Maximising Stage 6 PDHPE
exam performance
AIS PDHPE Conference
Moriah College
May 27th 2010
© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
Overview of the workshop
 How do we extend senior students?
 HSC tips
 Effective questioning
 Productive revision
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HSC exam success
 Factors that impact on your student’s exam performance
include:
 Level of knowledge
 Capacity to demonstrate knowledge
 Performance anxiety
 The two key areas students need to be confident with for
success in the HSC exam are:
 Syllabus and content knowledge
 Examination technique
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Level of knowledge
 Basic content knowledge
 Syllabus terminology
 Content from text books
 Practical and relevant examples
 Student notes are commonly structured to reflect the
syllabus structure, summarise the text book content
and integrate relevant practical examples (minimum
expectation)
 Use of the syllabus as a checklist for content coverage
and understanding
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Increasing knowledge
Effective strategies include:
 Identifying and responding to students’ preferred learning
styles
 Promoting opportunities for students to work in mixed ability
groups
 Setting flexible practical application tasks that enable students
to pursue personal interests
 Setting non HSC-style tasks that place demands on skills other
than literacy
These strategies help promote student achievement
by allowing peer learning to occur, increasing
motivation and engagement; and providing
opportunities to showcase knowledge.
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Capacity to demonstrate knowledge
 Basic content knowledge is important but not enough
 Students require depth, breadth and application of
knowledge as well as a critical view of that knowledge
 There is a need to ensure that PDHPE specific
phrasing and literacy are of a sufficient standard
 Consider providing scaffolds and key word support in
set tasks
 Familiarity with the rubric
 Use of resources, examples and activities that move
students beyond what everyone else is doing. How do
students make their answers stand out from the crowd?
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Examination technique
 Preparation is critical to exam success
 Manage performance anxiety through prep & practice
 Important to get students exam ready asap
 Need to know format of the exam (see BOS website)
 Practice all components of the exam
 Glossary terms are important however other words
can/may be used in HSC questions e.g. what, why,
how.
e.g. What are the patterns of morbidity & mortality for young
people? (2009 HSC)
What is the purpose of pre-screening when planning aerobic
programs? (2008 HSC)
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Exam technique – Section 1 Part A
Objective Response
 Objective response can mean True / False answers but
extremely unlikely to change for PDHPE
 Be prepared for stimulus material in approximately 4 of
the 20 questions
 Graphs, tables and illustration are commonly used as
stimulus material
 Read the stem and try to answer the question before
reading the alternatives
 If unsure of the answer, identify the most likely one and
use process of elimination to remove the others
 NEVER leave a MC question unanswered
 Essential to practice MC questions – 20% of the paper
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Examination technique – Section 1 Part B
Short-answer questions
 This section of the paper considered to be short
answer (1-10 marks)
 Accessibility for more students
 Q21 & Q22 broken down into parts (may be linked)
 Can still use any of the glossary terms
 Answers need to be succinct and get to the point
straight away in these style questions
 Good quality examples are essential - one quality
example may be worth much more than five average
examples
 How do students show their content knowledge in a
shorter answer?
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PDHPE literacy
 Interpreting the questions
 Answering the questions
 Phrasing the answer - what is taught or read,
how it is interpreted and how it is expressed in
written answers
 Evidence of critical thinking and analysis
 Basic answer structure
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PDHPE Literacy
 Basic answer structure – try being SEXY (or SEEY)
S –state the state the syllabus point
E – elaborate on & explain your point/s
X – relevant examples to support your point/s
Y – give reasons why is this significant to the
question?
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Use of the glossary terms / key words
 Move away from memorising the glossary term
definitions and towards a general understanding of what
groups of words/terms ask students to do
 Interchanging the key word used in a question can
substantially alter the demands of the question.
 Changing the key word alters:
 the level or ‘order’ of the question
 the mark value of the question
 the amount of lines required to answer the question fully
 the approaches required to be taken (e.g. ‘make a
judgement’)
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DRILLING DOWN
 Enhancing questioning & critical analysis skills
 How can we do this?
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TEACHER QUESTIONING
 What does the research show?
 Teachers:
 typically ask 96% of the questions posed in the
classroom
 give an average of 1- 3 seconds ‘wait time’ for a
response (or before they re-ask/re-word the question)
 primarily use questions to assess students knowledge
recall rather than to promote learning or inquiry
 ask lengthy, wordy questions to elicit short responses
(Working Inside the Black Box - Professors Black & Wiliam)
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EFFECTIVE TEACHER QUESTIONING
INVOLVES:
 Planning for questions
 Developing questioning techniques
 Promoting a positive questioning classroom
environment
 Using different types of questions
 In order to promote student learning and provide
feedback about students’ learning & understanding.
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PLANNING QUESTIONS
 Advance planning is essential
 PUTTING is the position of the question within the
lesson: make sure that it takes place at an appropriate
time or as part of a logical sequence
 PITCHING is the level of difficulty of the question This
can be determined by:
* the language you use
* the content or concepts involved
* the reasoning process that is being called upon
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ENCOURAGING STUDENT INQUIRY AND
STUDENT QUESTIONING
“A classic concept is that learning occurs when the
teacher asks the questions and the student answers
them but really it does not occur until the learners need
to know and can formulate the questions for
themselves.”
(Morgan and Saxton)
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Examination technique – Section 2
Extended response & short answer
 Answer only TWO of the questions
 Answer the questions for the options that have been
studied
 Two questions on each option
 First question = 8 marks
 Second question = 12 marks (BOS gives guidelines for
the length of this answer)
 Use of the rubric
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Meeting Rubric demands
Section 2 only in 2010 HSC
In your answers you will be assessed on how well you:
 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of health
and physical activity concepts relevant to the
question (knowledge & relevant info only)
 apply the skills of critical thinking and analysis (key
words)
 communicate ideas and information using relevant
examples (practical application)
 present a logical and cohesive response (planning
answers)
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Time management
 A very useful way to reduce performance anxiety
 Broad guidance is provided at the start of each Section
in the HSC Exam:
 Section 1, Part A
Multiple Choice (40 minutes)
 Section 1, Part B
Short answer questions(1 hour 10 minutes)
 Section 2
Options – extended response (1 hour 10 minutes)
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Time Management
An easier and more accurate time guide is to allocate
1.8 minutes per mark. This is based on the fact that the
exam is 180 minutes long and comprises 100 marks:
180/100 = 1.8 minutes per mark
e.g. if the question is worth 8 marks students should
allow approximately 14 – 15 mins to work on it
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Maximising exam performance summary
 Student notes – structure & appropriate depth
 Engaging students – practical application of content
 PDHPE specific phrasing and literacy – practice
questions and feedback
 PDHPE exam preparation – familiarisation, time
management, relaxation
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Productive revision
 Structured revision extremely important – don’t just
leave to chance
 Students should be revising continually throughout the
course
 Guidance may be required
 Make it part of the learning process rather than a chore
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What are you currently doing in terms of revision?
 Revision matrix
 Sale of the Century, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire etc
 Hesitation
 Self reflection, peer evaluation - 14 minute challenge
 SQ3R reading tool
 10 hooks
 Student produced summaries, workbooks & questions
 Class discussed & produced mind maps of focus
questions and related content
 Acronym competition
Activities
 Scaffolds (HSC online website)
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Productive revision
 Practice questions (past papers, Standards Package,
NFMC)
 However….. care should be taken to ensure that past
questions are still applicable to the amended content.
 The nature, format and particular emphasis of questions
may change from year to year.
 Important that students read and respond to the
questions in examinations rather than prepare a
response to a preconceived idea of what the question
will entail.
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Importance of feedback for improvement
 Provide substantial and meaningful feedback to
students
 Strategies include:
 Provide all marks and feedback written on their
assessment or a separate sheet
 Consider assessment for learning as well as of learning
 Speak to a student in advance if their mark is likely to
cause them distress
 Be available during / after the lesson or at the next break
for any specific follow up
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Handy hints for maximising exam performance
 Study of PDHPE, understandings about health and
movement are dynamic. Essential to adopt a critical
view of information by questioning current
understandings, examining issues from a range of
perspectives and attempting to evaluate opinions.
 A good framework for looking at health issues is to ask:
 How important is the issue?
 Is this a new or emerging issue?
 Are there inequalities and social justice considerations?
 What action has been taken to address this issue?
 What else can be done; what other approaches could be
adopted?
© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
Handy hints maximising exam performance
 Look for connections between syllabus dot points: for
example, energy systems and principles of training
(progressive overload, specificity, training thresholds).
 Use more than just the text book – encourage students
to read widely.
 Get them making comments and asking questions (class
blog abut certain topics, post it note activity)
 Read articles and information from the world of sport,
exercise physiology and human performance and
health.
 Access government websites and public health
information to familiarise yourself with current health
promotion initiatives and public health trends.
© The Association of Independent Schools of NSW
Contact Details
Jo McLean
Education Consultant
Level 12, 99 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9299 2845 Fax (02) 9290 2274
Mobile 0400 474 022
Email jmclean@aisnsw.edu.au
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