Time to panic?

[mad27]

Hi

I am now in a position where I have started my revision for the ST4 exam, and have received the results for all 6 X assignments.

However the marks received suggest that if I perform the same way, the exam will be failed. Marks range from 34% to 56.25%. Most of the comments raised by the markers were along the lines of not reading the question thoroughly, not tailoring my answer to the question and not creating enough ideas or valid points.

Should alarm bells be ringing just yet, or is it best to proceed on the basis that on the day of the exam the circumstances will be different and hopefully the majority of material known by that point?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dee22]

Just my opinion obviously......



Did you attempt the assignments in exam conditions, or did you attempt them with access to your notes?

If exam conditions I wouldn't be too worried.

If you had access to the notes, I might be a bit more worried. I wouldn't despair or give up, but I also wouldn't just hope it'll be alright on the night.

Sadly ActEd don't do their bitesize revision for ST4 else I'd recommend that as I found it a big help for CA1 when I was getting exactly the same feedback as yourself on my mock exam/assignment attempts. If you've sat CA1 recently and still have a working knowledge, it might be worth having a look at it anyway as I don't think it was that expensive, and what I really took away from it was exam technique which applies just as much to ST4 I think.

Just practising questions, marking them, discussing them with other students at your work who are sitting or have sat ST4, and of course attending block tutorials if you can afford them would all help with exam technique as well if you don't fancy ca1 redux much though.

 

[bystander]

When doing assignments its a learning curve and as someone else said, if you did full exam conditions then don't worry.

Look at the comments.....not reading the question. So on exam day, make sure you use the reading time well. On long questions, keep returning to the question to stay focussed.

Next, real qns can draw on different parts of the course so there is a difference there.

Returning to the assignments, which specific qns did you get lowest marks on? This shows important topics to revise.

As well as discussing your ideas on past papers with fellow students, I'd recommend a mock under FULL conditions marked by ActEd. This shows your performance across the whole syllabus rather than pointed fragments.

So no, don't panic. You now need to CONSOLIDATE your learning, then APPLY it. Its being able to do the latter that will help you stand out on the day. Relying solely on regurgitating bookwork isn't the key to success though obviously you need that as a firm base.

 

[Gresham Arnold]

As bystander says, don't panic! The problems identified by your assignment marker are very common in ST4, so you are not alone. The main thing now is to tackle lots of past questions, focussing on addressing these issues. Some simple things that you can do to help (apologies in advance if you know all this already):

Not focussing on the question

When reading the question, underline key words in the question.

When you have written your answer, re-read both it and the question and check that you really have answered the question that was asked - when I was doing the exams, although I generally started my answers well, I found I had a tendancy to drift off the point as I wrote more. A quick re-read at the end rescued me from disaster on several occasions.

Not tailoring your answer to the question

Try to generate lots of ideas/issues from the key words you have underlined. Then reflect these ideas/issues in your answer.

Look for opportunities to refer in your answer to information given in the question

When you re-read your completed answer, check that you have made use of all the information in the question.

Generating ideas

As mentioned above, use key words in the question.

With large part questions eg 8, 10, 12+ marks, I think it is well worth spending a few minutes planning an answer. I used to create mindmaps/spider diagrams to do this - basically jotting down one or two key words for each point I was going to make. Then I would use this plan to write up my answer.

Hope this helps.

 

[mad27]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the helpful advice. As I am going through the question and answer banks, I am slowly picking up the importance of using key words given in the question to try and guage what answer is expected from me. I even attempted the 60 mark question in Question & Answer Bank 1. I aimed to get half the marks and just got slightlu under which I am happy with, considering that it felt like I was losing the will to live answering that particular question

I think the shock on these matters comes when you realise what worked before is not going to work this time around, and updating/upgrading exams skills becomes necessary.

Thanks