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When to move on to the next exam question Exam techniques

Don’t spend too much time trying to polish one answer for a few extra points. Generally speaking, you'll get the bulk of the marks for each question in the early stages of writing your answer. Two partly answered questions are worth more marks than one highly polished answer. 

Imagine you have five equally weighted questions to answer and each question is worth a maximum of 20%. If you only answer three you can’t get more than 60% even with perfect answers. 

If you attempt five questions you’ll get marks for each (even if you don’t write as much), and you’re likely to reach 60% or more. 

3 x 20% = 60% 

5 x 13% = 65% 

Work this out for your own paper – your questions will be worth different amounts but you’ll soon see that attempting all the questions is really important if you want to get the most marks you can. 

If your timing goes wrong and you end up with less time than you need to finish the last question then follow your plan by using the time to write out the main points in note or bullet point form, perhaps including an introduction and conclusion. This may earn you a few further valuable marks. 

Check through your answers

Allow some time to check through your answers , and add anything you’ve remembered, such as names, dates or details.

  • Check that any diagrams are correctly labelled.
  • Take care that small mistakes are corrected.
  • Check that all your answers are numbered.
  • Make sure your file is labelled correctly with your PI, module code and exam number.

This work at the end of an exam can gain you several marks, so make time for it.

Last updated 2 months ago