Exam Technique
Neil Robbie IFCELS/LTU
nr2
Trouble shooting
• What are your main fears?
• Do task one on the handout.
• What ideas do you have to prepare for
exams?
• Do task two on the handout.
• What are the differences between writing a
timed essay and writing an essay for
course work?
• Do task three on the handout.
Dos part one-before the exam
• Start your revision in time! Eg 4 weeks in advance at a minimum.
• Make sure you are able to cover enough topics to be able to answer
(3?) questions.
• Prepare summaries of topics which you can adapt to a number of
different questions. Use postcards. Review repeatedly e.g. on the
bus.
• Practise timed writing from past papers. Use an egg-timer or stop
watch to make sure you do not go over time.
• For humanities: memorise pithy quotes which you can use in many
different situations (depending on your subject area).
• For social sciences: memorise useful statistical data.
• Consider using digital recorder or tape to help remember key facts.
• Write up a revision timetable (even if you don’t keep it, at least it will
make you aware of how much you still have to do!)
• Make sure you can spell the names of key thinkers correctly.
Dos-part two- before the exam
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Go to bed reasonably early
Make sure you know where your exam is
Arrive 10 minutes or so before exam
Don’t eat too much before exam
Make sure your pen etc is working
Bring a spare pen
Dos part three-in the exam
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Choose questions that you actuallv know something about.
Analyse the question focusing on key words.
Who are the key thinkers related to the question? Include them.
Plan the content and organisation before starting to write.
Refer to your plan to remind yourself of the staging of your answer.
Decide on the examples/ evidence you plan to include.
Mentally plan each paragraph before you write it.
Have a clear introduction and conclusion.
Have a clear thesis statement in the introduction. Know where your
essay is going.
Ensure that you are making logical connections between ideas.
Be explicit about how things are related. Give clear definitions.
Make your points relevant- say what you are going to say, say why
you are saying it and then say it.
Make sure that names and specific terms are correctly spelled.
Don’ts part one
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Leave your revision to too late in the day.
Drink too much alcohol the night before.
Stay up till 4.00 am revising the night before.
Spend too much time on one question leaving
not enough for the next two.
• Answer a question just because you like the look
of it-you have to know something about it!
• Digress from the tasks/ arguments required by
the question.
• Forget to write a conclusion.
Don’ts cont.
• Make unsupported assertions (eg:
‘smoking kills’). Instead provide some kind
of backup to such assertions (eg:
‘Smoking kills. A recent WHO study (2001)
has shown that, on average, smokers are
more likely to die from lung cancer or heart
disease than non-smokers’.)
FAQs
• Should I reference? Yes where possible.
• Does it matter if I don’t have a year for the
reference? Not so much.
• Do I have to write a bibliography? No.
• Can I write numbers as numbers? Yes.
• Can the introduction be quite short? Yes.
• Does spelling matter? Yes (depending on
the marker…)
Marker’s comments
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This gets pretty repetitive towards the end
Manages to avoid contact with the question altogether.
Wanders around -gets the point here and there but then veers off it.
Not clear what the point is. The essay has no structure or organisation. No
relevant literature is cited nor is the question addressed.
Has very slight acquaintance with the subject, but completely fails to
address the question or develop an argument .
Too general. No readings are mentioned.
Doesn't really examine the views of the different schools of thought on this,
but has some ideas.
Specific names should have been mentioned. Very simplistic
Repetitive, fractured answer. -Largely missed the point.
This makes some good points about [...] but really does not attempt to
answer the question.
Not being able to copy Verba's name correctly doesn't inspire confidence.
Mark scheme (may vary between
departments)
• 70+ distinction-shows originality of argument
and mastery of evidential support. May involve
risk taking.
• 65-69+ merit-strong well-supported argument.
• 50-64+ pass-enough information to support an
argument which however is lacking in coherence
in places.
• 49 and below-fail-argument exists but lacking in
coherence and evidence.
Exam questions
• Look at the exam questions which come
up.
• What are the key words?
• What must you include in your answer?
• What are the possible angles to approach
your answer from?
• Where is it possible to include counter
arguments?
• Make a short plan for three questions.
Exam questions
• How do ethical and practical
considerations influence both the quality of
data gathered, and the design of poverty
and alleviation projects?
Analytical Methods and Techniques
in Development Undergrad.
May/June 2004
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of
participatory techniques for generating
accurate socio-economic profiles of
‘grassroots communities’ in developing
countries?
Critical theory and the study of
religions Undergrad. May/June
2004
• ‘The fundamental discursive structuring of
Western subjectivity operates on a
paternal/patriarchal model that is incapable of
representing the feminine as anything other
than the negative counterpart of the
masculine’ [O’Grady]. Evaluate the alternative
formulations of female subjectivity offered by
at least TWO of the following theorists: Helen
Cixous, Luce Irigeray, Julia Kristeva.
History BA May/June 2005
Undergrad.
• Why was British India partitioned in 1947?
• Was the CCP essentially a peasant party
either before or after 1949?
• ‘Africans and Asians increased their
production for the market in order to
improve their material circumstances’.
Discuss.
Theory and Method in the study of
religions
May/June 2003 Postgraduate
Exams
• Discuss and assess the challenges of
and new prospects posited by the
‘postmodern condition’ to the Study of
Religions.
Example question
Has ethnic diversity been an obstacle to the
development of nationalism in the modern
Middle East?
Example question
Critically assess the contribution of the ‘new
institutional economics’ to the study of
political economy.
Theory and Method in the study of
religions. May/June2003 Postgrad.
• Assess Marsha A Hewitt’s statement within
the framework of feminist studies of
religion: ‘A feminist critical theory of
religion must seek ways of preserving the
utopian hope of an absolute justice that is
uncompromising in its sustained
indictment of those forces that drive into
further misery and oppression not only
women but all humanity and nonhuman
nature.’
Making a plan-type A
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Introduction
Counter argument
Refutation
Main argument
Main argument
Conclusion
Making a plan-type B
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Introduction
Main argument
Main argument
Qualification
Counter argument
Refutation
Conclusion
Making a plan-type C
• Introduction
• Counter argument-refutation-main
argument
• Counter argument-refutation-main
argument
• Conclusion
‘Democracy in Ancient Greece was
by and large an illusion.’ Discuss.
• It might be argued that the city state of Athens was the
first to introduce democracy into the world. It is certainly
true that there were representative elections. It is true
that these elections were fairly administered. However,
on closer analysis, if we compare the forms of
democracy today and those in ancient Greece, we can
see that the Athenian variety was premised on gross
inequality. Women, slaves and metics were all
disenfranchised. Of 250,000 inhabitants, only 30,000
were citizens. In other words the democracy was
founded on the kind of inequalities that must make us
question any idealisation of the Athenian polis.
Your voice
• What is ‘your voice’?
• Why is it necessary?
• How do you express it?
ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!!
• Go straight in.
• Don’t spend too long on elaborate
introductions.
• Your argument should run consistently
through the whole essay.