Exam-taking tips

[amylqf]

As the SA2 is coming, I read some material that can help my child in preparing and taking the exam. Below are my notes, hope other parents and students can benefit from it too.


Before exam:
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Get Organized:
-organized your study place.
-Mark your calendar on the exam date, so that you can have enough time to prepare for the exam. Don’t wait for the last minutes before exam.

During exam:
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Attempt Questions:
-Pay attention to the instruction of what you are asking to do.
-Avoid careless mistake, write neatly.
-Answer the easiest questions first. Make a mark on the difficult question that reminds yourself to come back later.

Time management:
-Use time wisely. Check your pace. Speed up the pace if you can, but don’t rush.
Accurate is better than fast

Check work:
-Check with before hand it in. Makes sure all the questions has completed.
-Only change the answer when you have good reason to do so as your first answer is usually the best.

After Exam:
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- Learn from the mistake.
study the exam paper to see what kinds of mistake you were making (careless, don’t know, etc), correct the mistake.
- Revise, revise, revise.
Don’t throw all the things that you learn back to teacher.
Revise frequently.

[amylqf]

How to answer exam questions?

There are usually 5 type of Questions in written exam:

1. Multiple Choice
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- Read question carefully, don’t look at answer 1st to see if you know the answer to the question.
- Use elimination techniques
- Look at all choices before making decision

2. True/False
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- Watch out for Extreme words and qualifying words

Extreme words:
always, never, best, worst, everybody, no one, etc…
If you can think of anything that is against the statement, the statement is false.
e.g. The paper is always white. (true/false)
false. as brown paper is not white.

Qualifying words (more chance to have true statement)
usually, sometimes, most, few, probably, unlikely, etc…

- watch out for negative words.
e.g. 2 negative = possitive
not uncommon=common

3. Matching
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- attempt the easy match 1st.

4. Fill in the Blank
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- Trust your instinct.
- look for clue/keywords
e.g. an_____, a noun behind ‘an’ should start with vowel.
- Fill in the choice words in blank one by one and read to see which one make sense.

5. Essay/composition
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- Brainstorming
- Organize
- Introduction
- supporting idea
- conclusion
- proofreading (check spelling, grammar, etc)

For Oral Exam:
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- Stand straight
- Greet the teacher, using loud and clear voice.
- keep eye contact
- For picture show and tell, describe:
1. When, where
2. Who are on the picture?
3. What are they doing, what happened?
4. How do you feel? or conclusion.

[amylqf]

Exam tips in reading comprehension/spelling/math:


1.Reading Comprehension
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-Prediction
Before reading, ask yourself
"who or what the passage is about?"
"where does it take place?"

- Reading the question before reading passage.
Knowing what you are looking for, will help you read with more understanding

- Make a mental picture
while you read, make a mental picture of story.

- Underline key words


2. Spelling
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-write the words with picture beside them.
Make up the story or relation
e.g. Friend (friday is the end of the week and that’s when I meet my friend)
- use phonics

3. Math
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- estimation for verifying:
Estimation will help you verify that the real answer is in the right direction. e.g 38+51=? round up to 40+50=90
–always show the detail work beside the question.
even if the answer is wrong,the teacher will give some credit for the correct method that you use.