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3: Revision

Stage 6: Rehearsing answering exam questions

Just like assignment questions, exam questions should be read carefully, because you need to demonstrate in your answer that you have understood the question. Examiners frequently complain that students lose vital marks through failing to read and interpret the questions properly.

Play the examiner

Activity 8

  • Take a particular question from a past or specimen exam paper and imagine that you are the examiner who set it. Note down which particular part of the course you set the question to test, and how you would distribute the marks. Also, note the potential pitfalls in answering the question, and what you would be looking for in an exceptional answer.

Now read the discussion

Analysing and answering essay-based exam questions

For the following activity, you can use questions from a specimen paper, past papers or even questions you have devised for yourself.

Activity 9

Exam questions for essay-based courses often contain 'process words'. These require you to organise what you know about a topic in a particular way. The mark you obtain for your answer will, to a large degree, reflect your success in interpreting the instruction contained within the question's process words.

  • Using Table 1, check out your understanding of a selection of 'process words'. These are frequently found in essay-based exam questions. Note down what you think each word means. The meaning of the first process word is filled in as an example.

Table 1

Process word Meaning
Account for Explain, clarify, give reasons for
Analyse  
Assess  
Compare  
Contrast  
Compare and contrast  
Criticise  
Define  
Describe  
Discuss  
Distinguish / Differentiate between  
Evaluate  
Examine the argument that  
Explain  
How far / To what extent  
Illustrate  
Justify  
Outline  
State  
Summarise  
What arguments can be made for and against this view?  

Now read the discussion

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