Ace your upcoming end-of-year exams and improving performance by avoiding these common mistakes!
As the end of the academic year approaches for secondary and junior college (JC) students, the pressure of final exams looms large. Scoring well in these exams is pivotal for academic success, and the thought of that only adds to the pressure.
This becomes an issue when you realise that one crucial aspect of exam success is avoiding careless mistakes. So many points are given up due to reckless errors that could have been easily avoided!
Today, we’ll help by showing you how to avoid careless mistakes in exams. Being aware of common mistakes ahead of time can help you avoid them and do well in the assessments.
As the end of the academic year approaches for secondary and junior college (JC) students, the pressure of final exams looms large. Scoring well in these exams is pivotal for academic success, and the thought of that only adds to the pressure.
This becomes an issue when you realise that one crucial aspect of exam success is avoiding careless mistakes. So many points are given up due to reckless errors that could have been easily avoided!
Today, we’ll help by showing you how to avoid careless mistakes in exams. Being aware of common mistakes ahead of time can help you avoid them and do well in the assessments.
If there’s one thing we’d recommend first when it comes to how to avoid careless mistakes in exams, it’s to read carefully! So many students fail to do this that it’s woeful.
Read the instructions carefully at the beginning of the exam. If you can read them twice, all the better! This makes you less likely to overlook crucial parts.
When you rush through this, you’re more likely to end up with errors in how questions are answered or missing details in your answers. Think about what a shame that would be if you actually had the data in your head at the time!
If it helps you, you can try to underline key details in the instructions before you start answering. It’s also possible to ask your instructor for clarifications if you find something unclear.
Poor time management can result in not completing all sections or questions within the allotted time. Unfortunately, we see this a lot in students taking the end-of-year exams.
Arguably the most common problem is students spending too much time on one section and rushing through others. This is because students fail to prioritise by spending too much time on relatively low-value questions while not allocating enough time to higher-value questions that would actually yield more points for their score.
How do you avoid this? Allocate a specific amount of time for each question or section and stick to it. Prioritise higher-point questions first, and if you get stuck, move on and return later if time allows.
Of course, be sure that you don’t actually leave questions unanswered in the paper. This is another of the most common exam errors, after all!
Here’s another common error: when writing essays, students may rush and not allocate enough time for planning, organising, and revising their responses. As you may expect, this often leads to poorly structured and incomplete essays.
This isn’t actually difficult to avoid, though. First of all, do not rush. It may help to create a schedule for the work so you know what to do and when.
For instance, allocate specific chunks of time for planning, organising, writing, and revising your essay. In addition to that, create an outline before writing to ensure your essay is structured properly before you spend too much time polishing it.
It’s common for students to skip questions they don't immediately know the answer to. As long as you return to it to attempt to answer it later, that’s fine – but do you actually return to it?
Too many students forget to answer questions and leave them empty. This can mean missed points because even your weakest attempt may actually still hit on the answer. Remember that no answer guarantees zero points but even a guessed answer still has a chance to produce points!
Thus, our suggestion is to attempt each question when you run into it, even if you’re unsure. Mark it for review if you’re uncertain of your answer so that you can return to it later to see if you can come up with a better answer.
This way, you still have a chance to earn partial credit for some of those answers, even if you do end up lacking time to go back to those questions again at the end of the exam.
While we’re on the topic of reviewing your answers for the end-of-year exams, note that GCSE and A-level marking schemes generally include a few marks that can be allocated for good spelling and grammar. That’s why you need to at least do a spelling and grammar check!
Failing to review answers for errors in spelling, grammar, or calculation can result in avoidable point deductions. So, as much as possible, leave time to review your work and look for errors and areas that should be corrected.
Proofreading can sometimes mean the difference between full and partial marks, so don’t overlook the value of it at the end of your exam.
This should help you avoid the most common mistakes students make in the end-of-year exams. Of course, you still have to do revision, but that’s another thing entirely!
If you need help there as well as with your exam techniques, by the way, contact us. At Aspire Hub, you get the benefit of small class sizes, committed tutor-coaches, and literal years of experience helping students like you conquer their exams.
Reach out to us now if you want to work on your exam readiness and performance straightaway!
