1. Focusing on quality of answers
In exams, students are often more concerned with quantity rather than quality. The best essays are those that demonstrate evidence of personal reflection and are not just trying to achieve a word limit.
2. Improve spelling and grammar
A level marking scheme generally includes a few marks that can be allocated for good spelling and grammar. If your answer paper is littered with errors, you’ll miss out on a few easy extra marks that could mean the difference between two different grades. If you have enough time at the end of the exam you can spend it checking through your essays to ensure that spelling and grammar is impeccable.
3. Read the questions properly
Human brains have a habit of seeing what they want to see, and this is especially true in the high-pressure environment of the exam room. If you don’t read a question carefully enough, your brain can easily trick you into thinking that the question is asking you something that it’s not – leading you to write a completely different essay that doesn’t answer the actual question you’ve been set.
4. Make an essay plan
Your plan is vital so you don’t have to stop halfway through and figure out where you’re going. To answer an exam question effectively, it’s important to have a structure for your essay in mind before you begin. If you don’t write a plan beforehand, you risk losing your train of thought, forgetting what you were going to say, or writing things incoherently and in the wrong order.
5. Manage your time
Watch the clock and try not to run out of time. It’s a classic student mistake: spending too long on the first few questions and not leaving enough time to finish, meaning an incomplete final essay. Timing is crucial in an exam, and must be carefully rationed, as you’ll have a lot to get through in a very short space of time.
6. Don’t leave exam room early
If you’ve worked very efficiently, or found the exam easy, you may steam through it with time to spare. At this point, some students make the mistake of leaving the exam room. Once you leave it, it’s too late – you can’t go back in for something you thought of including in hindsight. So, even if you finish early, use that extra time at the end to read through your answers and make sure that you’ve answered them to the best of your abilities.
7. Don’t panic
It is easy to panic, especially if your first reaction is that you are unable to answer any of the questions. Take a deep breath that will help you to calm down. But it is important to provide some answers, even if they are not very good. Even if you are really struggling, you should be able to find one question that you can answer, or make a reasonable attempt to answer. Starts with that, and when you have finished it, go through the same process again and again.
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