Mistakes To Avoid During An Exam

Mistakes to avoid in an Examination

A final exam is different from all mock exams that are written in midyears, or end of year exams. A final exam comes with surprises and twisted concepts that requires a new and different approach to the same old topic. 

Midyears and End of year Exams at schools are filled with "standard" questions that taken from from past papers and it's highly likely that you have once met the questions before. A majority of teachers doesn't like to temper with the values and structures of the past questions, thy believe it can distort the standard process of solving typical exam questions. This makes all papers common and easy.

Nevertheless, a Zimsec or Cambridge final exam comes with new, unique questions that test your very mathematical skills rather than sharpness of your memory. You might have met a similar question but not exactly as the one in the final exam.

This exposes you to many mistakes that costs you in the Exam.

Below I have identified few common mistakes and how they can be avoided

1. Don't rush to attempt questions, take your time to study the question

Candidates will be afraid they can't finish the Exam if they delay even for a minute. They rush to work out solutions before fully understand the requirements of the question. They apply methods they are familiar with and doesn't take a breath to think new ways of solving new questions. They later discover that they have provided a wrong solution few seconds before the end. 

Take your time to read and understand the question and its requirements before attempting anything. It's better to omit other questions and correctly answer the few that guarantees a pass.

2. Study the structure of the paper before answering the questions. 

Every candidate at least knows the structure of the paper she or he is going to write and prepares the strategy to the paper. Little do they consider every paper. Although structure can be similar, has its uniqueness that requires a different approach to be successful. 

Mathematics Paper 1 starts with 13 questions that carry 39 marks (39%) and take almost half the length of the paper. The remainder, which is about 12 or 13 questions carry 61% of the paper.  Majority of students don't finish the paper as they try to perfect solutions for the first questions. They eventually fail the exam, they waste time concentrating on less important section of the exam.

3. Carry all Exam requirements even if you don't intent to use them.

A math exam requires pencils, pens, mathematical sets, strings, rulers and calculators. Only few carry all the instruments for the exam and some avoid some of the sections of the exam. In the first paper, candidates don't expect topics like Locus, Transformation, Vector(2) and graphs but to their surprise they meet these questions in the same paper.

Many candidates have to omit the question, skip to return or wait to share the few instruments brought into the exam room. 

NB: calculators are not allowed in Maths Paper 1 exam.

4. Avoid sleeping in an Exam.

Some candidates are faster and accurate and finish the paper in the middle of the Exam. They are tempted to sleep for a few minutes, whilst awaiting collection of papers. This will cost you marks if you happen to omit other questions or inadequately answer a specific question. Take time to ask yourself "Why others are still writing?" 

Check if your papers are numbered correctly and labelled. Review your answers before submission and add necessary information that might have been omitted