03 Major Exam Mistakes

In this article, I am going to help you with three common mistakes that people typically make during examinations, as well as the things you need to do to avoid making those same mistakes. My name is Sreevidhya Santhosh, and I provide unbiased guidance when it comes to higher education, premium institutes, entrance examinations, and more.

Keep an eye on how many marks have been allotted for each question:

As you know, not all questions in your question paper carry the same marks. Therefore, what is the point of providing ten different points for a two-mark question on a single page? It is unnecessary, isn't it? That is where you waste your time. You may know the answer to a question, but it may only be relevant for a month or two. However, you might still have a tendency to write down everything you know on the answer sheet. But writing more than required will not help you score more marks. If the answer carries only two marks, even if you write more than two pages, your invigilator cannot give you more than two marks. Therefore, it's important to understand that you may waste a lot of time answering things that you know but are not of use. The first common mistake that everybody makes while writing an examination is answering a question without always looking at the marks. It's important to keep an eye on how many marks have been allotted for each question. If it has only got two marks, you need not write more than four points in that answer. That is how you need to calculate. If this calculation is done correctly at the end of the examination, you will not come out of the exam hall and say that you did not have enough time to answer all the questions. So please have a look on the marks.

What are 'and' and 'or'?

The second common mistake that everybody makes is not reading the question paper carefully. If you don't read it attentively, you may miss important information such as and/or etc. What are 'and' and 'or'? There will likely be one question set where you must answer all the questions given. Some questions will be 'and' questions, requiring you to answer all of them, while others will be 'or' questions, allowing you to choose just one out of a few options. You will probably encounter three 'or' questions. Instead of reading it carefully, you might think that you have to answer all the questions under a certain category. As a result, you might end up answering all three questions and lose time unnecessarily. So, despite the pressure that may arise while writing your answers, it's important to carefully read the question paper.

The Importance of Good Handwriting in Public Examinations:

In this day and age, when we rely on computers even for writing our projects, we seldom use pens for anything. For most children, the 3-hour exam is the only time they write continuously for such a long duration. Apart from school or tuition, where they may write for a maximum of 45 minutes, they rarely have such opportunities. No, since they don't have this practice, the handwriting would be a mess. However, even with all the technology that has been introduced, public examinations still require handwritten answers. This is because the examination is not just objective, but also subjective. You have to write down so many things and the answers that you write, those will be read by a third party, not the teachers that are teaching you on a daily basis. It would be read by someone in another part of the country, so they don't know you. Even if you know the subject well and have written your answer with accuracy, do you think the person reading it will have the mindset to read it carefully and understand it? Just because you have written all the points, it does not mean that the person will give you a good mark. If your handwriting is messy, everything will be a mess. Therefore, you should be careful about your handwriting. If your handwriting is bad, please practice it properly. If your answer paper is not neat, don't expect the invigilator to give you high marks because the invigilator is also human. When they read the answer sheet, if they feel like they cannot understand it because of the way you've written it, you will lose a lot of marks.