Exam Technique - A Level
"My brain hurts."
Ah A Level, better known as "the greatest writing competition of all time."
The formula is simple, write down as much as you can in lessons, remember it all and then regurgitate it in the exam hall to receive your golden ticket to that university lifestyle you always dreamed of.
So why do so many people struggle? The answer is simple:
So what do you do about it? Well, the first thing is to pretty much forget what you were told at GCSE and be prepared to learn it all again. This will help a huge amount in the exams as now... well, the exam boards basically decide to only award marks for very specific things, in a certain order and because of the complexity and depth of study, none of them can make their minds up as to what is a definitive answer. There's lots of grey areas and they can, and do, change their mind from one year to the next. Sounds fun, right?!
The formula is simple, write down as much as you can in lessons, remember it all and then regurgitate it in the exam hall to receive your golden ticket to that university lifestyle you always dreamed of.
So why do so many people struggle? The answer is simple:
- GCSE's are easy and you get lots and lots and lots of help with them
- Then we totally ignore you at A Level and expect you to learn for yourselves!
- A Levels are genuinely hard. The step up is immense - going to university will not be as difficult as going from GCSE to A Level.
So what do you do about it? Well, the first thing is to pretty much forget what you were told at GCSE and be prepared to learn it all again. This will help a huge amount in the exams as now... well, the exam boards basically decide to only award marks for very specific things, in a certain order and because of the complexity and depth of study, none of them can make their minds up as to what is a definitive answer. There's lots of grey areas and they can, and do, change their mind from one year to the next. Sounds fun, right?!
The Revision Plan
At GCSE you can pretty much blag it. I know it, you know it, we've all done it.
A Levels were sent from education hell to catch you out. They're deliberately designed so you can't blag them, unless you're that one in a thousand student who has a mind wired differently to everyone else and your brain is literally like a giant scanner that just munches up information and returns it without a second thought - in which case you can indeed blag it and you don't need to read any more.
At A Level, the first thing to understand is there are zero marks for vague answers. At GCSE we teach you to at least write something and you never know, you might be lucky enough to get a mark. At A Level, unless that something is correct, then forget it. This means one thing, and one thing only - you absolutely, fundamentally cannot avoid revision.
The worst thing is, you've probably got an awesome social life, an XBox and a Playstation that just won't leave you alone and driving lessons every 3 days. Oh, and not to forget the job you have which takes your evenings and probably at least one day at the weekend, the other of which is taken up by your girlfriend/boyfriend/walking the dog/feeling sad and lonely (delete as applicable). So the chances of you fitting all this in are slim, but somehow... you need to.
A Levels were sent from education hell to catch you out. They're deliberately designed so you can't blag them, unless you're that one in a thousand student who has a mind wired differently to everyone else and your brain is literally like a giant scanner that just munches up information and returns it without a second thought - in which case you can indeed blag it and you don't need to read any more.
At A Level, the first thing to understand is there are zero marks for vague answers. At GCSE we teach you to at least write something and you never know, you might be lucky enough to get a mark. At A Level, unless that something is correct, then forget it. This means one thing, and one thing only - you absolutely, fundamentally cannot avoid revision.
The worst thing is, you've probably got an awesome social life, an XBox and a Playstation that just won't leave you alone and driving lessons every 3 days. Oh, and not to forget the job you have which takes your evenings and probably at least one day at the weekend, the other of which is taken up by your girlfriend/boyfriend/walking the dog/feeling sad and lonely (delete as applicable). So the chances of you fitting all this in are slim, but somehow... you need to.
Before you say, yes I know I look just like him...
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So what's the method to use?
There aren't many things we truly understand about how the brain works, but learning is one of them. When you sit in a lesson an go through material with your teacher, you form neural pathways in your brain. Imagine a grassy field, the first time you walk through you tread down the grass and it's easy to see where you went. If you then walk that way every day, the grass will wear away and a permanent path will form. If you don't go that way again, the grass will spring back up and there will be no evidence you ever took that journey. The same is true for neural connections. Every time you revisit material you strengthen the pathways in your mind. Do something often enough and these pathways become fixed - long term memories. The power of revisiting material you learn absolutely cannot be underestimated. If you go to a lesson you create a very fragile pathway. If you then went home and just read through the notes you made you would strengthen this path. That's not much to ask is it? 20 minutes reading when you get home, or at some point in the evening is nothing out of your day, yet could save you hours in the long run Step 1 : Read through your notes at the end of the day, and if possible, review at the end of the week |
Next, you need to recognise how to answer A Level exam questions. Things have changed from GCSE, and the first rule is to never, ever think that a short answer is going to be enough. You must write (unless explicitly told otherwise) a full sentence answer which fits the form of:
Point, justification
or
Point, evidence (or example)
In each of these cases you must always relate your answer to the question. For example, if asked which development lifecycle a company should use for a specific project, whatever you do, justify your answer in terms of the project to be carried out!
For this to work, and for you to stand a chance of being able to answer the questions, your knowledge must be spot on. A Level questions are often nothing more than a game of putting down as many facts as possible and then relating them to the context of the question. Without the knowledge, definitions, meanings etc, you cannot possibly hope to gain the marks.
Step 2: Frequent exam question practise, with factual, accurate use of knowledge
Point, justification
or
Point, evidence (or example)
In each of these cases you must always relate your answer to the question. For example, if asked which development lifecycle a company should use for a specific project, whatever you do, justify your answer in terms of the project to be carried out!
For this to work, and for you to stand a chance of being able to answer the questions, your knowledge must be spot on. A Level questions are often nothing more than a game of putting down as many facts as possible and then relating them to the context of the question. Without the knowledge, definitions, meanings etc, you cannot possibly hope to gain the marks.
Step 2: Frequent exam question practise, with factual, accurate use of knowledge
Finally, you really need to pay attention to the mark schemes. The way marks are awarded can be quite different to GCSE. For example, take a standard 2 mark question - 1 mark for a point, 1 for explanation. At GCSE you can often get one mark or the other, even if part of the answer is wrong. At A Level, you will not get the second mark if your point is not correct. You may also get zero marks if BOTH parts aren't correct!
The only way to understand how this works is to study the mark schemes. These are the only documents that can possibly tell you how to structure an answer and what's expected. Indeed, when it comes to your exams, I would do nothing but study exams and mark schemes until they were nailed into my brain - this way you will train yourself to answer in only the correct manner.
Step 3: Examine the mark schemes, compare them to the questions - learn them!
Step 4: Identify gaps in your knowledge with these mark schemes - is your knowledge the same as the expected answer? If not, why not?
Step 5: Close to exams, do nothing but constant exam question practise - examine the differences between your answers and the mark schemes and focus on these gaps.
The only way to understand how this works is to study the mark schemes. These are the only documents that can possibly tell you how to structure an answer and what's expected. Indeed, when it comes to your exams, I would do nothing but study exams and mark schemes until they were nailed into my brain - this way you will train yourself to answer in only the correct manner.
Step 3: Examine the mark schemes, compare them to the questions - learn them!
Step 4: Identify gaps in your knowledge with these mark schemes - is your knowledge the same as the expected answer? If not, why not?
Step 5: Close to exams, do nothing but constant exam question practise - examine the differences between your answers and the mark schemes and focus on these gaps.
