The Exam expert interviewed

The Exam Blog is thrilled to interview William, the Exam Expert. As a Private Exam Centre we regularly give guidance on revision technique. It is almost as important as the facts themselves.

For the audio of the interview it has been included it in the below. It will also be published on the youtube channel. For more information about the Exam Expert do check out William’s blog.

Here are the notes from the podcast. While the video is below.

We discussed retrieval practice. Rather than forcing info into the brain which usually means passively taking notes and trying to push information into the brain. Perhaps you start with this. But you need to move on very quickly to retrieval techniques. You are not rereading! You are recalling the facts from cold. Using flash cards discussions debates summaries pass papers Mark yourself where you went wrong.

The challenge of getting retrieval practice adapted is that it does require quite a bit of effort to start off. Pupils can initially be put off by this. However, it will cut down the study hours. You get more bang for your buck with retrieval practice.

Spaced learning: Not just covering the topic in one go. Rather coming back over different days. Spreading the designated revision hour into different days. Not increasing the time merely spreading it out. Coming back over you are doing spaced learning and retrieval notice.

The combination of the two is the single most thing that cognitive physiology known to memorise.

The care of the detail will make is maximise

You need to plan the week When are you doing your final prep and work back.

Avoid last minute crunches

Spending time planning where you are spend your time. So much to be gained from sensible order. Tackling the Exam:

Every section of an exam need to be prioritised. Get your thoughts down for the big questions early on the exam, while you are fresh.

By the time you get the last big question you already have a solid plan. You may add more to this plan as you get to the long final questions. Hard to give a formula for each different paper But there are a set of rules to come up with your own game plan.

Start with the chunky longer questions Then tackle the easier one/

The Mindset does have a place to play. Get your wind in your sails. Tackle the question you find the easiest at the beginning. What ever the strategy that fits, having an exam strategy is a great start.

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Extra discussion:

Exams are a motivator look at the year 11s now. The willingness of year 11s to engage with academia has now fallen off a cliff .Now they are faced with a world of learning for learning sake. It doesn’t work not having exams, though we havent yet found another way

Exams are a great leveller. An idea exam looks like that everyone has a fair chance. Exam boards have worked hard to design a system that in their design isn’t discriminatory and as accessible as possible.

How much space to give a certain answer, too much space they need to waffle and junk. Modern scripts now have implicate lines as extra. And more…