Exam strategies

Students often feel stressed when preparing and sitting for exams. However, you can minimise your apprehension if you adopt a systematic, serious and sustained approach towards your exam preparation. This means that your exam preparation should not be limited to a week or so prior to the exam.

It is important to try to adopt a professional approach to your exams rather than responding emotionally. Try to think of exams as tasks that must be done, and prepare for them thoroughly and in an organised way. Furthermore, it is helpful to know that while you may feel nervous about taking exams, this is a normal response. Your task is to prepare well, and to try and put your nervousness aside as you sit for the exams.

On the other hand, if your stress levels are very high and not assisted by the approach we have suggested, university services such as Counselling can help you with stress management. The Learning Skills Unit can also assist you with your time management and study skills, and help you with useful techniques to successfully complete exams.

12.1 Preparing for exams

12.1.1 Establish the type of exam

You should begin preparing for your exams in the early weeks of the semester. A useful start is to get copies of past exams for your units, and to look at these in relation to the unit objectives and assignment task requirements. Past exams can be found at http://exams.lib.monash.edu.au/

The type of exam questions, the unit objectives and the assessment requirements will give you some indication of how to go about studying the unit to best prepare for the exam.

• For instance, if the exam is composed of multiple choice questions where there are only slight differences between the possible answers, you will know that you need to understand your unit material in detail.
• In short answer questions that require succinct and focused responses in exams, you need to know the information thoroughly and be able to express that knowledge efficiently.
• In a unit such as accounting, if there are problem questions that ask you to analyse a situation and apply accounting principles, as well as complete computational processes, you need to develop a mental flexibility with the study material so that you can apply it to differing situations. A good way to achieve flexibility is to practise a range of questions.
• If there are longer essay type questions in a subject such as Management, you need to be very familiar with your unit material, as well as being able to apply ideas from across topics in your response to the question.
  

12.1.2 Develop a broad understanding of the unit’s objectives

Approach your exam preparation with an aim to understand your unit, rather than simply trying to rote learn the material in the course. If you form an overall understanding of the objectives of your unit, this will provide you with a broad framework that you can place topics and details. This means that it is more likely that you will understand the topics and details, and how they relate to each other. You will then be able to study with meaning and understanding, rather than relying on rote learning. If you understand your unit and its topics and ideas in an integrated way, it is also more likely that you will enjoy studying the unit, and therefore perform well in it.

One way to form an overview of a unit is to read the Unit Objectives, usually listed in the Unit Outline. You can then draw a diagram that represents the objectives, and place the different topics in the course under the larger categories in the diagram. This approach will position you well to be able to apply information to an exam task from more than one topic, as is often required in essay questions for a unit such as Management.

12.1.3 Develop summaries of topics

Early in the semester you should develop the practice of making summaries of the topics on a weekly basis. This will mean that you understand your material from week to week, making exam review a less onerous task.

Even if you write topic summaries from early in the semester, you need to review your unit and topics for the exam. You should try to summarise the topics, bringing together information from your lectures, text book, tutorials, and other readings. In summarising, you select the main points and sub points. Under these, you select and include key information (words and phrases).

By selecting the key ideas and information from the less important, and expressing them succinctly, you will deepen your understanding of the concepts and ideas for your units. This is because the process of discriminating important information from less important information, and your ability to summarise effectively, requires you to understand the material.

12.1.4 Review unit material and topics

Review the unit and topics several times from your summaries, only going back to the lecture notes or text if there is something about which you are unsure.

To develop flexibility with the information, think of questions that may be asked and form responses to these.

12.1.5 Practise past exam questions

During the latter part of the semester, you should select past exam questions that relate to topics that you have already studied. Plan and write responses for these. It is a good idea to do this in study groups, so that you can compare and contrast your understandings and responses with classmates, learning from each other. If suitable, you can consult your tutor during their consultation times to get further feedback.

12.1.6 Multiple choice questions

To prepare for multiple choice questions you need to be very familiar with the content of your units in a detailed fashion. Often, the differences between correct and incorrect choices are subtle and require close and careful understanding.

It is also important to clearly understand the question. You need to analyse, or “pull apart” the questions carefully, especially if English is not your first language.

12.1.7 Short answer and essay questions

When preparing for short answer and essay exam questions, practise analysing questions so that you can focus your answer on what you’ve been asked. Short answer and essay questions require you to apply and interpret the material you have studied.

While some short answer questions may ask you to recall, or retell, information, most will expect you to be able to interpret and analyse information. Essay questions require you to apply, interpret and analyse, and may require information in your answer from several of a unit’s topics.

Study the short answer question and analysis from a Management exam below:

List the five stages of group development. What is involved in each stage?

This question requires you to do two things:

A suitable plan for this question is as follows:

• Explain to your examiner the details of each stage, one at a time.
• Explain how they work. As such, you can consider aspects such as the effects, advantages and disadvantages of certain elements of the stages. You can also explain how the stages relate to each other in group development.
• Provide examples for stages, if possible.
• Link groups and the stages to other topics, such as leaders and conflict.

12.1.7.1 Typical essay question

Study a typical question for a Management unit and our analysis.

Describe the sources of stress in organisations. Discuss the strategies management can use to reduce employee stress at the workplace, as well as what individuals can do to reduce their own stress.

This question is asking:

• What causes stress in organisations?
• What can management do to decrease employee stress? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies?
• What can individuals do to reduce stress? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies?

12.1.8 Calculation questions

It is important that you are able to recognise when particular processes are required, and that you can apply them correctly. The best way to do this is to make sure you understand the processes, and their advantages and disadvantages for particular purposes. You then need to practise these in a range of situations.

12.2 Operating in the exam

Make sure you get to the exam in plenty of time. This may mean finding out the location a day or so before the exam, and planning how to get there so that you are not rushed.

If you feel nervous, try to settle yourself. Take a few deep breaths and then get on with the task of completing the exam.

Students often say that they feel quite inadequate when they first read the exam paper – do not be discouraged if you experience this. Students also say that as they re-read and think about the paper, they realise that they know more than they first thought.

12.2.1 Reading and noting time

Make sure that you read the instructions carefully and thoroughly so that you understand which and how many questions you need to answer. There is no point in doing more questions than required. Furthermore, you are throwing marks away if you do not attempt the required number of questions, or if you do too many!

• Read all questions carefully. If you have a choice, select the questions you will do.
• Order these. Do the questions you feel most confident and comfortable about first. This will boost your confidence for questions about which you are less sure.
• Develop and write down a time line for these questions, allocating the amount of time commensurate with the number of marks. For example, if an exam of 3 hours is worth 70 marks, this means you should allocate about 2.5 minutes per mark. If a question is worth 8 marks, the time you should spend on the question should be about 20 minutes.
• If you have time, mentally plan answers for one or two written response questions, or select answers to some multiple choice questions.

12.2.2 Completing the exam

• Try to stick to your allocated time. If you do not, you may find that there is not enough time for a question that is worth a large number of marks. In this way, you are “throwing marks away”.
• If you have not completed a question but have run out of your allocated time, briefly list the points you still need to make, and move on to the next question. You can come back to this question if you have time towards the end of the exam. If you do not have time, you have listed your points, and you may at least get some marks for these.
• When you have completed the required questions, go back and complete answers for which you ran out of time earlier. Re-read your responses, and make minor adjustments if required. It is not wise to radically change responses at this point in the exam.

12.2.3 Answering multiple choice questions

• Do the questions that you are most confident with first. Then you can go back and do those that are less clear to you.
• Analyse the question as we have explained above, so that you are clear on the directions and precisely what is being asked. Select the answer that you think is the most correct. If the answer to the question appears ambiguous, and you are unsure of which response is correct, go back to the question and check again exactly the conditions the question presents and what the question is asking you to identify.
• If you still do not know what is correct and if marks are not lost for incorrect answers, make an educated guess, and select what you think is most correct.

12.2.4 Completing written response questions

• Take a few minutes to plan you answers in dot points before you begin writing. Make sure that you have analysed the question in the way we have explained above. Respond to what you are being asked, not what you would like the question to be.
• Focus your answer on the question.
  
  

12.3 Checklist for exams

• Prepare a plan for exam preparation, even beginning early in the semester, and try to stick to it.

• Work systematically and thoroughly throughout the semester. This will take some of the pressure off you as you face the exam period.

• Make summaries of your lectures weekly. This process will help you to understand your topics and unit from week to week, and be useful as you review for the exam later in the semester.

• Get past exam papers for your units and study the type of questions asked.

• Towards the end of the semester form study groups with your class mates where you can express and check understandings and learn from each other.

• Practise past exam questions under exam conditions before the exam, especially essay type questions.

• Work in a controlled and systematic way in the exam. Try to control your nerves and just do the best you can.

• After the exam, try to put your responses out of your mind. There is nothing more that you can do at this stage to influence the results.

• If you have not been successful in an exam, try to understand how you could have improved your performance. This may mean speaking to your lecturer or tutor, or working with Learning Support staff earlier in a unit, to make sure that you are approaching the unit in the appropriate manner.