Whether you are sick of getting the same response back from your teachers or just tired of missing the point, the easiest way for you to improve is to question the question.
Part 1 of 2 - “Why are they asking this?”
By asking this you are forcing you brain to act like a teacher / professor or marker instead of a student.
The real reason you’re stuck is that you are thinking like a student
Think about how you would write the course / subject your studying.
You would pick a textbook and materials that give you MOST of the answers but let the students stretch the last bit themselves. You want it to be easy to understand and match to what level of knowledge your course is expected to give them. You would use a combination of materials and methods: lectures, small classes, required readings, optional reading, homework, assignments, presentations and online discussion or research
Part 2 of 2 - Think about how you would set the exam.
You have the material already – lectures, tutorials/classes, homework and essay assignments and group work..
Therefore you can use anything you have covered there. You would identify what you think are the key, then you would highlight the areas that students get wrong most of the time.
This is your list for homework, tests and exams. You can even go and ask your professors or lecturers what their favorites are. That’s one of the easiest ways to find out what is on the exam before you sit it.
What area is the question asking me about? What topic? Or does it combine topics? Is it trying to get me to do an easy calculation or hard one – look at the marks involved. Maybe it’s a trick question, what is my gut feeling. Should i already know this? Where would i find it if i did?
Every question you will do in your research, homework, essay practice and studying is unique in that it is getting you to learn something very particular. Once you know what the question is asking, answering it usually simple! But sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a topic will be covered in depth in the exam from first sighting – don’t let this slow you down. Just answer some questions to get a feel. How do you know how many to do?
Do this next time your stuck:
Write down a brief paragraph on what the question is asking and WHY this question is being asked:
Eg.
What: This question is getting me to weigh up the reasons for abortion being considered a crime.
Why? Maybe because there is no obvious distinction as to when a foetus becomes a person. Killing a person is a crime, so depending on how far the foetus has grown could be considered murder...
As you keep writing down WHY this question is being asked each time you do a question you will notice that they start to repeat themselves. Especially in maths and science based subjects.
If that is the fifth time a particular question is getting you to determine what formula to use then you have undoubtedly covered most of the material that could possibly be asked in an exam – you just don’t know it.
Find out why something is being asked, what page are they trying to get me to look at, what formula to use, what legal case to refer to, what function in programming language, which of Newton’s Laws, what philosophical argument... the list goes on.
Once you know WHY it is being asked, it is much easier to give them the answer.
Why learn the hard way? ©
Tim Fairweather - Learning Coach.
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