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| Ten Tips to Complete a Good Test Paper |
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With these tips you will be able to assess your learning style and study skills and, if necessary, develop new techniques that you will need to be a successful student.
To complete your studies successfully, you will need study skills and techniques that are much more efficient than those that you used at school. Those of you who are returning to study after a long break may also find that you are out of practice in the study skills you did have. However, as a more mature learner, you have many advantages. You bring to the learning situation experience, skills, and knowledge. These factors will be a great help to you because completing your course is not about memory recall, but about understanding, thinking, evaluating, and applying knowledge.
As an adult student studying for a qualification by different learning methods, you need to be aware of two major differences from studying at secondary school level. Firstly, you are in charge of your learning; secondly, you will find that even more demands will be placed on your time.
These tips will guide you in some techniques and disciplines that you will need to be a successful student.
Remember that you are in charge of your learning.
- Where to study
- When to study
- Hints on planning your study
- Efficient reading
- Developing your note taking skills
- Noting bibliographical information
- Plagiarism
- Preparing Assignments
- Writing Essays
- Marks per question
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You may not have an ideal place where you live or work in which to study - very few people do. Nevertheless, there are a few things you can do to improve the situation:
- Whenever you study, try to study in the same place. After a
while, this will help you to get started quickly.
- You will need a table or desk, a chair (preferably not an
armchair), and a good light. You will also need a place to keep your
books and study materials. Try to keep your study area equipped with
paper, pens, etc. so that you do not waste valuable study time
looking for supplies. Perhaps you are lucky enough to have your own
computer.
- Get rid of anything from your study area that might distract
you. At home, such things as magazines, CD players, photo albums,
etc. are hard to resist when you are tired but you still have to
study. If you are studying at work, try to clear your desk of other
tasks.
- If it is impossible for you to study effectively where you live,
investigate the university or college library or resource centre,
your local library or your workplace (after colleagues have gone
home) as possible study venues.
- If you are studying at home, try to get away from other family members and distractions such as the telephone and the television set. At work, tell your work colleagues about your study programme and ask them to interrupt you as little as possible.
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Time, or a lack of it, is likely to be your greatest problem. As an adult student, you will probably have work, family, and study commitments all competing for your time. It is difficult, particularly when you start, to keep everything balanced. However, most students find that things improve after their first semester. You need to find the balance and way of studying that suits you. Everyone is different, so although we can make some suggestions, they may not be helpful to you. You will need to experiment and work out what is best for you.
- You need at least 10 hours a week to study, read, and do
exercises and assignments for a module such as this. Look carefully
at how you usually spend your time each week. You may find that you
have to give up something you enjoy to make enough time.
- If you are returning to study, remember that it can be a very
difficult time for your family and friends as well as for you. Face
this first by discussing with them any necessary changes in your
lifestyle and any re-allocation of duties and responsibilities. You
will need to be clear about the times you need to be left
undisturbed.
- Make use of any spare time you have. For example, if you are a
regular traveller by train, bus or ferry, you may be able to use
this time for short sections of reading or revision. Time spent
waiting for appointments can also be used in this way.
- You should leave some time for exercise and leisure activities. It is important not to let your studies affect your health. If you spend all your time working and studying, then you, your family, and your studies will suffer.
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- At the beginning of each module, plan the study sessions you
think you will need to get the work done.
- On the same day each week, make a detailed study plan for the
week ahead. Try to be very specific about:
- when you will study
- how long you will study for
- what you will study in each session.
Try to get into the habit of studying six days a week. If possible, give yourself a day off. This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed by study and will help you to work more efficiently on the other days. On the other hand, try not to be away from your studies for more than one day if you can, as it will take longer to get started again. Everyone has their own particular way of studying; there are no hard and fast rules about how and when you should put in the hours.
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You should note two important general points about reading:
- You need to relate what you read to what you already know.
Reading is about extracting meaning from print and bringing meaning to print. You can only comprehend or understand what you read if you build a bridge between what you know and what is new. This is why you should think about your existing knowledge before you begin to read a new topic.
You may think that you know absolutely nothing about a topic, but this is rarely the case. For example, if you are reading about the theory of communication barriers, think of a time when you were frustrated because you could not understand an instruction someone had given you. Think about how you felt and what was causing the problem. This will help you to understand when you read about the theory of communication barriers.
- Reading is an active process.
If you just let your eye pass over the words you will achieve very little. You must know what you are looking for and why you are reading. Knowing your purpose for reading will help you to choose an appropriate speed and method of reading. It is very inefficient to read everything at the same speed and in the same way. To be an efficient reader you need a whole range of techniques that you can use:
- You can scan to find specific information.
- You can skim to get general ideas or background knowledge.
- You can study read and take notes as you go when you need to understand important ideas.
- You can skip parts of the text if the part has nothing to do with your current purpose.
Check your reading strategies. It is easy to get into the habit of reading everything in the same way. Remember that you are in charge of your learning. Your time is precious - read efficiently.
Developing Your Note Taking Skills
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As a student, you must develop the ability to extract all the information you need from your texts, and from any additional reading you do. You need to be able to organise, study, understand, and retrieve this information.
One of the greatest aids to doing all this is to take good notes while you read. Taking your own notes requires you to pull together all the main points in an organised way. Making clear notes will help you to understand and remember the material.
There are two main ways of doing this. You should aim to use both methods together.
- In your texts and workbooks, you can:
- Underline key points and number supporting points.
- Highlight key sentences with a highlighter pen.
- Write questions in the margin.
- Draw a line down the margin to mark more than one line of important text.
- Highlight key structure words, for example, first, second: not only . . . but also.
- On notepaper or index cards, you can:
- Write down the author’s main thoughts and supporting detail in your own words.
- Copy out word for word quotable quotes and definitions that you may need to use or learn.
- Draw diagrams which show the material’s organisation and line of argument.
- Note bibliographical information of the source you are using. (See Noting bibliographical information.)
Organising your notes
Once you have written your notes, you must make sure you organise them so that they are easy for you to find and use.
You can use a ring binder, inserting your notes, summaries, and answers to activities. Or you can use index cards with appropriate storage. If you are using a computer to compile your module notes, you still need to be organised so you can retrieve information later.
Noting Bibliographic Information
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You must make a habit of noting the details of any book from which you are taking notes. This is sometimes referred to as a working bibliography. There are two good reasons for doing this. First, you may want to refer to the book again, and you will be able to find it much more easily if you have kept accurate bibliographical details. Second, if you are using your notes in the preparation of an assignment, you will need the details for your footnotes and references and you will need to make sure that you do not plagiarise.
If you are using index cards for your notes, put bibliographical information on one side and notes on the other. This allows you to sort references into alphabetical order easily when you are compiling a bibliography or set of references. Alternatively, as your computer skills develop, you may wish to commit your bibliographies to files, on a wordprocessor or a database. You will have more help with use of technology in later units in this module. Many CD ROM and World Wide Web (WWW) search facilities now exist which allow you to save reference material and abstracts from databases for example. However, be very careful of plagiarism if you use any of this material in your assignments.
You need to include the key idea, the author, date, title of book, city and publisher and page numbers if it is a book reference, and the title of the article, the journal, volume and issue numbers if it is an article. Also add in a reminder to yourself of where you located your reference, in a book you own, or borrowed from the library, for example.
Example of a working bibliography:
Format of business letters
Morgan, D H (1990) Effective Business Letters
London: Pitman
pages 45-65 (borrowed from David)
Format of business letters
Morgan, D H (1994) ‘Writing for success’,
Journal of Business Studies, vol. 3, issue (4), pp. 23-27
(College library)
Practise by noting the bibliographical details for any modules you are currently studying. Depending on your computer skills, you may wish to construct a bibliographic database on computer, initially, or at a later stage. See Unit 7 for help on this.
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This section is important. Please read it carefully.
Plagiarism is copying or imitating the language, ideas, thoughts, or writings of someone else and pretending that the work is your own. Lecturers and tutors find plagiarism easy to identify, either because they know the text or because of a difference in writing style. Plagiarism is theft of another’s work and is taken very seriously in academic circles. Check with your institution on what official action it will take in cases of plagiarism. But in any event, don’t. Plagiarising inadvertently is not an excuse. You must make sure that your notetaking and any copying of materials from your texts or reference works is properly identified as you do it, so that when you come back to the material for an assignment, you know whose material and ideas you are working with. You may forget and think they are yours!
Plagiarism is something you need to remember throughout your academic and business life. In business, if you try to pass off someone else’s ideas as your own in a report, for example, it may have serious legal implications.
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Here we give you a few ideas on how to prepare and present assignments. Hopefully, you will find this information useful for all modules with assignments. We suggest you skim this section in order to know what it contains. You should return to it and use it as a guide when you begin your first assignment.
Preparation
Check that you know all the following about the assignment:
- what the question means
- what the assignment requires you to do
- how many marks it is worth
- when it is due
- how long it should be
- how it will be assessed
- what your mark means.
What the question means
The following list contains the typical words you find in assignment questions. The explanation of their meaning will usually give you some ideas on how to structure your assignment.
Analyse - Means to find the main ideas and show how they are related and why they are important.
Comment on - Means to discuss, criticise, or explain its meaning as completely as possible.
Compare - Means to show both the similarities and differences.
Criticise - Means to give your judgement or reasoned opinion of something, showing its good and bad points. It is not necessary to attack it. Throughout your period of study you will need to refine your critical and evaluative skills. This will mean identifying good writing, balanced non-bias views and misleading unsupported comments.
Define - Means to give the formal meaning by distinguishing it from related terms. This is often a matter of giving a memorised definition.
Describe - Means to write a detailed account or verbal picture in a logical sequence or story form.
Diagram - Means to make a graph, chart, or drawing. Make sure you label it and add a brief explanation if it is needed.
Discuss - Means to describe, giving the details and explaining the arguments for and against it.
Enumerate - Means to list. Name and list the main ideas one by one. Number them.
Evaluate - Means to give your opinion or some expert’s opinion of the truth or importance of the concept. You should outline any advantages and disadvantages.
Illustrate - Means to explain or make it clear by concrete examples, comparisons, or analogies.
Interpret - Means to give the meaning, using examples and personal comments to make it clear
Justify - Means to give a statement of why you think it is so. Give reasons for your statement or conclusion.
List - Means to produce a numbered list of words, sentences, or comments. It means the same as enumerate.
Outline - Means to give a general summary. It should contain a series of main ideas supported by secondary ideas. Omit minor details. Show the organisation of the ideas.
Prove - Means to show by argument or logic that it is true. In mathematics and physics, the word ‘prove’ has a very specific meaning.
Relate - Means to show the connections between things, telling how one causes or is like another.
Review - Means to give a survey or summary in which you look at the important parts and criticise where needed.
State - Means to describe the main points in precise terms. Be formal. Use brief, clear sentences. Omit details and examples.
Summarise - Means to give a brief, condensed account of the main ideas. Omit details and examples.
Trace - Means to follow the progress or history of the subject.
(Study Skills Program - Student Counselling Service, Monash University)
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You may, or may not find some, none, or all the points pertinent. These are guidelines and not rules!!!
The opening paragraph should do a number of tasks: engage the reader (make him/her want to continue reading) and tell the reader what the essay will accomplish or contribute.
Any essay should open by "discovering the body"; that is, discovering whatever is consequentially troublesome and requires some kind of solution. A friend once described academic papers as being structured like detective stories. In the first paragraph the reader should "discover the body", just as a murder mystery typically begins with the discovery of a corpse. That sets up the plot of "solving" the murder.
A scholarly essay should also begin with the discovery something requiring explanation. The essay can only succeed to the extent that the reader is compelled to believe that discovery is troublesome, and that its explanation matters. The rest of the essay should move toward that explanation, which becomes complete just before the conclusion. The conclusion then provides an epilogue on what has been learned.
So ask yourselves as your reread your essays: Have I discovered the body? Is it clear to the reader what has to be explained, and why an explanation matters? Is it clear how the explanation progresses, and how it offers some enhanced understanding?
The most difficult part of writing may be learning to read what you have written as if you were someone else, remembering that this someone else does not know what you mean to express-and that you have to make this person care about what you're trying to say. Writing requires G.H. Mead's idea of taking the role of the other.
Writing begins in revision. The first draft is an opening offer; then you get to work.
As you edit, concentrate on continuity: does each sentence and each paragraph lead into the next, or does the reader have to ask why you are suddenly talking about this? Writing requires meeting a reader's expectations, but without becoming predictable and thus boring. Each paragraph should do what the reader expects, but do it in a way that is unexpected.
The old rule of "one idea, one paragraph" remains a reliable guide. In general, the first sentence states the idea of the paragraph. The next one or two (or three if necessary) sentences expand and refine this idea. The final sentence is a transition to the next paragraph. It puts the idea back in the context of the whole argument by suggesting what needs to be said next (maybe not explicitly, but enough for the reader to think "Of course!" at the start of the next paragraph).
Try not to write, "in my opinion." If what you are saying needs this qualification (i.e., disclaimer), you should do more research until you can present it as more than your own opinion. The point of the social sciences is to present arguments that are compelling because they are more than the "opinion" of the writer-that's science.
A conclusion should be more than a summary. The conclusion should notch up the importance of the argument, giving the reader perhaps the best reason why the essay matters. In a truly fine conclusion, the reader will realize that s/he could not have understood this final reason without having read the essay. The reader will feel surprised, yet the conclusion will make perfect sense. - A film critic once wrote that audiences will forgive anything during the movie's first 30 minute, but nothing in the last 30 seconds.
- Critically discuss......means?
- Read....
- Read with the question in mind......quotes???
- Plan......
- Write.....write....and write again.....
- References / scholarly work....
Some 'criteria' and 'characterizing traits' you might like to ask yourself. For example, have you understood the major theories Have you performed a detailed evaluation of strengths and weakness? Do you communicate all this, and your ideas very effectively? Have you shown critical awareness?
Always remember to reference the author if you use any direct quotes or ideas.
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Unless the question states it, there is no specific amount of words that need to be written for each question. What is always advisable for students, is that they should always aim to make at least one point per mark that is being awarded for the question. The mark allocation per question can normally be found on the right hand side of the question.
If you cannot make one point per question, then you should consider going into more depth per point you are making.
Copyright 2011 Stonebridge Associated Colleges