How to answer national examination questions effectively

  

Date Posted: 10/21/2012 4:18:10 AM

Posted By: SimonMburu  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 838

---

As we are approaching the examination season, many students are busy preparing for the big day when they will be sitting for their national exams. The most popular national examination bodies in Kenya have almost the same criteria for setting and marking the exams. Answering questions in the national exams is a bit different from answering the questions in the exams that are internally set and marked by the respective subject tutors. Most students fail these national exams not because they are not bright or they have not been prepared but it's because of lack of knowledge on how to tackle the examination questions. Below are some tips that will help you answer examination questions effectively.

1. Good preparation. Preparing effectively by studying well and doing effective revision help students to gain confidence when facing the exams and also builds hope for passing. Lack of preparation or last minute preparation leads to panic and therefore writing the correct answers at the exams becomes a big challenge. This also makes the candidate to loose hope in passing the exams. It is advisable that students should spend at least two months on revision before the examinations kicks off.

2. Make sure you have all the essential equipment during the exams. These equipment include stationery like pens, mathematical sets, rulers and other exams equipment. This is necessary because students are not allowed to share any equipment or communicate during the exam. Lack of such equipment may lead to omission of some questions especially in subjects like mathematics.

3. Take your time. Time is one of the most important resource during an exam. An average paper of 5 questions out of 8 is about 2 to 3 hours meaning one question is supposed to take 24 minutes and 36 minutes respectively. Students often make the mistake of

answering the questions in a hurry and they complete the paper even before the time is up. This leads them in making many mistakes that cost them good marks. The time dedicated for each paper should be utilized effectively when tackling the questions.

4. Read all the given instructions carefully. These instructions are meant to guide the candidate in answering the questions in a logic manner. Example section 1 or A of the paper might be mandatory while section 2 or B is for choosing some questions out of the whole lot. Students who don''t follow instructions end up wasting time and marks by answering questions that they would have rather avoided.

4. Evaluate the questions according to your ability of scoring. This evaluation helps you determine which questions you will score higher marks so that you can easily eliminate the ones with low possibility of scoring. If you are required to answer 5 questions out of 8 make sure the 5 you will select are going to earn you good marks.

5. Be brief and to the point when answering. Most examiners will get bored trying to dig points from the unnecessary information you have in your answers.

---

Next: How to manage your pocket money to ensure it sees you through to the end of term.
Previous: How to ensure your online life is secure!