exam tips Essay

Exam tips:

• Read the question! It's well worth spending some time reading the whole paper and thinking about which questions you want to do. Then, answer the whole question and nothing but the question. Make sure you understand exactly what the question is asking you to do before you start writing

• If you can, stop at the end of each paragraph and read it over to make sure you're not wandering off the point or contradicting yourself. These are easy mistakes to make when you've found a question you like the look of on a subject you've revised well

• Allow roughly equal time for each answer. Leave a couple of blank lines between paragraphs and a blank side or two between answers, so that you have room to add in the killer facts you think of at the last minute

• Be nice to your examiner - if you think your handwriting might be difficult to read, try writing on alternate lines to make it clearer

• Accuracy is important, but for this module, that doesn't mean you need to know a stream of names, dates, and exact statistics

• As long as you understand the order or sequence of events and the pattern of cause and effect, exact years aren't usually vital. If you want to quote statistics, general references to e.g. "double-digit growth" are fine, and exact figures aren't expected

• If there are competing explanations or theories on a phenomenon or event, you're expected to be able to state what they are and how they differ, but you don't need to know any specific names of analysts or writers associated with them - it's the ideas that matter, not the spokespeople

• Examiners understand that in exam conditions, it can be hard to recall facts that you know very well and hard to put them into coherent and fluent English. We don't expect the kind of polished, well-structured essay which is possible with coursework

• On the other hand, some kind of introduction to establish that you understand what the question is asking you to do is worthwhile - better...