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Exam Strategies

sonnyshook said:
What you say is exactly what I said if you read my earlier post.

We don't really have to go through this again do we. Nobody said you should start with the hard ones but rather IDENTIFY the hard questions or the ones with the most marks and ensure that they are TACKLED. The order I suggested was effective was easy-hard-easy. Read it below (or above) and understand.

Different people work with different strategies but a strategy which leaves out the hard ones or the ones with the most marks to the end is flawed. Why? You end up spending too much time on easy questions with the rest of your exam becoming history. Here are the strategies again as I have tested them.

  • the easy-to-hard route. Result: spending too much time on easy questions
  • the hard-to-easy route. Result: destroys confidence..you may end messing up easy ones
  • numerical order route. Result: the distant second best but no strategy here because you are working with cards that are dealt to you by the examiner.
  • easy-hard-easy. Result: always comes out trumps simply the best, better than all the rest
Click to expand...

I don't know about you, but the easy questions I do pretty fast.....the not so obvious and hard I would rather not attempt till the end, as I need to think before I do them....and don't want to waste time thinking in the beginning or in the middle of the exam, if in the meantime I can collect all the points solving the easy problems.....:eek:
 
People, different people work with different strategies. I respect all strategies if they make you pass....I also want to hear any new ones out there.

However I cannot really add much to the discourse if you have not 'road-tested' all of the strategies I described and you are just using hypotheticals or just misintepreting/misqouting what was said.
 
Different strategies work for different people.
Other angles to look at are:
a) time pressure
Some of the CT exams definitely have more time pressure than others (I think I found CT5 the worst so far). Hopefully from practice papers you'll have an idea if you'll be under time pressure or not.

b) level of preparedness
If there are parts of the course one feels less comfortable with, then I think it makes sense to leave those questions to the end. That way (hopefully) you've gotten as much marks as possible from your 'strong' questions, and possible have built up some extra time to spend on the 'hard' questions.
 
Well,id like to call mine the
Easy
less Easier
Hardest

Attempt all questions in the order in which they are presented,skip the hard ones that are taking you round in circles,and come back to them later,this is simple and effective and works wonders.

Why would i want to attempt a hard question before ive cleared the simple easy to answer questions???
 
The sandwich approach is often the best.

By this I mean do a couple of questions where you are really confident. But remember, if you think they are easy, many will think so too.

So then try a harder one. Don't panic. Read the question as many times as it takes to sink in. Highlight key words or hints that theyt want you to bring out in the answer.

Don't be afraid to start with stating the obvious and build from there. Its these 'harder' quesytions that can really make the difference in pass.fail.

Then leave the 'quick' questions to the end. I'm thinking here of the ones with instructions list - very quick and doesn't need elaboration.

But everyone has their way. There is no right answer.
 
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