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EXAMS

By

Kastuv Ray

kastuv@kastuv.fsnet.co.uk

The mention of the word exam sometimes makes people go pale with fear.

This is understandable as who would want to sit on an uncomfortable chair at a desk for three hours answering questions on what you do for a living. If this isn’t unbearable enough, you have to put up with individuals scribbling away, asking for more paper, tapping away on their calculators, while you are there trying to decipher the question.

An exam is a challenge just like life. Don’t run away from it. Face it, head on.

Remember this is a chance to display your skills. By passing those exams and becoming qualified you are gaining a passport for other opportunities.

Choosing a Study Provider

Some individuals choose to use the required textbooks for their professional exams and study from home. Others choose to study at a college, university or specialist training provider. If you decide to use a study provider, select them carefully.

Many of us are constrained by work commitments and just want to pass the exams, so we use specialist-training providers who inform us that we can get 50% of the paper wrong and still pass the exams. The emphasis here is on exam technique. The lecturers at these companies are also gifted enough to tell students stories during the course. By telling the students stories, they are planting a seed within the mind and the student remembers this hopefully when they are answering the questions.

It all depends on what you want to do. Do you want to just pass the exams and gain the qualification or do you want to expand your theoretical knowledge. Courses are not cheap, so find the type of provider best suited for you and go with them.

Preparation

Exams are like real life. In your job you are constrained by budgets and in the exam, you have a time limit of say 3 hours.

To pass the exams, preparation is necessary. So learn the topic and practice past questions. You cannot just expect to read the textbook and pass the exams without attempting a single question (unless you are extremely intelligent and lucky.)

When practicing past questions, look at the marking scheme. There are sometimes hidden marks. For some questions, there are 5 hidden marks but the maximum you can score is 3. You learn about this after doing the questions. One thing to remember when doing past questions is not cheating. Do not look at the answers. You can’t do this in the exams so don’t do it now.

Discipline yourself.

Get accustomed to using subheadings, highlight or underline the points you want to stand out. Make sure your handwriting is neat. One thing that a marker hates is untidy handwriting. If you have a problem with this, practice using an italic pen, it is certainly hard work but your handwriting may improve.

Time management is important as well. So the time allocation is say 45 minutes for a particular question, give yourself 35 – 40 minutes to do the question.

Preparing for an exam is very much like Tai Chi. You need to focus your mind on what you want to achieve

The Night Before the Exam

Try and have a rest and go to bed early.

Don’t try and cram till 4 a.m. in the morning, you’ll only be tired in the morning.

On the Day

Have breakfast. The last thing you want to do is to feel hungry in the exam.

Make sure you know where the exam hall is and arrive in plenty of time for the exam

Avoid people who say the following:

• “I haven’t done any work.”
  
• “What do you think will come up?”
  

If you are feeling nervous, try not to talk to anyone.

When you are actually doing the questions, don’t panic, try and think through

what the examiner may be wanting in an answer. Scribble a plan down in pencil on the question paper. This may help later on, if you can’t remember what to write.

Stick to your plan. When you are attempting questions in the exam focus on the question at hand, try and answer it to the best of your ability. Do not waffle about something totally unrelated to the subject. Get your time management right. There is no point spending 3 hours on the first 2 questions which are say 20 marks each as you won’t pass the exams. Do what you can and move on. You have to answer the necessary questions to pass the exams.

After you have finished the paper, come straight out and go home. Try not to talk to anyone it may depress you further. You will always come across someone who will say the exam was really easy.

Poem

Finally, if you done all you can in your preparation for the exams remember the following poem by John Dryden (from the book entitled “Poem for the Day”, edited by Nicholas Albery and published by Sinclair- Stevenson):

Happy the Man

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call today his own:

He who, secure within can say,

Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.

Not heaven itself upon the past has power,

But what has been, has been, and I have had my three hours.

Please note the last line has been slightly changed to say three hours instead of an hour. This poem may seem to be male orientated but it can apply to anyone. My advice is study hard, practice the exam questions and go into the exams and give it your best shot. Good luck with the exams!