Acing an Exam with Extra Time: My Success Story

[Alkatran]

When you have extra time on an exam?

My itenary goes something along the lines of:

Do exam (mark questions down and skip if questions are allowed and the question isn't worth 50% of the exam)
Ask all questions at once
Finish exam
Review exam
Estimate Mark

woohoo, 93.6666~ on economics!

 

[kalladin]

I have a bad habit of checking over my exam. Especially in multiple choice exams! I tend to check over the exam, find some "mistakes" and "correct" them. When I get the exam back, it's usually the "corrected" answers that I get wrong, and my initial instincts were right. I also estimate my marks :P

 

[Smurf]

I try not to estimate my marks, waste of time. But I do it anyways.

 

[mattmns]

If it is a math test (non multiple choice) then I am cocky and I will just turn it in.

If it is a multiple choice test I usually run through and make sure I did not mark in any of the wrong bubbles.

To discuss the actual exam: I often start at the back and work my way forward (depending on the course) Also I skip any question that I am not immediately sure of how to solve, or what the answer is.

 

[ramollari]

Exams are serious stuff, so I always write ahead of time to leave some minutes in the end to make sure that I didn't skip anything or made any serious mistake.

 

[cronxeh]

If I have extra time on an engineering exam, I know I made a mistake somewhere

 

[Bladibla]

I go to sleep.

 

[Gokul43201]

I go to sleep.

I do this at the start of the exam. Why wait ?

 

[matthyaouw]

If i reach the end, and there are no parts that I've missed and decided to go back to later, I'll carefully re read the questions and answers, checking for mistakes, inconsistencies, or areas where i can elaborate. I'll do that a few times, until I'm finally satisfied, and then I'll sit and worry about why on Earth I have time to spare...

 

[Bladibla]

I do this at the start of the exam. Why wait ?

Then you must be superbright to know all the mathematics you know without tests..

Although, then again, test has absolute no indication of actual mathematical (or scientific) ability of the chosen pupil.

 

[BobG]

If i reach the end, and there are no parts that I've missed and decided to go back to later, I'll carefully re read the questions and answers, checking for mistakes, inconsistencies, or areas where i can elaborate. I'll do that a few times, until I'm finally satisfied, and then I'll sit and worry about why on Earth I have time to spare...

I always double checked my answers and, preferably, solved the problem using a different method the second time (it's hard to forget what I did the first time and I get locked into doing the same thing, again). I'm notorious for dropping a negative sign here and there (you would think you could actually break a habit like that). Re-reading the questions is always a good idea. Misreading the question isn't a mistake I made very often, but some of the dumbest answers I ever came up with ...

By the way, that idea that you're more likely to change a correct answer to a wrong answer than vice versa and that that is significant is a myth. You're more likely to miss a question that you changed the answer on, since it's more likely you're not very sure about that topic.

The rest is just probability. You only have one right answer and probably about 3 wrong answers. The most likely situation is to change a wrong answer to a different wrong answer. If you chose a wrong answer in the first place and change your answer, you only have a 1 in 3 chance of changing it to the right answer. If you chose the right answer (25% chance) and change it, you have a 100% chance of changing to the wrong answer.

Of course, the normal situation is that you've narrowed the choices down to two, in which case, it should be 50/50 whether you change your answer or not. If it's one of the first questions on the test, you're probably more likely to change from wrong to correct than vice versa. Now that your mind is "in the groove", your second instinct is probably better than the instinct you had while you were still trying to shake off your initial nervousness about the test, etc.

The first promotion test I had to take in the Air Force, I just went blank. There's a lot of pressure on these since it's a competitive test instead of just pass/fail. It's not the only criteria: your test scores are added to other things, like how long you've been in the military, how long you've held your current rank, how many medals you've won (getting a Purple Heart actually earns you points towards promotion, not that losing a leg is the preferred way to earn points), but you only get one chance a year and, at least your first couple of times, it's the only chance you have to make up points on the folks who've been in the military longer. I read the first question and thought "Well, I guess there's just as good of chance of putting the hardest question #1 as anywhere else; read the second "Darn, two hard ones in a row"; read the third "Hoh boy, this is a tough test"; read the fourth "Agh, I may as well accept it, no one gets promoted first time around anyway"; read the fifth "Jeez, I'm going to be that guy everybody makes fun of for scoring 19 on a 100 question multiple choice test" (I knew someone who did that, but he also once stapled his genitals to his chair, with a heavy duty upholstery stapler, no less, so we had better things to make fun of him for). Eventually, I did get in a groove (sometimes, accepting failure just removes all the pressure), so when I finished, I just covered my answer sheet with my scratch paper, started over, and did about the first 30 questions over again. I wound up changing 7 of the first 10 and 10 of the first 15 - and wound up doing good enough to be the last selectee for promotion.

 

[matthyaouw]

(I knew someone who did that, but he also once stapled his genitals to his chair, with a heavy duty upholstery stapler, no less, so we had better things to make fun of him for).

How on Earth did he manage that?

 

[Moonbear]

I used to first quickly look back through to make sure I didn't miss any questions. Then I'd go back to the problems that I had the most difficulty with and double check those answers, hope for divine inspiration, decide there was no God, then move on to checking the easy questions for careless mistakes. Once that was done, I just handed the exam in and left. If I sat around getting bored, I'd start to overthink the easier questions and stress myself out for nothing.

 

[BobG]

How on Earth did he manage that?

You really need to ask? He scored 19 on a 100 question multiple choice test where random chance should get you a 25.

Actually, that's what happens when you think you can get away with doing your second job during the hours you're supposed to be doing your primary job. He configured our ground system for us via a computer terminal, so he usually had a few breaks. Work on his upholstery for awhile ... "Oh, you need me to swap you over to the other string? Sure, just a sec." ... sets stapler down in his lap and reaches over ... just a little stretch more to reach the keyboard ... KACHUNG!

He also once had his car spontaneously combust in the parking lot, which trashed the interior, but still left the car in running condition ... unfortunately for him. He later fell asleep driving home after a night shift and rolled it. His wife left him, but finally offered to move back home if her boyfriend could move in, too (since she left him with the kids, he actually considered it for a few days before declining.) You name it, it could happen to him. He scored a 19 on a 100 question multiple choice test, for crying out loud.

 

[Gokul43201]

Maybe he was brilliant and got bored after trying the first 19 problems ... and decided to fall asleep !

 

[Ba]

I usually start to doodle, if it's not a long test it ususally ends up with a many pictures as words.