Exam success in the age of Covid

Success at Exams has always been down to two constituent parts:

1. How much do you know?

2. How well can you communicate?

Everything is down to these two questions. They govern the end game of the school process and the answers to these questions are the most valuable answers that are taken away from school. I want to speak generally about how to approach success at school and examinations - regardless of the eventual format of the assessment - who knows what 2021 will bring.

First the questions – what do they mean?

1. How much do you know?

This is a simple enough question to ask, but not to answer? We all know a great deal. The capital of France, the atomic number of zinc, the last lines of the Lord of the Rings. We need to put this question in context.

How much do you know of what you are supposed to know?

In other words, how much of your subject knowledge have you managed to acquire? Each exam, each subject will have a general syllabus that will list a certain amount of knowledge. This material could be expressed in a number of ways. Possibly a list of key questions, areas o a subject that are to be understood or even lists of facts. For example an English syllabus would have a list of books and key questions about those books.

This is then the basics of what you should know.

However it does not end there. Just because you understand the highway code, there is still a lot to learn before you can drive a car with confidence. The syllabus will provide the starting point to any subject. There is a lot more to the subject and this will form part of the preparation for any exam. Information and knowledge should be regarded like ammunition. Each fact or figure, each equation or quote is a bullet with which a question on a paper can be slain. The more that a student has, the better.

So the question will always be answered in degrees. You can never know enough, however you can know enough to comfortably pass an A level exam. This knowledge comes in two parts. The basic knowledge required and the extra knowledge needed.  

2. How well can you communicate?

Each exam will require a degree of written or verbal communication. You are marked as much on what you know as how you put it across. It is all very well being brilliant at French, but if you have the accent and pronunciation of a yak, things will not go very well. Communication is the key.

Communication comes in two key phases. 

The first is the command of the language that you are writing in. When we say language I mean the language specific to that subject. So in an English exam it would be the English language, French, for French, Spanish for Spanish etc. The sciences are a different matter. They will use both the English language and mathematics. Both of these languages need to be mastered for success.

But this is only the beginning. For each subject there will specific vocabulary and concepts used. So an answer for an English paper would contain words specific to that subject such as ‘tone’ or ‘stanza’, just as history would reference things like ‘source analysis’ and Business studies ‘marketing’ and ‘profit’. These are simple examples but should make the point that there is a language for each subject. 

The second phase is the manner of communication. While command of the requisite language is important, its application to the tasks in exam questions is equally so. Without answering in the right way the student will fail to hit the often rigid mark schemes. Each subject will have its own idiosyncrasies and quirks in this matter. The student’s vigilance against linguistic traps in the questions is his or her best defence. Preparation for exams usually includes masses of tests in the weeks before. This is to test knowledge, but also to test that the students can answer questions in the right way. Both are important as each other. Knowledge and communication: both need to be mastered if the exams (in whatever form they come in during the age of Covid) are to be passed. 

Good luck this year to everyone taking exams and the teachers helping you through them.