Advice
Hey all, the youth pastor at my church has asked me to help out with giving advice to Year 11-13 (Form 5-7) students sitting exams soon. Is anybody available that can help next Wednesday evening? preferably with experience of studying for Maths and Science type exams, because I haven’t done one for 7 years!!
There will be about 20 young people and they are all pretty good and you shouldn't have any problems.
Also if you have any helpful advice on studying and taking notes writing essays etc. that I could pass on, can you post some comments thanks.
posted by Steve-a-saurus at 4:18 PM
7 Comments:
Unfortunately I've got no advice about Science/Maths, since apart from Biology that whole region of my brain pretty well shrivelled up after I started school in J1 :)
Actually, I do have one thing - when I was in 7th form there were these wee books, around $15 each, that had all the questions from the past exam papers of the previous 5 years. At the time they were only for Bio and Chem, but I think they've expanded. I can't remember what they were called, but if you could get hold of Mr McKenzie he was the one who got them for us. They were incredibly useful, especially since we figured out the papers tended to have a 4-5 year cycle!!
As for essays - the best advice I ever got was from Mr Juriss: *plan* all your essays. Look at past questions and the topics you will/most likely be tested on, and do a plan. Get all the info from the year and do a seperate brainstorming/info page for each topic or whatever, with all the main points etc.
When practising, planning and writing essays, make sure for each paragraph you have:
(a) the point itself
(b) an explanation of that point
(c) an example of it (helps if you get this from a textbook the marker will recognize)
(d) a final sentence which links to the next para.
If you are fairly certain a particular question may be asked *do a draft essay* - it makes it so much easier to remember when you're actually in the exam and go mental and stress, because you've already got all the info in place and you've done it before.
The conclusion should *not* start with "and in conclusion" because you actually lose a mark or so for that.
Learn to memorise things: main points, dates, quotes from poems or books etc that back up whatever point you're making. Do it whatever way you learn best, but make sure you have at least *one* solid thing per para, whether the essay be for History, Classics, English or another subject; these will be the examples or 'proofs' you'll need.
Make sure you revise heaps so you know your subject well, and have a good general understanding of the time period, or event and backgrounds, or poem/book in the question. If you have this, you'll not only write a more comprehensive essay, but be better able to hedge yourself if questions get asked you didn't expect.
Revision and practise are pretty key, really. By practising and testing yourself and memorising you can pretty much 'learn' any topic well enough to write a kick-ass essay or short q, or whatever it is they test kids with now.
There may be more, but that's all I can think of at the mo.
Forgot to mention: with the conclusion, alternatives = "so it can be seen that..." "finally..." "therefore, the evidence shows..." etc.
And the most important piece of advice you could *ever* give anyone sitting an exam ( especially one that involves lots of written stuff/essays): ATFQ (Answer the F***ing Question).
In other words, don't use drivel that isn't relevant; padding does not = good marks. Shorter + more accurate, detailed + well written beats longer + less relevant + badly written.
Yeah i agree and also credit Mr Juris with being very helpful at explaining how to write essays and study for exams etc. Also the books in Bio were compensatation for the fact that Mr MecKenzie couldn't teach. I learnt nothing all year sat down for a week with a text book and i think it was one of my best exam results. I think looking at past questions etc is really usefull. Thank for your help.
lol - that'd be about right! I've heard Mr McKenzie doesn't teach Bio anymore *cough*. Hope the info comes in handy for your kids :)
Any chance you would be available next Wednesday evening to help out? I'm thinking just like a panel thing giving general advice and asking questions.
Yup I should be able to do that... when/where is it?
maths and science type questions.....
hmmm.. biggest thing is yeah.. practice past papers.... and other practice problems....
there's only so many types of questions they can ask... they just wrap them differently to throw you.. learn the key words to identify which... so you know which formula to pull out...
In any wordy maths question -write an equation of what's going on... it may sound real complex but sometimes all you have to do is find a maximum or minimum on a quadratic equation...... (hmmmm I wonder if I can remember how to do that)
adding to what christina said... always plan your essays... not just beforehand... but in the exam take a minute or two to scribble an outline.. it focuses your thoughts, keeps you from waffling or over repitition and if you run out of time shows you knew what you were doing....
and reinforcing ATFQ... if you have doen a practice essay . don't regurgitate it unless the question is identical ... which it won't be..... the examples you use may be.. but the linking words/ topic sentances/intro conclusion need to be tailored....
easiest way to do this... circle the keywords from the question, and repeat the question in reverse in your answer....
eg "explain three key themes in Romeo and Juliet" becomes "Three key themes in Romeo and Juliet are...." or something like that... then in linking sentances "another important theme is......."
not sure If I'll be free to come or not
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