1. Posts in the subject areas are now being moderated. Please do not post any details about your exam for at least 3 working days. You may not see your post appear for a day or two. See the 'Forum help' thread entitled 'Using forums during exam period' for further information. Wishing you the best of luck with your exams.
    Dismiss Notice

Messing up question numbering/order

Discussion in 'General study / exams' started by Trevor, Aug 31, 2021.

  1. Trevor

    Trevor Ton up Member

    Hi, I've been practicing past exam papers fully under exam conditions recently an notice this happens sometimes:

    1. Wrongly label question numbers
    I could finish attempting all questions in order, but label them wrongly, eg:
    Q1i.
    ....
    1ii.
    ....

    Q1i
    1ii
    ...
    1iii...

    Q3
    ...


    In this case, the Red (Q1) actually belongs to question 2, the answers within it are totally referring the Question 2 although labelled as 1.


    2. Shuffling answers
    I have the habit of moving to the last page.
    This happens after scrolling around my answers (to add little points in between), and then "reset position" by scrolling to the end (hotkey Ctrl + End)
    It will be a problem if I skipped some question and come back later, for example (attempting & writing in order)
    Q1i.
    ....
    1ii.
    ....

    Q2i
    ...
    2ii

    (left blank because I skipped this difficult question)
    2iii.
    ...

    Q3
    ...

    Q2ii....
    (with actual answer)


    3. Mixing an answer within part of another answer
    This is probably the most severe mistake. It happens when I jump around to add little points here and there, and then later return to the question I was actually attempting. Or it could be a genuine mis-click at the wrong part of my document and started typing without noticing it.
    Q1i.
    ....
    1ii.
    ....

    Q2i
    2ii
    ...
    ....

    Q4
    ...

    ...
    ...
    2iii...

    Q3

    Notice Q4 is slit within Q2ii.

    How would this fare in the actual exam?
    Has anyone made this mistake in the exam before, if so, what do you think happened during the marking stage?

    My guess is the first error might be okay, if the examiner is kind enough to assume I made a genuine typo in the question number rather than take it as it is (assuming I wrote two answers for Q1 and missed Q2).
    The second error might be okay too, if the examiner actually checks through every part of my document rather than giving me a straight zero after seeing a blank answer
    The third is the worst, because it seems like I am genuinely writing the second half of 2ii as an answer for Q4.
    Although it might seem obvious those parts doesn't really answer Q4, the wordings look familiar and strongly relates to 2ii (maybe even hitting points in the examiner report for 2ii)
    In this case, do you think the examiner is allowed to award points in the second half of 2ii, under its correct part? ie: cross marking.

    I am probably over worrying about this. I am trying my best to always check through my document, but it still happens when Im under time pressure.

    Does anyone have advice on this?

    Thanks
     
  2. John Lee

    John Lee ActEd Tutor Staff Member

    Why not mention this problem at the beginning of the exam paper as a note to the marker:

    "Apologies in advance, but due to (insert reason here, eg nervousness/dylexia/etc) I occasionally mess up my labelling of answers or accidentally answer a part of another question."

    I know I would be sympathetic as a marker.
     
    mavvj likes this.
  3. padasala

    padasala Ton up Member

    I did this for one past exam and I got credit. So i think you should be fine
     

Share This Page