Exam Success at CSU
Tips From Your Lecturers
How should I prepare for an exam?
"Attend all lectures and tutorials as this is where lecturers give details of what is expected in exams, which may be the content (either broadly or for specific topics) and the degree and amount of detail required."
"Listen to what lecturers say rather than what might be heard second or third hand on the grapevine."
J Martello School of Teacher Education
"When preparing for exams, read over the notes you have taken in lectures and tutorials during the session. As a lecturer I aim to ensure that we explore key issues in class during the session. It is highly likely that key issues will be featured in an exam. "
"Don't leave reading the textbook to the night before the exam. Ideally you should be reading and taking notes from relevant sections of your textbook throughout the session."
"Think about how you will feel before an exam. If you know from past experience that you will feel headachy or sick in the stomach try to provide time immediately prior to the exam to go for a brisk walk to relieve your anxiety."
J.Short School of Public Health
"Recall is an effective form of revision."
L Ritter School of Social Sciences & Liberal Studies
How do I allocate my time in an exam?
"Time management during an exam is important. Give equal attention to questions of equal weighting."
"Plan an answer paying attention to how much time you will have to cover each point in a question. For example, a 20 minute question which has 4 major points you want to make means you don't write on any one point for more than 5 minutes."
L Ritter School of Social Sciences & Liberal Studies
"Students should spend time on questions based on the marks allocated to a question for example, in a 100 mark paper over 3 hours a 20 mark question should take no more than 36 minutes ie. 20% of 180 minutes."
K Plummer School of Accounting
"Try not to run out of time and miss a question. You are likely to forfeit more marks by missing a question than you would gain by running overtime on another question."
Learning Skills Advisers.
"If you are running out of time at least try to answer any remaining questions in point form. Leaving out entire questions seems to be what substantially drops many students grades."
L Roufeil School of Social Sciences & Liberal Studies
In what order should I answer the questions?
"Students should do the easy questions first. Use the reading time to read the paper and work out a strategy for completing the paper."
K Plummer School of Accounting
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