Surprisingly the letters section this week is not filled with people bitching about how unfair exams are, so we at Craccum have taken it upon ourselves to do it for you (with some cliché tips along the way).
Examinations are essentially a diagnostic tool to assess how well students understand the course. Where they differ from assignments and in-class tests is that any feedback they provide will not assist the student in improving for that particular paper. Exams are summative assessments administered at the end of the paper to show that the student has understood the course. After the exam is complete, the paper is over. Most people don’t even bother to retrieve their final exam papers from the clock tower, so they never get to know why they only got a B-, they just trust in the nDeva mark and move on to the next paper.
There is a feeling that examinations are inherently unfair on students because so much information is tested in a very short period of time. There is no way that any topic can be covered in depth in 2 or 3 hours and a lot of information that is learned in the course is not tested on. There is anxiety in knowing that you can study for hours on end and still get blind-sided by an oddly worded question or by studying things in depth that don’t get covered.
The structure of the exams themselves doesn’t keep inline with the style of the rest of most papers. For example, assignments allow you to access any resource you can find to assist you and plenty of time in which to do them. On the other hand, most exams give you access to only the resources you can mentally recall and have narrowed down the time limit to a measly two or three hours. This causes students a whole lot of stress as they attempt to cram their brains full of information that may or may not be necessary.
Another perceived unfairness comes from the idea that while students are taught the information required to pass the exam, they are often not taught the best techniques for participating in the exam itself. There are courses run by many departments and offered by the university that teach essay structure, how to construct arguments and how to reference correctly, but there is very little information about how to best attack an exam. Perhaps there is an expectation that students will simply develop better exam techniques over time, or that proper preparation is the only useful tool in an exam situation. This does not take into account stress or other factors that impact heavily on performance in a high pressure environment, one that students are only really exposed to a few times a year.
One way to combat the stress would be to make all exams open book. The use of notes to jog the memory will likely decrease stress, as there would be less fear of forgetting an important quote or formula. The exams are still time limited, so the notes or information cannot be simply learned within the exam, as anyone who has participated in an open book test will tell you; that if you are consulting your book or notes every few minutes, chances are you don’t know the material and will probably not finish. It’s a really good way to provide safety, as just knowing you can consult a book to double check is a great confidence builder. It’s worth remembering that post-graduate courses have open book exams, and some undergraduate courses don’t have any exams at all. It seems unfair to assess some students in a pressured environment and not others.
While the university is currently placing more emphasis on more frequent assessment during the 12 weeks of semester, a lot of weight is placed on the final exam. So while complaining about exams may be justified, they are still going to happen in a few weeks time. So here is a list of exam techniques and study tips that many have found useful:
Practice previous years’ exams – Available through the library website, they are the best indicator of information that is going to be in the exam this year (other than the subtle hints lecturers give around the end of a course, that is). Don’t just look over them, attempt them under time pressure. If it is true that with exams you only learn through doing them, then why not get some practice in. You will feel a lot more confident if you are able to ace a question from last year and if you mess it up horribly, you will understand where your weaknesses are and where you need to spend extra time studying.
Exercise your hands before the exam – This applies to exams where a heavy amount of writing is involved. You may look like an idiot while doing it, but it is better than getting pain during the exam and not being able to focus properly. Your hands are probably not used to the vigorousness of three hours of solid speed scribbling, so you may even want to forgo the computer and write out your notes by hand. This will remind your hand what a pen actually is before you are forced to use it.
Divide your time wisely – Many undergraduates get caught in the trap of spending far too long on one thing and neglecting the rest of the exam. Look carefully at how the marks are allocated on the front of the exam paper, as this is an indication of how important it is and possibly how long it will take to complete. Questions that have the highest allocation of marks should be done first. I believe that multi choice questions should also be done at the beginning – if you know your stuff, then these should be quick and easy marks. If you are doing essays, then don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on the first essay and then neglect the other two. Keep an eye on the clock and make sure you plan each essay out before hand, so you know exactly what you need to cover and you don’t waste any precious time doing any real thinking when you are supposed to be writing.
Don’t forget the basics – Yeah, you are old enough now to know that sleeplessness, hunger and needing to go to the bathroom are all bad things to take into an exam. If you are a first year, then get to university well before your exam is due to start in case it is in a lecture theatre you have never been in, in a part of the campus you never knew existed. Organise your pens/ruler/calculator/ID card the night before, because the stress of not being able to find one of these things before an exam can be crippling. Oh and turn up. Even just to put your name on the paper, for Gods sake, just show up.
-Jeannie Gold
