you have benefited and/or learnt something from this course.
There are 9 essay Qs and you only have to answer 3 - so good range of choic
Usually approximates to 1 Q per book + couple of "generic" or broad Qs.
Each Q is worth 20% - usually comprising 12 for factual content, 4 for structure of essay and 4 for "style" (evidence of understanding). Emphasise the structure of your essay by using headings for the main sections (Intro, middle, Conclusion) and subsections also.
Take about 30min per essay. This leaves about 10min per essay for you to go back and complete them at the end of the exam.
Have an "armoury" of examples.
Don't hesitate to include tables and diagrams in you essay. If the question
explicitly mentions diagram(s), then there will be marks allocated for
this, so make sure to comply. Tables can include a lot of information which
might take much more time to write as prose - also helps the marker to
spot the info and so give you credit.
PLAN each essay on paper - DON'T cross this out and you can get credit (i.e. marks!) for information, in the plan, which you might have forgotten to put into the essay proper.
If you have health problems (or similar that might affect your performance)
the Form E39 should be submitted within 7 days of exam if those particular
extenuating circumstances/problems are to be taken into consideration by
exam board.