exam technic

[Sandor Kelemen]

Hello all,

I tried to answer some questions under exam conditions in MS Word (for CS1 paper A). It is a nigthmare. I think word is a typesetting software for publications or documentations but definitely not suitable for free/creative thinking. Do you have advices how to balance yourself between:
a) scratch computations on a paper for your own
b) referencing/checking some points from the tables/ActEd materials
c) using R / excel / calculator / tables for computations
d) writing out ridiculous computations (like 11.234408 / sqrt(45.788643))

Thanks a lot.

 

[nanaba]

Hi Sandor,
same here, I attempted a few questinos in Word and frustratingly moved back to written revision. There is a few chapters, where i feel comfortable going straight into word, meaning that I will answer the question directly in word. Whereas, for some other chapters, I will definetly need to pre-write it on paper as the potential for mistakes is rather high.
In case the amount of questions is the same as we are used to, I set myself a goal to answer at least 80% of the questions, as I do not see it happening answering everything in word.
What I found useful for some calculations is the formula function in word. I set in my word a shortcut to insert a blank formula (you can do that in the word settings), from there onwards, there is some pretty helpful shortcuts like \int for integral, \sum and so on. Should make your life easier also when double checking the result (if there is any time left ...)