The Exam Itself

The Exam Itself

1) Planning your campaign

The first thing to do is read over, carefully, the entire exam paper. Spend a good ten minutes reading before you write anything. In this time, work out which questions you are going to answer, which order you are going to answer them in, and plan your time in the exam: how much time you are going to spend answering each question. Take careful note of the marking scheme (see later) when making this plan. Write down the plan on the back sheet of your answer book - you can always score it out later. It helps you feel in control, and that helps keep you calm.

Don't be tempted to do a question on subject X just because it's the subject you know the most about. It might be a real stinker of a question. Are you sure you can do it? Which parts can you do? How many marks do you think you could get on the parts of the question you can do? You might find there is another, much easier question on subject Y, which you might not have chosen because you found subject Y is harder, or because one part of the question looks really difficult. Work it out for each part of each question: which question is likely to get you the most marks? Do that one.

Reading the whole question is also important because many questions lead you through a problem - the answer to part a) is used in part b), etc. There might be clues in later parts of the question about what the examiner is expecting. Make sure you spot them.

As an examiner I am constantly amazed by students who set out to do questions that they've clearly got not the first clue how to do. Surely there would be another question on the paper that they could have got a few marks on at least?

When working out timescales, try and balance the time spend on a part of the question against the marks you will achieve. If it's a 90 minute exam, and it's marked out of 60, then on average you've got 1.5 minutes to get each mark. Plan time accordingly. Remember: exam questions are not about writing down everything you know about a topic - if you do this you'll almost certainly run out of time. You're trying to get the best mark you can on the whole paper, not just on the question you happen to be doing at the time.

Obviously, the plan (with timescales) is not a rigid one, and going a few minutes over on one question is OK – but try and catch it up if this happens.

2) Do the easiest questions first

There is absolutely no reason to do the questions in the order they are printed in the exam. I would recommend doing the easiest one(s) first.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, getting one question safely under your belt at the start of an exam is a wonderful boost to confidence, and can help reduce any feelings of panic that might arise when looking at the harder questions.

The second reason is that the easiest question is likely to take less time than the average. That means you’ll be ahead of schedule from the start – another good confidence boost. It also means that when you get round to the most difficult question, you are free to spend all the time you have left on it, without having to drop it half-way through and come back to it later, if time permits – not a good idea if it can be avoided.

3) Look at the marking schemes – there’s lots of useful material there.

We have strict marking schemes these days – it’s part of the drive to be seen to be fair. So, if there are four marks available for the description of XXX, then the marking scheme will probably have four key points. Mention them all, and you get the marks. Often, for a question like this, I will have a list of five or six points, and give one mark for each of them, up to a maximum of four. One thing you can be (reasonably) certain of: if you haven’t made four key points, you’ve missed something.

Don’t spend half-an-hour writing a long essay for two marks. People still do this. It’s a waste of time – better spent on other parts of the question.

4) One thing to try if you can’t quite get a derivation to work out (not entirely serious :-)

What you could consider doing in questions of the form “derive the result shown below” where you’re not sure of all the steps: start at the top of the page, state the assumptions clearly, and write down the equations where you’re going to start. About a page and a half later, write the result, and start working backwards from there. Where the two halves meet, write “Clearly,”

This gives the examiner a problem. Provided you’ve got the steps right, and the two halves almost meet up, it’s hard for him to know whether the missing step is clear to you or not. It might be. You could get the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, there is some risk here, if you have made a mistake, and your “clearly” connects two lines that can not possible agree. While the strict marking schemes we use these days make it hard to penalise students directly for this sort of thing, it will tend to put the examiner in a poor frame of mind, and he might start being less generous in marking other sections of the paper where he has some discretion.

5) Don’t get stuck. Move on.

Avoid writer's block, you haven't got time for it. If you get stuck on a question, move on. Start doing another one. Staring at a question you don’t know how to answer is a waste of time, and you’d be amazed how often, when coming back to a question after half-an-hour, it suddenly becomes clear.

6) Take a bottle of water in with you. Sip it slowly throughout.

It’s a good way of remaining calm. Also, you can get through a lot of nervous sweat during a hard exam. Your body will work better if you replace it. There is research that suggests this can make a significant difference to your grades

7) Use common sense.

Even if you don’t have time to go back and find the mistake, at least write something to indicate that you know something. You might get some credit for that.

8) Always explain what you are doing.

Too many times I find an exam script where the student has written an equation with variables in it, and not told me what the variables represent. If the answer is right, then I can usually figure out what the variables must be, and the student gets the marks. But if the answer is wrong, then sometimes it's impossible to work out what they were supposed to be. In this case the students gets zero for an incomprehensible answer.

9) If you're running out of time.

Suppose you've got time left to do one question, but two questions left to do. Which one do you choose? The way to maximise your marks is to do the first half of both of them. You gain marks faster at the start of a question than at the end.

If you don't have time to write sentences, but you do know what to do, then just write bullet points. You can get marks for method.

Posted By HAMDAN MOHD SALLEH

December 14 2014

The Last 24 Hours

The Last 24 Hours

1) Don’t be tired.

If you have to stay up all night to do last minute revision, you’ve already failed. It doesn’t work – you end up so tired in the exam you can’t work anything out. It might work for the first one or two exams in a year, but you won’t be able to keep it up throughout a whole series of exams.

2) Eat protein before long exams – not carbohydrates.

An exam is just as much a physical exercise as a race. Well, OK, perhaps not quite as much, but you can’t ignore your body if you want your brain to work at its best. Stuffing it full of sugar, or some Red-Bull type drink just before will work fine for the first hour or so, but by the end of a three-hour exam you’ll have completely run out of energy. You need some food that will slowly release energy. Try fish or eggs.

3) Get the important facts into short-term memory.

In the last 24 hours it's too late to try and understand anything new. What you can do is cram some facts into short-term memory. This is the time to go through the notes looking at those "key points" sections. If you haven't already done it as part of your revision (and you should have done it), write out a sheet with just the key facts. See how many you can remember. Then write out another sheet with just the ones you forgot. See how many you remember now. Continue until you've either remembered it all, or run out of time.

Also, read through your worked solutions for the last three year's papers. Then, get a good night's sleep, or go for a walk and get some fresh air into your lungs.

4) Exercise - get the blood pumping round.

In the last couple of hours, go for a run, or work out in the gym. Seriously. Studies have shown that the most creative periods come after a period of exercise, and that the benefits of taking exercise can last for up to two hours. Exams aren't just about memory, you'll need your brain to be in top working condition.

Posted By HAMDAN MOHD SALLEH

December 14 2014

Preparing for an Exam

Preparing for an Exam

1) Revise actively.

Just reading through your notes is the worst possible way to revise. Well, OK, perhaps not the worst possible, but it’s really not very good. The more of your brain you can engage in the revision, the more you will remember. Memory is not a box in one part of your brain that things are either in or out. Memory is spread out everywhere: there’s verbal memory, visual memory, audio memory, muscle memory, all sorts. The more your brain does with the information, the more you will remember.

So don’t just read. Make up poems and mnemonics. Summarise the notes. Set them to music. Extract key points and write them down yourself somewhere – even if you’re just copying them out, this is better than just reading, since more of your brain is involved. Make up quizzes and do them. Write limericks. Above all – do problems. Make up your own if you run out. Get active!

2) Plan revision.

Write a good revision plan, and stick to it. Don’t do just one subject a day, you’ll get tired of it; then again swopping too often means you don’t get the chance to get deep into anything. I used to do mornings on one subject, afternoons on another and evenings on a third.

3) Do past papers – as many as you can lay your hands on.

The internal web has (at least) the last three year's papers on it. Papers from previous years are stored in the library (at least that used to be true - it's worth checking if they still have them). Work through them. If you can't do a question, check that it is still in the syllabus (the modules change every year, and it's always worth checking what is new). With a good revision plan you should be doing nothing in the last week before the exams except working through exam papers and examples sheets making sure you can do them.

I can’t emphasise the importance of this enough. Anyone who doesn’t work through past papers has very little chance of doing well in an exam.

Oh - and do the past papers, and the examples sheets, against the clock. Time is short in an exam, you need to get used to thinking, and writing quickly. Get your hand trained up so it can write fast (but legibly, please).

4) Question-spotting.

This can be risky, but if you're playing the percentages it's worth a try. Look for any topic that was in the exam two and three years ago, but not last year. If you can get hold of papers from further back, try and spot patterns: does any topic come up every other year, for example?

Another good tip is to make a very careful note if the lecturer says at any point "this is new in the course this year". If he does, there's an above average chance that this will be in the exam - it gets harder every year to come up with new questions about the same old subjects, and putting a new topic in the course is an easy "new question" for the examiner.

Posted By HAMDAN MOHD SALLEH

December 14 2014

How to prepare an assignment

How to prepare an assignment

Organization

1. Organize your major points in logical order. 

2. Every paper must begin with a summary introduction that tells the reader briefly what the paper's main points are. 

3. A summary conclusion is also useful, to remind the reader of the main points that have been argued, particularly in longer papers. 

4. Alert your reader along the way to your main points as you are making them.  

5. Try to stick to just one point in each paragraph. Don't start in on a totally new point in the middle of a paragraph. 

6 Be concise, avoiding digressions, filler, repetition, and redundancy.  Anything that does not contribute towards the argument, or the reader’s understanding of it, dilutes the effectiveness of an essay.

7. Avoid long quotations.  It is usually better to paraphrase others' arguments in your own words than reproduce them at length.

Format and Grammar

1. Avoid convoluted, run-on, pretentious sentences that are hard to understand and could be written much more straightforwardly. 

2. Use correct grammar and spelling. This is not an old-fashioned, pedantic requirement.

3. Use a simple format.  All papers should be typed, double-spaced, paginated (i.e., use page numbers), and be printed with normal type-fonts and margins.

4. Use standard citation formats.In OUM case, its APA.

Revise Your Paper

Re-read and revise your writing. To improve your writing you will want to read it critically, like most people and your professor will. But it is hard to read your own writing objectively, and writers are naturally very attached to words they’ve just put on the page. Taking a break will help you to get a clearer perspective on your own ideas and prose, to read your own draft as critically as if someone else had written it.

Try to finish a first draft at least a few days before the paper is due. After taking a break from it, review the guidelines in this memorandum (the editorial check-list below might be useful), and re-read your draft from beginning to end, marking passages that need to be moved, removed, or improved.

Posted By HAMDAN MOHD SALLEH

September 28 2014

Writing an Essay

Writing an Essay

Essay questions, term papers, “take-home” finals, research papers, and project reports are standard components of most political science courses. Professors may ask students to write an essay as part of a mid-term of final exam, or to hand in extended papers completed outside class that have required substantial research in the library or elsewhere. These kinds of assignments not only give professors a chance to evaluate your skills as a writer and as a critical thinker – two skills that you should take away from any university course – but they also provide the opportunity for you to reflect seriously on particular issues and to use your creative powers to address fundamental conceptual questions in the study of politics. In other words, essays, term papers and other written assignments give you the chance to “get your hands dirty” by grappling with the same broad questions that inform the work of professional political scientists. Writing essays and papers allows you to think long and hard about such critical issues as: What is democracy? What makes people vote for Party A and not for Party B? Do ideas affect the way people behave politically? Why do revolutions occur? How do states interact in the international arena? What determines the shape of a state’s foreign policy? Why do countries go to war?

In tackling essay-writing, especially in the “essay question” section of exams, students often face three problems:

First, some students may feel that they just don’t know where to begin. “How can I answer a question that’s so broad? I just don’t have enough information.”

Second, even if they feel they know something about the subject, they may wonder how to organize the information in order to present a coherent and convincing argument. “How do I begin to put together all the various pieces to the puzzle so that what I say makes sense?”

Finally, students may be unsure about the relationship between the presentation of factual information and the expression of their own views on the issue at hand. “The professor never told me whether he wanted me to repeat what he had said in class, or if he was just looking for my opinion.”

Below are some general guidelines on how to deal with these troubling questions, especially in the area of writing answers to essay questions on exams. Clearly, professors have their own individual – and sometimes idiosyncratic – views on the place of essay-writing and other written assignments in university education. But the ideas below should help you begin to assess how you should approach essays, term papers and other assignments that require both extensive writing and serious reflection on important conceptual issues.

Start at the Beginning

When you first read an essay question on an exam (or begin to think about an assigned topic for a term paper or take-home final), you should ask yourself two sets of questions:

1. What does the essay question really say? What kinds of issues is it asking me to address? What assumptions underlie the question itself?

Professors ask essay questions for a reason. They use essays as a way of getting you to go beyond the material presented in class and in the required readings for the course. They intend for you to reflect critically on the information you have read, assess its validity, think about its implications, and use it creatively in order to answer the question that has been posed. So, when you encounter an essay question, spend a few minutes thinking about what the question really asks, and make sure that you have a clear idea of the kinds of issues and concepts that the question is trying to get you to address.

2. What are the most useful sources of information on which I can draw in order to answer the question? What kinds of data will best support my argument?

During any semester-long course, you will encounter a huge amount of information, both factual and conceptual. Many students treat essay questions as “dumping grounds” for the information that they acquired in the days and weeks preceding the exam. They pile on fact after fact, concept after concept, date after date, name after name, with little thought about whether all this information helps them answer the question. “If I throw in enough stuff,” a student may say, “at least the professor will know that I’ve been paying attention.”

Wrong. The professor will know that you have managed to cram a great deal of irrelevant information into your short-term memory. But whether you have really thought about the issues at hand and used the knowledge you have gained in order to reflect critically on an important question will remain a mystery. So, after you feel that you understand the kind of response that the essay question is trying to elicit, ask yourself about which bits of information will be the most relevant to your response. Don’t try to throw everything into the pot. Be selective. Use those facts and ideas that are most helpful in supporting your overall argument. After doing the reading and attending the lectures, you do have enough information to answer the question effectively. What is crucial, though, is to organize the information and to present it in a way that buttresses the main theme of your essay.

Organization Is Everything

Because they have not stopped to ask themselves the questions above, many students plunge right into an essay without thinking about how to organize their thoughts. “If I just get enough stuff down on paper,” a student might argue, “then the professor will at least know that I’ve tried to answer the question.” Wrong again. The professor will know that you are a wind-bag – not that you have thought seriously about the question.

Once you are sure that you know what the question is asking and have spent a few minutes reflecting on the kinds of information that you want to use in attempting to answer it, spend a further few minutes sketching out the form that your answer will take. Here are a few ideas on how to begin:

Make an Outline

Sketch out how you plan to structure the essay. You can even use the exam booklet or the back of the exam in order to write a brief outline, flow chart, diagram, or whatever form you find the most helpful in organizing your thoughts. The important thing is to have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you are going to say it – before you begin writing the essay itself.

There is an additional advantage to writing an outline or essay plan: It may turn out that you simply budgeted your time poorly and did not have time to complete the entire essay as you had planned. But if the professor sees that you had a clear idea of what you wanted to argue, you are likely to receive at least some credit for what you have written. On the other hand, if you have managed to fill up a dozen pages without making a coherent argument, chances are that the professor will remain relatively unimpressed.

Keep It Simple

Think back to eighth grade composition class. Remember the “three-point enumeration” essays you probably had to write? They consisted of an opening paragraph, three further substantive paragraphs and a conclusion. The opening paragraph set out the general ideas you were going to explore, the three following paragraphs expanded on each of those ideas, and the final paragraph wrapped up what you had said.

The same format – with perhaps some modifications – can be used to write responses to essay questions.

Opening sentence and first paragraph: State clearly the main point that you wish to make in the essay. In other words, someone should be able to read the first sentence and know exactly how you plan to answer the question. Don’t try to be too cute, but a catchy opening sentence which states simply and clearly the line of argument you intend to take is always desirable. Other sentences in the first paragraph should then support the first sentence and sketch out the ways in which subsequent paragraphs will expand on the theme of the essay itself.

Body of the Essay: For normal essay questions on exams (say, those in which you have an hour to complete two essays), you should have no more than three or four paragraphs in the body of the essay. Each paragraph should make a clear and discrete point, and that point should support your overall argument. If it doesn’t, don’t write it. Your thoughts in the body of the essay should follow on logically from the points you set out in the opening paragraph. And each paragraph should begin just like the opening paragraph, with a clear statement of the topic that the paragraph will address.

Concluding Paragraph: Sum up what you have said in the essay in a final paragraph. Remind the reader of your main point, but avoid repeating it in exactly the same words. End the essay with a sentence that wraps up your thoughts and leaves the reader with a sense of closure.

Your Opinion Is More Than “Just Your Opinion”

Essay questions are not extended short-answer questions, and they are not exercises in penmanship. A professor puts essay questions on exams not in order to see if you can repeat verbatim what he/she said in class, but in order to solicit your informed views on a particular subject that you should have mastered in the course. In this sense, essay questions do ask for your “opinion,” but it is an opinion that should be intelligent, informed and well-structured. No conceptual questions in political science have “once-and-for-all” answers. Essay questions ask you to address important issues by using your brain – constructing a coherent, logical and informed view on a given topic. After sitting in a course of lectures and doing the required reading, you are more than capable of completing such a task. Your “opinions” should have evolved and become more sophisticated, and you should have developed a reasonable level of expertise in the main issues addressed during the course itself. Your “opinions” matter, for they were what your professor was trying to get you to develop all along.

Again, essays are not simply receptacles for regurgitated factual information. Your knowledge of facts can be assessed using multiple-choice questions, true/false, identify, define, short-answer and a range of other examination formats, most of which you probably experienced in grade school. At the college level, however, you are expected to think. And thinking requires creatively using the knowledge you have acquired to take a clear position on a contentious issue.

How do you do all that? Here a few guidelines:

Make An Argument. Take a stance. Stake out a position. Argue for a particular point of view. Simply reeling off dates and names – or even using political science jargon – will not do the trick.

Support Your Argument. Use relevant facts, concepts and other information to buttress the points you wish to make. Throwing in irrelevant information will impress no one. It will simply cloud your argument and convince the professor that you really don’t know what you’re talking about.

Be Creative. How creatively you make your argument is always important. Style matters. Some professors may even prefer essays that are well-structured and well-written but not particularly brilliant, to those that contain a truly original insight cloaked in language that would make Webster and Fowler turn in their graves. But be careful: Don’t get cute. Writing a sonnet or a short one-act play is probably not a good idea. You should, however, bring all your skills as a writer to bear on the essay topic. After all, that’s why the question is an essay question, rather than a true/false or short-answer.

Answer the Question. Let me repeat: Answer the question. If you write page after page of text, but never really address the issue at hand, few professors are likely to give you much credit. Always keep your overall point in mind, and make sure that everything you write relates back to your central argument. And that argument, in turn, should squarely address the question posed on the exam.

Posted By HAMDAN MOHD SALLEH

September 20 2014

Dasar Awam Di Malaysia

Dasar Awam Di Malaysia