A probably foolish question

[formerengineer]

Folks,

Just to check - for the CT exams, can exam questions be attempted in any particular order?

 

[bystander]

Yes you can do them in any order, eg do one you feel really comfortable with as a confidence builder before tackling some of the ones you believe are most challenging.

The crucial thing is you
a) make sure on the exam paper it is clear which qn you are doing
b) don't lose track of the ones still to do.... you still have to do them all.

Sometimes leaving the ones that say list last is a good idea as if you know your stuff, these can be chipped off quickly and don'y need much thought/analysis.

If you start one and get stuck, leave a blank page so you can come back to it.

 

[Viki2010]

I think its better to start with the biggest questions first which give the most marks....leaving the short and simple questions till the end.
Otherwise, if you spend too much time on the short questions and run out of time to finish the biggest exam questions, you may fail.

 

[formerengineer]

Much obliged

Thanks - I'll adjust the strategy as appropriate.

 

[mattt78]

foolish(?)

mmm

i always wonder how much it annoys the marker when he picks up an exam script and the answers are in a random order. If he still wants to mark them in the order they appear on the exam paper, it could be a bit of a pain perhaps

 

[Ada Wong]

I believe the examiners mark one question for all the same paper, then move on to the next question. i.e. marking all question 2 first, then move on to next question.

This way they can get a "feel" for the general answers and will be fairer (?)

 

[snake]

Interesting

This is an interesting one.

All through my life I've attempted questions in the order that they appear in the exams. Obviously if I'm real stuck, then I'd leave a space for me to come back to a hard question if I have time after I've done all the other ones.

I've managed to pass all the Institute exams aside from one, so this strategy has worked so far.

However, I was real surprised to find out that it is actually very, very common to do as others have said in this thread and attempt the questions in a non-sequential order.

I attended a workshop for exam techniques a couple of sittings ago, and the instructor mentioned that doing the harder questions first is a common strategy in case you are too knackered for it at the end of the exam.

Others say that it's better to do the easier questions first to gain some momentum and confidence.

However, I was too far down the line to change my methods, and kept attempting the questions as they appeared in the exam.

Also, I'm probably not a good judge as to what's an easy/hard question, so I didn't want to waste time procrastinating over that too.

The other thing I want to mention is that if I had a quick skim over all the questions and then tried to decide which one to do first, I'd end up having a lot of thoughts in my head about something tricky in lots of questions, rather than concentrating on the question that I'm answering.

SO, for me, at least, taking on the question without prior knowledge of what's to come has been the best strategy (ie doing them in the order that they appear in the exam - even in the first 15 mins of reading time for the later subjects, I've just used that 15 minutes to work on the paper from question 1. I write my answer on the rough paper in note form, and then copy it out onto the booklet when the exam starts).

 

[Ian Senator]

Matt78 - the examiners really don't mind what order you answer the questions in, as long as it's clear which one is which. You'd be amazed at how many candidates don't say which question (or part) they're answering! Although it's usually quick to work out which one it is.

Ada - it's up to the examiner whether he marks paper by paper, or question by question. But bearing in mind that the allocated turnaround time for marking a batch of scripts is pretty strict, it's usually safer to mark paper by paper, so that you can get some finished sooner rather than later and sent on to the next marker.

Interesting theories on the best question order. This sort of thing (and more) is discussed on our Exam Skills Webinar - there's one timetabled for the end of August. If you're interested, do sign up via our e-store!

 

[lunar]

I think its better to start with the biggest questions first which give the most marks....leaving the short and simple questions till the end.
Otherwise, if you spend too much time on the short questions and run out of time to finish the biggest exam questions, you may fail.

Yes, this is my opinion as well. Even when i was at school I was taught to do the questions with the highest marks first and then do the shorter questions later, just make sure you do them. But then again I was never good at following my teachers advice