1. Helen Williams hxw813@bham.ac.uk
EDACS
Academic Writing Advisory Service
Exam Skills
Helen Williams 1

2. What the session will cover
Revision techniques and tips
Ways of testing your knowledge
Exam tactics
Planning your answer
Answering questions effectively
Using quotations/critics

3. Revision Techniques (1)
Explain to the person next to you what you have been revising so far, and how you’ve gone about it…
Have you been selective in what you’ve chosen to revise? How have you decided this?
Have you tried to revise everything?
How have you divided your time up?
Have you been organised and efficient in terms of what / how / when you’ve revised?

4. Revision Techniques (2)
Re-read all your notes from lecture – refresh your memory of everything
Re-write your notes (doing lots of writing will help you in the exam)
Decide what you want (or need) to concentrate on – this may require some thought / tactics
One you have narrowed your focus slightly, make sure you revise your chosen topics very thoroughly, and see if you can adapt them to a range of answers

5. Revision Techniques (3)
Select a few quotations that are particularly useful for the topics you are revising
Write them out and stick them up around your
house / bedroom etc
Make sure you try to include them (where relevant) when writing practice answers – practice will make perfect

6. Ways of testing your knowledge
Describe what you know to someone else
Brainstorm / list everything you know or could write about on a certain topic
Use past exam papers and write out answers
Again.
And again.

7. Using past exam papers
This is an excellent way of (a) really testing what you know and (b) learning it
Begin by writing out plans for answers – build up to answering a full question
Replicate the exam situation – time yourself, do it in a quiet room etc.
Keep doing it until you have practised how to respond to the types of questions (unseen analysis / discursive essay / multiple choice) which are likely to come up, and have a range of topics about which you can write confidently

8. Exam tactics
Make sure you are familiar with the exam structure beforehand, know what information you will be provided with
Read through all the questions
Play to your strengths if you have to answer two or more questions
Think about how to divide up your time equally. (Two questions over three hours? Equally weighted? Etc.)
Give yourself enough time to write a conclusion

9. Planning your answer (1)
Using the question you have brought with you, write out a mock plan as you might do in the exam

10. Planning your answer (2)
Always make sure you are addressing the main points of the question – underline key phrases if it helps
Also make sure you are addressing all that the question asks of you, but be specific
Plan to paint a picture, not a wall 

11. Planning your answer (3)
Always plan your answer before answering a discursive question
Devise some sort of system which enables you to brainstorm your ideas and put them in order
For unseen analysis questions, make sure you spend a decent amount of time analysing the text and then plan the main points of your answer

12. Answering questions effectively
This should come more easily with a good plan
Make sure you write an introduction – but keep it quite short as you need to start writing
Easy way in is to re-iterate the question if you are really struggling to get going
Make sure there is some sort of progression of argument in your answer – signpost this

13. Using quotations – texts/critics/theories…
Easier if you have memorised these (or chunks of them) if you can’t take texts in with you
Good to use as a ‘shortcut’
Show off what you know – engage with the material that you have studied
Be selective about when / how you use them – make sure they are doing some kind of ‘work’

14. Further help
If you would like one-to-one advice about exam skills, you can book an appointment through the Academic Writing Advisory Service (AWAS) website:
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… Questions? 