Time's Up!

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"Okay guys, bags and books away. I don't want to see anything on your desk other than a pen and pencil."

Since I studied throughout the week and spent all day Sunday with my nose in my books, I wasn't too nervous about my Philosophy test (worth 30% of my mark, may I add!). Instead, I casually flipped over the test and took a look at the questions.

"This isn't too bad," I thought. "I remember studying all this."

However, what I didn't realize was how fast time flies when you're concentrating. As it turns out, I spent too much time focusing on the short answer questions and struggled to finish the essay questions on time. Although my teacher pre-warned us to "spend only a couple minutes" on each short answer question, I didn't feel I could do just that. Instead, I felt I had to throughly explain each of my answers and, for me, doing so meant writing a paragraph for each question. I failed to consider that the short answer questions were only worth 2 marks each and the essay questions were worth 10. Luckily, I finished in the knick of time. However, I felt I could have managed my time a lot better. So afterwards, I came up with strategies on how to prevent situations like this:

1) Read over the entire test before you begin. This will help you understand what types of questions you will be answering and which ones you should spend the most time on. Also, since you've taken a look at the questions, ideas/answers may pop into mind as you write the test.

2) Make notes on the side of each question. Not only will it help you remember what you want to say, it will also help you to organize your thoughts and come up with more ideas.

3) Move on. If you don't understand a question or just don't know the answer, skip it. Come back to it later when you have time, for the time you waste looking at a question you don't know the answer to could be time spent answering a question you do know.

If you'd like to read more about test-taking strategies, you can refer to the following Douglas College online handout: http://www.douglas.bc.ca/services/learning-centre/pdf/rs/RS7_31_Essay_Exam_Taking_Strategy.pdf

What test-taking strategies do you use?