Examination Techniques for Further Education History Exams ?

[Monoriu]

I could see how that might make sense for a multiple choice exam...but I don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I don't know, but I'd think they'd just list the key points and the rubric (like topic sentence first sentence in each paragraph, etc.). If my assumption was correct, that doesn't seem like repeating it 100 times or more would be helpful. You could just read the rubric.

In a high pressure exam, timing is key.  You may know all the points and material, but they are not very useful to you if it takes 3 hours to articulate them, when you really only have 2.  A lot of people struggle to use the right words in an actual exam situation.  Also, a lot of exams are deliberately designed so that there is no where near enough time for students to score all the points.  Students need to decide which important points to make, and which ones to abandon.  These decisions are not easy, and a lot of people have trouble making them when they sit in the exam hall. 

I think I practised for my exams more than 100 times.  We spent 5 years preparing for one of the most important exams in HK. 

[Neil]

White people scourged the Earth between 1492 and 1945.  That's modern history in a nutshell.

Columbus didn't start the fire. It's been burning since the world's been turning.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray...

[Monoriu]

Maybe Mono's teachers graded 100 essays for every student?

I bet they graded a lot more than that.  42 students in each class, 6 classes per year, that's 252 students per cohort.  How often those essays are submitted depends on the subject.  For English language, we did one essay, one multiple choice exam, one non-multiple choice exam, and one listening test every week.  That's the case no matter what year we were in.  That's at least 4 assignments for every student every week, or a thousand papers to grade per cohort per week.  We took 9 subjects per student, so you do the math

[garbon]

I could see how that might make sense for a multiple choice exam...but I don't really see how that works for an essay writing exam unless the practice exam books just have "perfect" essays listed as the answers. I don't know, but I'd think they'd just list the key points and the rubric (like topic sentence first sentence in each paragraph, etc.). If my assumption was correct, that doesn't seem like repeating it 100 times or more would be helpful. You could just read the rubric.

In a high pressure exam, timing is key.  You may know all the points and material, but they are not very useful to you if it takes 3 hours to articulate them, when you really only have 2.  A lot of people struggle to use the right words in an actual exam situation.  Also, a lot of exams are deliberately designed so that there is no where near enough time for students to score all the points.  Students need to decide which important points to make, and which ones to abandon.  These decisions are not easy, and a lot of people have trouble making them when they sit in the exam hall. 

I think I practised for my exams more than 100 times.  We spent 5 years preparing for one of the most important exams in HK. 

I'm glad you spent your time wisely.

[Monoriu]

I'm glad you spent your time wisely.

It is a complete waste of time, but short of moving to another country there is no real choice in the matter.  It is a race to the bottom.  If everybody puts in that kind of effort, I have to do at least as much. 

[Agelastus]

I find myself unable to give advice due to my own experience with History A-level exams.

I actually did have to retake my History exam to get into my university of choice, as I ended up with a C grade instead of the A predicted (after a re-mark, I found out one of my papers was actually a D!)

I'd sold all my books and notes to a student due to start the course, so I borrowed a few of the textbooks from my teacher, asked the school to let me sit the exam with the year below me when they took it, did one practise essay, and got an A!

I took two lessons from this -

(1) It is actually possible to do too much preparation for exams.
(2) The marking of A-level papers is incomprehensible.

When I came to take my exams at KCL for my history degree I followed lesson 1 to a tee; my revision consisted of rereading my course essays the afternoon before the exam. I graduated with First Class Honours...

So, in a sense, I disagree with Monoriu, although I suspect it has more to do with how our respective brains work when learning something than with any hard and fast rules of studying.

[jamesww]

bump.