When I was at ‘Science in the City’, someone, on hearing my name, said: “I read your letters in The Sunday Times of Malta, in fact I have one pinned up for my girls.”
This was music to my ears, so I hastened to ask her, “Which one?” She replied: “On taking exams: my girls were eight and four then, so I saved it and, when they started taking exams, I pinned it up for them.”
The letter on how to take an exam was published nine years ago, on June 10, 2007, so it has evidently stood the test of time. As it is the start of the school year, it might be worth republishing, for other people to pin up.
1. Arrive in the exam room sober.
2. Once in the exam room, forget everyone around you. They don’t exist. Not even the good-looking ones.
3. Start by reading the paper thoroughly, front to back, making notes when you remember things – the answer to one question may be triggered by another question. That is why you have to read right through the paper thoroughly.
4. Decide which questions you are going to answer, doing the ones you can do best first.
5. With multiple choice questions, you can often work out the correct answer by ignoring the stupid ones and concentrating on the possible answers. When setting a multiple choice question, it is often hard for lecturers to find four sensible answers, so they may put in obvious ‘fillers’ just to fill the gap.
6. You won’t get any marks for a blank page. So, write something or mark an answer – even if you think it is garbage. The marker may be able to find something in it to give you marks. Scribbling in things at the last moment may get you the last mark you need to pass.
7. When you finish the paper, take your time, read through what you have written, look for anything that isn’t clear and put it right. Can your handwriting be read? In the stress of an exam it may become a scrawl.
8. There is nothing special in walking out of the examination room early. The moment you leave, you may remember the answers you left blank.
9. If you are the last in the examination room, it may mean you are the smartest. It certainly doesn’t mean that you are the most stupid.
10. Exams are only made necessary by the plagiarists. If nobody plagiarised, there would be no need for exams. So you know who to blame.
Remember: if too many people fail the exam, the lecturer has failed too. Well, now we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we? So just do your best. Good luck!