Thursday, June 23, 2011

Exam Pointers

XY's mid-year exam results are all back except for Art. I'm really satisfied with her results. I try not to make a big deal out of the marks (of coz the higher the better hehehe) but more on how she fared in the subjects. I'm very happy that she showed improvement in terms of careless mistakes. A good gauge is the Maths papers. For Paper 2 (subjective paper), she made 1 mistake and lost marks for 2 questions because she didn't show the complete workings. Definitely a big improvement. And that's truly rewarding for her "tutor". *big smile*

Everyday during the exam, I had to keep reminding her about the pointers we've discussed. Well, I'm no expert, just helping her to score better. :p Do share with us your exam pointers too. Some pointers that I drill into her :
* read the questions carefully.
* check back all your answers after you've finished the paper, as many times as time permits. Or at least 2 rounds.
* in Maths, use different calculations for checking. For example, if the question is an addition, take the answer to do subtraction for checking.
* for fill-in-the-blanks or matching questions, fill/match the answers that you are very sure of first. If you're lucky, whatever's left is the answer for the question you've left out. If there are more than 1, no choice but to make the best guess. :-)
* check your spelling. Although you choose the right answer, you may/will not get any marks for spelling it wrongly.
* check the back of the paper. Some are printed on both sides. Don't miss out any questions.
* for Maths, show the workings (how you get the answer). Otherwise, even though you get the right answer, you won't get full marks for that question. This was how she lost some marks. (Refer to picture below.) That was really tricky. So after this "lesson", I told her to show ALL the workings in future tests/exams, to be on the safe side.

~ so tricky, got the right answer, but no full marks ~

17 comments:

chinnee said...

macam we do exam like that hor...hehehe...

Mumsgather said...

I have some to add:
1. Read EVERY part of the exam paper. They are there for a reason. (My girl did not read some parts at the top of the question and she got the whole section wrong because she misinterprated the subsequent questions as a result of not reading)
2. If need to transfer answers to an answer sheet, make sure you transfer it correctly (My girl got all the questions correct in the question paper but she transferred quite a lot of answers wrongly in the answer sheet!)
3. Don't spend too much time on questions you do not know. Move on and come back to them later but remember to come back to them!
4. Try to answer every question. If don't know, just guess. At least still got chance of having marks rather than a zero.

Otherwise, I think you've got most of them covered. :)

Oliveoylz said...

The first thing I always ask him to do after he completes the exam paper is to go through every single page and make sure he has answered every single question. There was once upon a time, during a science exam, he discovered that he had ommitted doing a whole page which would have cost him 22 marks! Thank goodness he checked!!! It's quite common to hear kids in Std 1 and even Std 2 not answering questions. Carelessness is expected. They're still little kids, afterall...That's why, I always emphasise on "checking".

chanelwong said...

Well done girl...
Thanks mummy for sharing the tips...

Anggie's Journal said...

well done to jie jie ..
& well done to mummy too ....
Haloo.. next time can i send my boys to ur house ar for revision ??? lol ... u give tuition can ar ?? hihihi

LittleLamb said...

Very good tutor over here.

Sigh...i start to worry for P now.. Will I have the patience?

Alice Law said...

Wait a sec... let me recall... did we hv division and complicated comprehension math Question at her age?!! She has done well, nxt round I'm sure she can score better after digesting mama's advise!;D

Have a great weekend my friend!

Cynthia said...

I remembered during my school days, all subjective questions in math sure need to show the progress of getting the answer.. up till SPM! My aunt is a math teacher, and she marked SPM papers, and from then we know we must do the workings..

XY has done well, just need more reminder on those... gambateh!

Merryn said...

until today I dun read instructions.. lol.. i coach my students yet I dont read instructions.. how?

MeRy said...

well done...

Wyson said...

good job, XY, but next time have to be more careful when answering Maths Q..
I also agreed with Anggie, next time can i send my 2 boys over to ur place for tuition??? kekeke

Health Freak Mommy said...

I always tell Alycia that for questions that she find it hard to solve, leave that first and go on to the rest. Come back to the difficult ones later but don't miss them out. You're a very good tutor :)

slavemom said...

Chin Nee, ya lor, nowadays parents r more stressed compared to the kid when the kid's having exam. :)

mumsgather, thx for the tips!

Olive, must chk, must chk, must chk, rmbr to chk. We're like a broken record hor. hehehe

Chanel & MeRy, thx!

Anggie & Ivy, I worry after 1 day, they dun want to come anymore. This aunty so fierce one. hahaha

LittleLamb, to be honest, I'm not patient at all. I pity my kids coz I scream n shout at them when doing revision/homework. But I try to minimise that coz it's really not helpful at all. It'll oni make them more blur.

Alice, I thot we oni did multiple choice questions in primary sch. It's def much tougher now.

Cynthia, hope she rmbrs from now on.

Merryn, how? Deduct ur marks loh. hahaha

HFM, the prob is to rmbr to go back to do it. That's y hv to emphasise on checking, checking and checking.

Nina @ BabyBoon said...

gosh exams are so nervewrecking for me.not when i'm doing it coz i have no problems when i'm sitting for it, but the thought of my children having exams is making me feel faint!! how??

p/s: xy did so good la!

Mummy Gwen said...

Actually I wanna thank you for the pointers. ^_^ The exam look susah lor..

jacss said...

i can imagine how the tutor beamed in cloud 9 lor...
yeah, u shd consider giving tuition since u got so much time goyang kaki at home, hai mai???

andrewjune said...

good job on the tutor and XY *grin*