Essay Style exams

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Essay Style exams

• Dr. Jim Kelly
• Student Academic Support Advisor
• j.kelly_at_tay.ac.uk

Student Academic Support
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The Purpose of Exams

• Exams test
• The amount of work done
• The amount you can write in a given time
• Whether you understand the exam question
• Whether you can cope with exam pressure
• Your ability to memorise factual Information
• Your ability to apply knowledge
• Your understanding of key concepts and theories
• Whether you can argue a point of view
• Your ability to criticise and analyse

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The purpose of exams

• In addition, examinations provide lecturers with
  a guarantee that the work being assessed is
  entirely the students own work.
• NB how well you do in exams is up to you!
• Even when students have studied a course
  thoroughly they can fail to do themselves justice
  in the exam through
• inadequate/ inefficient revision
• poor exam technique

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Exam Stress

• Fear has a negative effective on the brain.
• This is caused by the release of the stress
  hormones cortisol and adrenalin.
• These hormones affect the memory and ultimately
  exam performance.
• Poor preparation and fear of exams may cause
  stress.

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Planning Your Revision

• Its the quality of your revision thats
  important not the quantity!!
• Dont kid yourself that if you are reading
  something you are revising it.
• You need to be actively reading in order for your
  study time to be constructive.
• Keep a record of your productivity, not just how
  long your revision sessions last.

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Planning Your Revision

• Find out what exams you have- how many, when,
  what type, how many questions etc.
• Decide when you are going to start work and work
  out how much time that gives you.
• Spend an evening organising all your notes.
• Use highlighters and folder dividers to make the
  organisation of your notes clear.
• This will give you an overview of the topics you
  need to revise.

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Planning Your Revision

• Plan a revision timetable
• Detail for each day
• the topics to be revised
• the techniques to be used (note-taking, reading,
  brainstorming etc.)
• the time to be spent on each topic area
• a box to tick when complete

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Planning Your Revision

• Make sure your timetable is realistic.
• Take into account all your other commitments e.g.
  employment, family etc.
• Build time for relaxation into your timetable

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Planning Your Revision

• It is best to revise in small chunks no longer
  than hour, then to rest for 10 minutes before
  moving onto another activity.
• Try to mix the revision methods used.
• The key to good revision is to make the process
  active.

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Revision Methods

• A good starting point is to summarise the notes
  you have on each topic
• Try to reduce your notes to key words and
  phrases.
• This will form the basis of your revision notes.
• Reduce your notes further so that information
  fits on one side of A4 or an index card
  (portable).

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Revision Methods

• Use diagrammatical notes if you memorise material
  more easily in a visual form.
• Use colours, highlighting and/ or different
  coloured paper to make the notes distinctive.

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Revision Methods

• Set yourself questions from your revision notes
  to answer.
• Check your answers by using the original notes.
• Fill in forgotten facts with another colour pen.
• Repeat the process until all the gaps have
  disappeared.

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Revision Methods

• Once the knowledge begins to sink in try to
  answer questions on past papers on OASIS.
• Practise writing essay plans for past exam
  questions (takes less time than writing full
  answers).
• Set yourself one or two mock exams to practise
  writing for a set time.
• Examine past exam questions with others on your
  course.

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SQR3 (Survey, question, read, recall, review)

• For intensive reading the SQR3 is a commonly
  recommended method of reading.
• Survey- Here you are attempting to gain an
  impression of the material.
• Question- before you begin to read, draw up a
  mental list of questions to try to answer during
  reading

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SQR3

• Read- at this point the aim is to understand what
  the text is saying.
• Try to assess the writers viewpoint, what the
  main idea is in each paragraph and how the
  content is structured.
• Keep making connections between the information
  in the text and what you have read in other texts
  or have heard about in lectures. Take note of all
  cross-references that you come across.

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SQR3

• Recall- the next stage of the process is to close
  the text and try to remember what you have read
  and then note the key points. This is the longest
  stage.
• Review- the final stage involves
• checking your notes against the text.
• Spend some time filling the gaps and
• correcting errors.

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Before the exam

• Avoid cramming just before the exam- you will
  only end up worrying about what you dont know.
• You should not fear or resent exams.
• See them as a challenge, adopt a positive mental
  attitude.
• You should view revision in the same way as
  athletes view training as preparation to a big
  sporting event.
• Psyche yourself up to succeed.

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Before the exam

• Try to avoid stressful situations.
• Avoid the cluster of people outside the exam room
  asking each other questions about their revision.
• This will only make you worry about what you
  don't know- concentrate on what you do know.

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General Hints for Exams

• Carefully read all instructions on the exam
  paper, especially when given options of questions
  to answer.
• Write in clear, concise legible English and give
  all necessary details.
• Do not cross-out work unless you are sure it is
  wrong, since crossed-out work is not marked.

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Time Management

• If you have to write three essays in three hours,
  plan to spend roughly 50 minutes on each.
• Plan to leave at least 10 minutes at the end of
  writing each essay to check for mistakes and to
  add in information you have missed.
• Never leave an exam early!! Keep working right
  until the end.

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The Exam Essay

• When choosing which essay from two choices to do
  first.
• You should do the one you are more confident of
  answering first.
• This gets you started working immediately,
  steadies the nerves and gives you confidence.
• Starting with a harder one first may increase the
  amount of time spent on the first essay, causing
  you to panic and rush the second.

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Planning the Exam Essay

• When faced with an exam essay a good staring
  point is to gather ideas.
• Write these down on paper in any order.
• The more ideas you have, the more can select when
  when you start to write.
• Ideas should occur to as you write and these can
  be accepted or rejected according to your essay
  plan.

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Rough Essay Plan

• The next stage is the rough plan, reorganise your
  ideas into a logical order that will answer the
  essay question.
• Delete irrelevant initial ideas that will not
  contribute to answering the question.
• At this stage dont worry about a conclusion, you
  should be able to do this after you have written
  the essay.

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Example Essay Plan

• To demonstrate this technique the following
  nursing essay exam question will be broken down
  then turned into an essay plan.
• Microbial diseases in humans often occur when
  the host is compromised in some way. Describe
  why this is the case and discuss the various
  parameters that may compromise humans to
  infection.

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Example Essay Plan

• This on first reading looks like a long and
  complicated question.
• However it can be broken down into two parts.
• 1) Give reasons why microbial diseases in humans
  often occur when the host is compromised in some
  way.
• 2) Then discuss the various parameters that may
  compromise humans to infection.

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Gathering Ideas

• The first stage is to gather general ideas on the
  subject
• Perhaps an example of microbial disease.
• Jot down reasons why this disease occurs when the
  host is compromised.
• Parameters that compromise humans to infection.

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Gathering Ideas

• Think previous research in the area that will
  give evidence for parameters or reasons.
• Researchers involved in important research.
• Counter research/ arguments against traditional
  ideas etc.

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Gathering Ideas

• May be a very large research area with a great
  deal of argument and counter-argument.
• Take time to consider examples that you can use
  to answer question.
• Take time to consider information you will use
  before writing rough plan.

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Essay Plan

• The next stage is to organise these ideas into
  logical structure.
• This effectively is your essay plan, if you have
  done adequate studying then this type of essay
  writing preparation will not take long.
• With a beginning(introduction),
  middle(development) and end (conclusion).

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Essay Plan

• A) Introduction
• Briefly say how you will answer question
• Say what issues each section will address.
• Definitions.say what a microbial disease is.

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Essay Plan

• B) Development of main essay answer
• Address each issue asked in turn,
• reasons why microbial diseases in humans often
  occur when the person is compromised in some way.
• Evidence for these reasons
• What is meant by compromised.

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Essay Plan

• Example of classic research on reasons for
  compromise.
• Criticisms of classic research
• What parameters compromise humans to infection?

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Essay Plan

• C Conclusion
• Conclude by summing main points made in essay
  answer.
• Do not bring in new ideas.
• You could by briefly explaining how you tackled
  the question.

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Essay style

• In your general your essay should have the
  following
• The essay should be as legible as possible and
  written in a clear fashion, the meanings of words
  should be easily understood.
• There should be a coherence of structure and
  development of ideas.
• Attention should be paid to grammar, punctuation
  and spelling.