The ultimate exam technique
The ultimate exam technique by Mike L Anderson
Charlie Brown is writing a test. He leans over to Lucy and whispers. "Psst. What's the answer to question number 2?"
"Green," says Lucy
"But the question is 'what is 4 + 7?'"
"Yes I know, but I think it is a trick question."
Have you ever been tricked in an exam? How about pulling some tricks of your own on your examiners? Would you like to hear the secrets from someone who has been an examiner? I feel a little like a traitor to the examiner's cause, but what I am about to reveal has already been published (1). There is no question about it; good exam technique will consistently improve your marks. Furthermore, if we think about it, life in general is like an exam in many ways. Good exam technique can help with good life technique. I will also reveal the secret to passing the greatest examination of all - the entrance requirements for heaven. It will be convenient to divide the principles into those that apply before, during and after the exam.
Before the exam
* First and foremost - study and study study hard. Exam technique won't help you if you haven't studied. There is no substitute for good hard work. A student once told me that he hadn't studied hard for the upcoming exam, but that he had prayed hard. I prayed that God would give him the grace to accept the results that he would get.
* Study well. Work on your study technique. This is a separate topic that we cannot go into here, but many books have been written on the subject. Studying how to study is a good investment of one's time. What I do want to say, however, is that it is very important to plan your study timetable. Set it up so that you are not caught with insufficient time for a particular exam.
* Use past exam papers. Try to write them under exam conditions. If you make it easy on yourself, there is the danger that you might carry bad habits over into the real exam.
* This is very important: make sure you have the correct date, time and venue for the exam. Do NOT rely on secondary sources. I had a friend in my student days that missed an important exam this way. He arrived for Physics Theory exam only to discover that it had happened a day earlier. You know how this sort of thing happens don't you? "You told me that the Physics Theory exam was on Tuesday." "Well, that's what Mary told me." Mary: "No, I didn't. I said that my Physiotherapy exam was on Tuesday." In general, the more important the information is to your life, the more important it is to make sure that it comes from a reliable source and that it is correct.
* Make sure you have a good night's sleep before the exam. Cramming the night before the exam is not a good idea. It assumes that the examiner is primarily interested in how much you know. Good examiners are interested in how much you understand. If you are tired you could easily be incoherent. If you are incoherent, no matter how well you know the facts, you are likely to be marked down. In general, adequate rest is vital for optimum performance. This is true on a daily, weekly and annual basis. Try to ensure that you have at least eight hours sleep per night and keep one day per week free from work. Don't be so busy that you cannot take holidays.
* Make sure that you have everything you need for the exam. Take a spare pen, pencil and batteries if you are using a calculator.
* Get to the exam well in time. Rather be early. Make allowances for potential mishaps. In general, the more important an occasion, the more time you should allow for getting there on time. For example, one occasion where you don't want to arrive late is a job interview.
During the exam
* Make sure it is the correct paper. Once while I was invigilating for an exam, I noticed a student looking visibly and intensely distressed at her paper. It turns out that she was a first year student and had somehow been given a third year paper. Read the whole paper carefully before you write anything.
* Make sure that you obey the examiner's instructions. Note the number of questions that need to be answered. Note what is optional and what is compulsory. Make sure that you answer all the questions required and not more than is required.
* Make sure you understand the questions. Circling the key instructions may help you. For essay questions, you may wish to rephrase the question in your own words and check that the rephrase means the same thing as the original.
*Answer the question! Make sure your answer is relevant to the question. Irrelevant material, no matter how insightful, will not likely earn you any marks. What can happen is that you see a word or phrase in the question and say to yourself "I know about this" and get straight into writing furiously all that you know about a topic but which is not actually relevant. Remember that the examiner is not simply testing what you know, but whether you are able to take what you know and bring it to bear relevantly to a question.
* Plan your attack. Allocate the time for each question properly. (E.g. 3 questions in 3 hours = 50 minutes for each. 10 minutes for planning at the beginning, 10 minutes at the end for a buffer and corrections and a few minutes between questions for a rest). Why is this so important? Consider the following two students:
Alice gets sixty percent for each of three questions. Her average is 60 percent. Bob on the other hand gets 75 percent for the first two questions but runs out of time so does not even attempt the last question. His average is only 50 percent. Alice has the better strategy. This is because it generally takes disproportionately more effort to do very well than moderately well and it is quite hard to get no marks for a question if you write at least something. Keep to the time limits you have set yourself. If you have not finished a question don't waste time on it. Quickly finish it. If you do run out of time, briefly tell the examiner how you would have proceeded.
* Answer the questions in order of ease. Begin with the one's you are most confident about. You are not required to answer the questions in numerical order. In life, try to put your best foot forward. This means knowing what you are good at and doing that. Be wary of choosing careers and courses that are unsuited to you. Do aptitude tests to determine your interests and abilities.
* For essay questions briefly list the important points you want to make before you start writing. Many make the mistake of rushing into the writing and waste time repeating themselves. Work concisely and clearly. Identify your answers clearly.
After the exam
* Don't mope. Don't brood over past mistakes. Don't say, "if only I had done..." Make sure you understand where you went wrong and learn from your mistakes. Start work for the next exam after giving yourself an appropriate break.
* Remember that failing an exam does not mean you are a failure as a person. Don't base your self worth or the self worth of another on success in exams or anything else. In general failing in a job does not mean you are a failure as a person; it may mean you haven't discovered the right job for yourself yet or that you are not adequately trained yet. Did you know that Steven Spielberg, the film director, dropped out of high school? He was persuaded to come back and join a learning disabled class. He lasted a month and then dropped out for good. He was a failure at high school, but is clearly not a failure at film directing. Did you know that Albert Einstein did not have a high school diploma? He also dropped out. It did not keep him from being a success in physics. In my undergraduate days I distinctly remember my first encounter with an open-book exam. We were told that we could bring any books or materials we wanted to the statistics exam. "This will be easy," I thought to myself, "I must just make sure I have everything I could possibly need." And I did. I had my lecture notes, the prescribed text, several books from the library, my calculator, pen, pencil, eraser. When you add the question paper, graph paper and answer book - there was a lot of stuff on a desk so small that I was sure the university got it at a bargain from a pre- school that had closed down. You can guess how it went. I would locate some piece of information only to lose my answer book. I would find the answer book only to lose my pen and so on. In short, I was so encumbered by information and stuff that it hampered my presentation of it. I did not do well, not because I lacked information but because I lacked technique. Examination technique is important.
The ultimate exam
There is a sense in which our whole lives are an exam - an entrance exam for heaven. Jesus said, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken (2). Some people think that God weighs what we have done right against what we have done wrong. If the former outweighs the latter we will make it. This assumes a pass mark of 51%. Is this true? Remember the general principle mentioned earlier, that the more important the information is to your life, the more important it is to make sure that it is correct. Had we not better make very sure that we know the correct pass mark for the most important exam of all? The pass mark is not 51% and not even 80%. Jesus' standard is 100%. While telling us what we need to do "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (3). He said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (4). The apostle Paul says, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? (5). Elsewhere the apostle James says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (6). One mistake and we fail the ultimate exam paper. The Bible calls this the curse of the law. And everyone has failed. As it is written, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (7).
How, then, is anyone ever going to get into heaven? What we need is the ultimate exam technique. Do you know that the Chief Examiner, God himself, has revealed the secret? He did a wonderful thing. He sent his Son to write our exam for us! And Jesus got a perfect score; He had no sin in him (8). Then God allowed Jesus to cross out his name on his exam paper and put your name on it. And then Jesus crossed out the name on your exam paper and put his name on it. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (9). One can think of it like this. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, God placed a big cross next to the name of his Son so that He could place a big tick next to yours. This makes it possible for you to present an exam paper of 100% to the Chief Examiner - with his blessing. We have seen that exam technique is the art of displaying what you know to the best advantage. In the case of the ultimate exam technique, in satisfying heaven's entrance requirements, it is a matter of displaying Who you know to your best advantage. Jesus said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (10). Displaying Jesus guarantees your entrance into heaven: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (11). Actually "technique" is not the correct word to use at all in the case of the ultimate exam because passing it does not depend on any ability we have. It depends on the great grace of God. As the Bible says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (12). So, how do we crack the most important exam of all? Trust in Christ and in what He did for you in dying on the cross. Say something like this to the Chief Examiner, "I know I am doing badly in the exam you set for me. I have sinned against You. I will not trust in my own efforts to get the required pass mark. I will trust in you. Come into my life Lord Jesus, be my Saviour and make me into the kind of person you want me to be. Thank-you for letting Jesus write the exam in my place."
------------------------------------------------------
Mike L Anderson, PhD Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology (Wits University), writes, develops educational resources and software and plays Starcraft.
=> His books are available here
Notes
1. Rein, C. (1988) Examination technique. Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg.
2. Matthew 12:36.
3. Matthew 5:43.
4. Matthew 5:48.
5. 1 Corinthians 6:9.
6. James 2:10.
7. Romans 3:23.
8. 1 John 3:5.
9. Galatians 3:13.
10. John 17:3.
11. 1 John 5:11-13.
12. Ephesians 2:8-9.
Charlie Brown is writing a test. He leans over to Lucy and whispers. "Psst. What's the answer to question number 2?"
"Green," says Lucy
"But the question is 'what is 4 + 7?'"
"Yes I know, but I think it is a trick question."
Have you ever been tricked in an exam? How about pulling some tricks of your own on your examiners? Would you like to hear the secrets from someone who has been an examiner? I feel a little like a traitor to the examiner's cause, but what I am about to reveal has already been published (1). There is no question about it; good exam technique will consistently improve your marks. Furthermore, if we think about it, life in general is like an exam in many ways. Good exam technique can help with good life technique. I will also reveal the secret to passing the greatest examination of all - the entrance requirements for heaven. It will be convenient to divide the principles into those that apply before, during and after the exam.
Before the exam
* First and foremost - study and study study hard. Exam technique won't help you if you haven't studied. There is no substitute for good hard work. A student once told me that he hadn't studied hard for the upcoming exam, but that he had prayed hard. I prayed that God would give him the grace to accept the results that he would get.
* Study well. Work on your study technique. This is a separate topic that we cannot go into here, but many books have been written on the subject. Studying how to study is a good investment of one's time. What I do want to say, however, is that it is very important to plan your study timetable. Set it up so that you are not caught with insufficient time for a particular exam.
* Use past exam papers. Try to write them under exam conditions. If you make it easy on yourself, there is the danger that you might carry bad habits over into the real exam.
* This is very important: make sure you have the correct date, time and venue for the exam. Do NOT rely on secondary sources. I had a friend in my student days that missed an important exam this way. He arrived for Physics Theory exam only to discover that it had happened a day earlier. You know how this sort of thing happens don't you? "You told me that the Physics Theory exam was on Tuesday." "Well, that's what Mary told me." Mary: "No, I didn't. I said that my Physiotherapy exam was on Tuesday." In general, the more important the information is to your life, the more important it is to make sure that it comes from a reliable source and that it is correct.
* Make sure you have a good night's sleep before the exam. Cramming the night before the exam is not a good idea. It assumes that the examiner is primarily interested in how much you know. Good examiners are interested in how much you understand. If you are tired you could easily be incoherent. If you are incoherent, no matter how well you know the facts, you are likely to be marked down. In general, adequate rest is vital for optimum performance. This is true on a daily, weekly and annual basis. Try to ensure that you have at least eight hours sleep per night and keep one day per week free from work. Don't be so busy that you cannot take holidays.
* Make sure that you have everything you need for the exam. Take a spare pen, pencil and batteries if you are using a calculator.
* Get to the exam well in time. Rather be early. Make allowances for potential mishaps. In general, the more important an occasion, the more time you should allow for getting there on time. For example, one occasion where you don't want to arrive late is a job interview.
During the exam
* Make sure it is the correct paper. Once while I was invigilating for an exam, I noticed a student looking visibly and intensely distressed at her paper. It turns out that she was a first year student and had somehow been given a third year paper. Read the whole paper carefully before you write anything.
* Make sure that you obey the examiner's instructions. Note the number of questions that need to be answered. Note what is optional and what is compulsory. Make sure that you answer all the questions required and not more than is required.
* Make sure you understand the questions. Circling the key instructions may help you. For essay questions, you may wish to rephrase the question in your own words and check that the rephrase means the same thing as the original.
*Answer the question! Make sure your answer is relevant to the question. Irrelevant material, no matter how insightful, will not likely earn you any marks. What can happen is that you see a word or phrase in the question and say to yourself "I know about this" and get straight into writing furiously all that you know about a topic but which is not actually relevant. Remember that the examiner is not simply testing what you know, but whether you are able to take what you know and bring it to bear relevantly to a question.
* Plan your attack. Allocate the time for each question properly. (E.g. 3 questions in 3 hours = 50 minutes for each. 10 minutes for planning at the beginning, 10 minutes at the end for a buffer and corrections and a few minutes between questions for a rest). Why is this so important? Consider the following two students:
Alice gets sixty percent for each of three questions. Her average is 60 percent. Bob on the other hand gets 75 percent for the first two questions but runs out of time so does not even attempt the last question. His average is only 50 percent. Alice has the better strategy. This is because it generally takes disproportionately more effort to do very well than moderately well and it is quite hard to get no marks for a question if you write at least something. Keep to the time limits you have set yourself. If you have not finished a question don't waste time on it. Quickly finish it. If you do run out of time, briefly tell the examiner how you would have proceeded.
* Answer the questions in order of ease. Begin with the one's you are most confident about. You are not required to answer the questions in numerical order. In life, try to put your best foot forward. This means knowing what you are good at and doing that. Be wary of choosing careers and courses that are unsuited to you. Do aptitude tests to determine your interests and abilities.
* For essay questions briefly list the important points you want to make before you start writing. Many make the mistake of rushing into the writing and waste time repeating themselves. Work concisely and clearly. Identify your answers clearly.
After the exam
* Don't mope. Don't brood over past mistakes. Don't say, "if only I had done..." Make sure you understand where you went wrong and learn from your mistakes. Start work for the next exam after giving yourself an appropriate break.
* Remember that failing an exam does not mean you are a failure as a person. Don't base your self worth or the self worth of another on success in exams or anything else. In general failing in a job does not mean you are a failure as a person; it may mean you haven't discovered the right job for yourself yet or that you are not adequately trained yet. Did you know that Steven Spielberg, the film director, dropped out of high school? He was persuaded to come back and join a learning disabled class. He lasted a month and then dropped out for good. He was a failure at high school, but is clearly not a failure at film directing. Did you know that Albert Einstein did not have a high school diploma? He also dropped out. It did not keep him from being a success in physics. In my undergraduate days I distinctly remember my first encounter with an open-book exam. We were told that we could bring any books or materials we wanted to the statistics exam. "This will be easy," I thought to myself, "I must just make sure I have everything I could possibly need." And I did. I had my lecture notes, the prescribed text, several books from the library, my calculator, pen, pencil, eraser. When you add the question paper, graph paper and answer book - there was a lot of stuff on a desk so small that I was sure the university got it at a bargain from a pre- school that had closed down. You can guess how it went. I would locate some piece of information only to lose my answer book. I would find the answer book only to lose my pen and so on. In short, I was so encumbered by information and stuff that it hampered my presentation of it. I did not do well, not because I lacked information but because I lacked technique. Examination technique is important.
The ultimate exam
There is a sense in which our whole lives are an exam - an entrance exam for heaven. Jesus said, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken (2). Some people think that God weighs what we have done right against what we have done wrong. If the former outweighs the latter we will make it. This assumes a pass mark of 51%. Is this true? Remember the general principle mentioned earlier, that the more important the information is to your life, the more important it is to make sure that it is correct. Had we not better make very sure that we know the correct pass mark for the most important exam of all? The pass mark is not 51% and not even 80%. Jesus' standard is 100%. While telling us what we need to do "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (3). He said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (4). The apostle Paul says, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? (5). Elsewhere the apostle James says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (6). One mistake and we fail the ultimate exam paper. The Bible calls this the curse of the law. And everyone has failed. As it is written, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (7).
How, then, is anyone ever going to get into heaven? What we need is the ultimate exam technique. Do you know that the Chief Examiner, God himself, has revealed the secret? He did a wonderful thing. He sent his Son to write our exam for us! And Jesus got a perfect score; He had no sin in him (8). Then God allowed Jesus to cross out his name on his exam paper and put your name on it. And then Jesus crossed out the name on your exam paper and put his name on it. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (9). One can think of it like this. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, God placed a big cross next to the name of his Son so that He could place a big tick next to yours. This makes it possible for you to present an exam paper of 100% to the Chief Examiner - with his blessing. We have seen that exam technique is the art of displaying what you know to the best advantage. In the case of the ultimate exam technique, in satisfying heaven's entrance requirements, it is a matter of displaying Who you know to your best advantage. Jesus said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (10). Displaying Jesus guarantees your entrance into heaven: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (11). Actually "technique" is not the correct word to use at all in the case of the ultimate exam because passing it does not depend on any ability we have. It depends on the great grace of God. As the Bible says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (12). So, how do we crack the most important exam of all? Trust in Christ and in what He did for you in dying on the cross. Say something like this to the Chief Examiner, "I know I am doing badly in the exam you set for me. I have sinned against You. I will not trust in my own efforts to get the required pass mark. I will trust in you. Come into my life Lord Jesus, be my Saviour and make me into the kind of person you want me to be. Thank-you for letting Jesus write the exam in my place."
------------------------------------------------------
Mike L Anderson, PhD Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology (Wits University), writes, develops educational resources and software and plays Starcraft.
=> His books are available here
Notes
1. Rein, C. (1988) Examination technique. Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg.
2. Matthew 12:36.
3. Matthew 5:43.
4. Matthew 5:48.
5. 1 Corinthians 6:9.
6. James 2:10.
7. Romans 3:23.
8. 1 John 3:5.
9. Galatians 3:13.
10. John 17:3.
11. 1 John 5:11-13.
12. Ephesians 2:8-9.