How to improve exam technique? (1 Viewer)

[Bumblebee_18]

I'm becoming incredibly frustrated with my marks and ranks, every mark I've ever lost in subject like Bio or Eco is because of my exam technique. I know all my content, but I just get confused with how to improve to know what the markers want. I know that past papers are key and I've done loads of them, I always mark my answers, but idk I don't seem to improve drastically. Does anyone have any tips?

 

[jimmysmith560]

There are a couple of things that you may wish to consider, one of which comprises two potential avenues. They are as follows:

Approaching questions:

Thorough knowledge of the content is undoubtedly essential. However, as implied by the title of your thread, exam technique is also important as it allows you to ensure that you are able to correctly and effectively apply your knowledge of the content to a range of exam questions. If you are not doing so already, you should start to pay close attention to key words within each question (which is something that applies to both Biology and Economics). Key words are significant because they guide the manner in which a response is meant to be developed. For example, a "discuss" question entails identifying issues and providing points for and/or against the contents of the question. Consider Question 23 (c) from the 2020 Economics HSC exam:

Discuss Australia’s involvement in ONE bilateral trade agreement. ​

The list of NESA's key terms can be found using the following link:

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/hsc/hsc-student-guide/glossary-keywords

The level of practice that you are willing to engage in (you appear to be committed to completing several past exam papers, so hopefully you will face no issues there) will determine the extent to which your exam technique will improve.

Seeking feedback:

Constantly marking your answers is definitely a good approach as it enables you to identify and address potential areas of weakness. In addition to marking your answers, you should gain access to different perspectives, which can be done by seeking feedback regarding your answers from individuals with the relevant knowledge, mainly your teachers. Feedback can also come from fellow students, meaning that there is no harm in requesting feedback from your peers either as an alternative or in conjunction with teacher feedback. Evidently, the more perspectives that you can access, the better this may be reflected in your exam technique and subsequent answer quality. This is because having someone other than yourself (especially teachers) examine your answers may reveal potential areas of improvement that you may have unknowingly overlooked while marking your answers yourself.

Of course, BoS is also a good place to request student feedback, so do not hesitate to post subject-specific questions here as well!

I hope this helps!

 

[pikachu975]

I'm becoming incredibly frustrated with my marks and ranks, every mark I've ever lost in subject like Bio or Eco is because of my exam technique. I know all my content, but I just get confused with how to improve to know what the markers want. I know that past papers are key and I've done loads of them, I always mark my answers, but idk I don't seem to improve drastically. Does anyone have any tips?

One of the key ones is getting a good tutor, preferably a HSC marker. I had one for physics which helped me answer questions well. However I did biology too without a tutor which brings me to my next point - having a good teacher helps too. E.g. mine told me that answering questions in table form or dot points is fine.

Obviously these aren't accessible to everyone so I'll list some ways that you can improve your exam technique:
- Do exams with friends and peer review each other's papers: This lets you see what other good methods people are using for structuring answers which you can potentially use yourself. Also you can just ask the high ranking people to see their exam papers to see how they do things and steal their methods if you feel like it.
- Ask your teacher to mark your work (this really depends if your teacher is even good or willing to mark your work)
- Take feedback from your actual exams, which seems obvious but some people just see their mark and skim their paper and that's it. For example if the teacher says your long responses for Biology don't really flow, you can take this feedback on board and create mini plans on some spare section on the page to help structure your answer (I used this advice from my teacher, definitely helps). An example would be a question about endotherms and ectotherms, you can create a mini plan like "para 1 - kangaroo fur, para 2 - alligator sunbaking, para 3 - ...." (random example, I forgot the content LMAO)

Good luck!

Edit: Also on the last point, try see where you're losing the most marks as well. Since you said you're losing marks due to exam technique then you probably mean long responses, so you gotta see why. Is it due to not having enough content, if so then learn content in-depth (I personally tried to understand most content in detail and had extra details always if I could, to impress the marker). If it's due to missing key info, then create a plan or try to highlight key words in the question to ensure you miss nothing.