Study and Exam Tips (From Teachers)
- Read the question carefully - make sure that you fully understand what is being asked
- Stop, think and plan you answer - Don’t write the first thing that comes into your head, especially if a long answer is required
- Use the mark allocations to guide you on the level of detail needed for each answer
- Generally marks are awarded in multiples of three. If a question is given six marks then you will need two separate points
- If more than on point is need try to answer the question in bullet point form
- Write each point on information in a separate sentence
- You should make sure that you answer is easy to read and is clear and concise
- Use the amount of space allocated as a guide to the length and detail needed to get full marks for the question. If the paper has only allocated one line for the answer you will not ain any more marks by writing an essay!
- Make sure that all your diagrams fill the space provided and are clearly labelled
- If you use a formula to answer the question make sure to write i on the exam paper
- Show all the calculations not just the final answer and remember to include units
Follow instructions given in the question exactly. If you are asked to select two correct answers - only select two, no more and no less. You can lose marks by having a wrong answer cancel out a correct answer
Attempt every question - if you are not sure about the answer make an intelligent guess. Do not leave blank answers
- Don’t use Tippex - Put a line through the cancelled answer and give an alternative answer, then if the cancelled answer is correct, you get the marks
- If you give two answers - a wrong answer cancels a correct answer - don’t do this
- Tick off questions and parts of questions as you complete them - easy to leave out parts under pressure
- Remember answers are generally awarded 3 marks (describe/explain questions - you can estimate the number of points required by dividing the remainder of the question by 3 and seeing how many marks are left)
- For example, if the question has 30 marks - most likely give 10 pieces of information
- Start each questions on a new page
- In the real exam don’t ask for extra pages (There are 39 pages in the Part C Booklet) - Extra pages can get lost during scanning
- There is no need to use graph paper in the State exam