Exam / revision techniques

Hi Joanne,

I think my original posting on this thread still holds good.

A variation on the theme of answering question after question is the "fish" technique for Section A questions. If you've not used it before this involves writing your introduction in full, then the content of the main body of your answer in bullets, and then the recommendations and justifications in full. This way you should be able to do a full case study in about half an hour, or you use the full hour to look up as much as you need to to support your answer, in terms of academic and case study research. You'll get through more questions this way, but don't forget to do full answers nearer the exams because you'll need the practice of writing long hand for the full hour (two preferably to do a full paper) to get your writing muscles used to it. I don't know where we'd be without MS Word, but it is a devil for making us wimps about writing!

I am frustrated that tutors are not providing their students with a basic toolkit of study techniques to facilitate their own learning, but then I guess tutors can only do so much.

Look at the CIPD revision guide and download all the old papers you can get from the website.

The finally piece of advice I would give, to supplement my previous posting, would be to start revising! Empty page syndrome leeches time from you, so it almost doesn't matter where you start, just as long as you do. Pick the oldest exam paper on the website, and try to do that. Set aside half an hour every evening of "dead" time and just do questions, or review your answers from the previous day, but whatever you do, just do it. You should be able to do two Section B questions in 15 minutes by the exam, so try doing 2 in 30 minutes to start with to make sure you get enough content in. Most people have an odd half an hour in their day of spare time, or could make it if they needed to - whether that is the "Coronation Street" slot, or getting into work half an hour early, or staying half an hour late, so you're still in a work frame of mind should be easy enough to accomodate for the sake of 3 months.

Good luck,

Claire

Hi Joanne,

I think my original posting on this thread still holds good.

A variation on the theme of answering question after question is the "fish" technique for Section A questions. If you've not used it before this involves writing your introduction in full, then the content of the main body of your answer in bullets, and then the recommendations and justifications in full. This way you should be able to do a full case study in about half an hour, or you use the full hour to look up as much as you need to to support your answer, in terms of academic and case study research. You'll get through more questions this way, but don't forget to do full answers nearer the exams because you'll need the practice of writing long hand for the full hour (two preferably to do a full paper) to get your writing muscles used to it. I don't know where we'd be without MS Word, but it is a devil for making us wimps about writing!

I am frustrated that tutors are not providing their students with a basic toolkit of study techniques to facilitate their own learning, but then I guess tutors can only do so much.

Look at the CIPD revision guide and download all the old papers you can get from the website.

The finally piece of advice I would give, to supplement my previous posting, would be to start revising! Empty page syndrome leeches time from you, so it almost doesn't matter where you start, just as long as you do. Pick the oldest exam paper on the website, and try to do that. Set aside half an hour every evening of "dead" time and just do questions, or review your answers from the previous day, but whatever you do, just do it. You should be able to do two Section B questions in 15 minutes by the exam, so try doing 2 in 30 minutes to start with to make sure you get enough content in. Most people have an odd half an hour in their day of spare time, or could make it if they needed to - whether that is the "Coronation Street" slot, or getting into work half an hour early, or staying half an hour late, so you're still in a work frame of mind should be easy enough to accomodate for the sake of 3 months.

Good luck,

Claire