Pass notes for the modern age: Back to good old-fashioned revision
Exams have gone all 21st century, with e-marking and motivational podcasts to put students in the right frame of mind. But there's still no substitute for good old-fashioned revision
By Steve McCormack
Published: 17 May 2007
This week marks the start of public exams for more than a million scared teenagers. Like their parents and grandparents before them, they will file into a school hall or gym, sit down at a single desk, and, pen in hand, wait for the clock to start ticking.
Alongside this tradition, however, there is much about the system that would have been unrecognisable even 10 years ago, let alone 50. The most obvious example is how the papers are marked. In what amounts to a largely unnoticed revolution, all exam boards have now embraced e-marking. This will eventually end the annual logistical nightmare of the marking process, which sees millions of exam papers criss-crossing the country in bundles en route for markers' homes. Instead, the papers are scanned, page by page, into a central computer, to be marked by examiners sitting at computers in their homes or schools, or even on a Wi-Fi-friendly laptop.
Leading the way is Edexcel, one of the biggest boards, which plans to e-mark 86 per cent of its 4.5 million GCSE, AS and A-level papers, up from 70 per cent last year. The other two main boards, AQA and OCR, are also forging ahead and plan to use the same method for 30 and 20 per cent of their papers respectively, representing 3.5 million scripts in total.
And this is happening with the full blessing of the Government's exam watchdog, the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA), which sees two main advantages to the electronic system, along with organisational efficiency. First, it enables scripts, in cases of doubt or borderline decisions, to be seen and marked easily by two examiners; second, it improves the final process of adding up total marks for each student. This is now done by the computer, rather than by human eye and brain: never an infallible system.
And there are also ways that electronic advances can help students. The QCA website (www.qca.org.uk) has an Exams Doctor to answer e-mailed questions on how to approach GCSEs or A-levels, or how to tackle particular types of revision task. Behind the electronic mask is George Turnbull, who should know what he's talking about, having worked for several different exam boards over the last 30 years.
Even more in tune with the teenage world are the podcasts launched by Edexcel last week. The board has linked up with Michael Heppell, a motivational speaker and author of successful books aimed at the business world. He has recorded a series of 18 exam success talks, now downloadable from a section of the Edexcel website (www.examzone.co.uk)), which enable students to deploy those ever-present MP3 players as part of their preparation. Each talk has a different theme, including advice on how to remember and recall facts, and how to get in the right emotional frame of mind for exams.
"A lot of the tools and techniques that I use for FTSE 100 companies can be applied with the same success rates for 16-year-olds taking their GCSEs," explains Heppell.
Two of the downloads are specifically aimed at those nervous minutes before students file into the exam hall. One, with an uplifting soundtrack, encourages the listener to adopt a positive body posture with controlled breathing, while focusing on what he or she can do, and does remember. The other, much quieter, helps the listener to unwind and calm down if panic is beginning to set in.
Edexcel's new measures are not all designed to make life easier for students sitting exams. The board is also introducing a tagging system to crack down on cheating. It plans to tag each bag of exam papers with a radio-controlled device to record the number of papers in the bag and detect whether anyone has attempted to open it. Other deterrents include the writing of "Edexcel" in microtext on individual papers to show if papers have been photocopied before the exam, as they can fetch up to £200 on the black market.
But, however much you harness new technology, preparing for exams remains a human experience, approached by individuals in different ways. There is no magic formula that will work for everyone. In fact, large numbers of teenagers, when urged by parents or teachers to get on with their revision, haven't got a clear idea what that really means. The most important process for each student is often the discovery of a method of learning and remembering that works for them. Armed with that knowledge, time can be spent constructively, rather than just gazing blankly at books.
There is no point, either, spending time trying to learn something that you don't really understand, and here it is important not to forget the teachers. Just because formal timetabled lessons might have been suspended during the exam period, it doesn't mean teachers are unavailable to help. As long as you don't approach a teacher five minutes before the exam itself, he or she will usually be keen to clear up any grey areas in your mind. And five minutes' explanation from a teacher can be worth countless hours of lone pursuit.
These days most teenagers face three years of public exams, so there's plenty of scope for them to learn from experience.
Martha Nicholson, 17, from London, took nine GCSEs last year, getting six As and three Bs. Now she is preparing for six exams, across five AS level subjects, and drawing extensively on what she learnt last year.
"They were a frantic blur and a tiring experience, and I would often end each day with a terrible headache," she remembers. "But in the end, I definitely got used to the procedure of concentrating solidly for several hours."
In the build-up period, she found going over previous exam papers the best way to revise, concentrating particularly on practising the structure of essay answers, and certainly not just copying out work previously done in class.
"Mindlessly writing out tons of notes as if it's somehow going to be transmitted into your head was completely useless for me. Anyone can copy from a page. You've got to be more proactive," she says.
She also remembers the benefits of getting together with friends, suggesting parents shouldn't assume teenagers will get most done alone upstairs in a bedroom.
"Discussing and revising in a really focused group of friends was awesome. We bounced ideas off each other, as we'd all concentrated on slightly different stuff."
Martha also learnt from her mistakes about the value of a good night's sleep.
"I stayed up late on the phone talking with friends before the Spanish exam, and in the morning was in such a daze I couldn't concentrate. What a terrible exam. This year I'm going to make sure I get at least nine hours' sleep throughout the exam period."
She also warns against too much contact with friends in the hour or so before an exam.
"Before the history exam, I remember losing confidence, and getting more nervous, being among friends who were freaking out and desperately asking each other if they remembered the date of the Munich putsch!"
But Martha's final piece of advice, resulting from an exam brainstorming session with a few friends last week, is less directly linked to the academic side of exams.
"Don't wear low-cut jeans or trousers in the exam hall, because then the person behind gets the distracting pleasure of your derrière for two hours. Lovely!"
www.qca.org.uk;www.examzone.co.uk
Stay healthy and alert
Find out what revision method works for you, and devise a timetable to take you through the whole exam period.
Answer plenty of past papers, listening to feedback from teachers, and concentrating on your weaker areas.
Build in regular periods of exercise and relaxation and eat and sleep well.
Make sure you have all the equipment you need well in advance, including a transparent pencil-case to take into the exam hall. Check your calculator.
On the exam morning, stay calm and allow plenty of time to get to school or college.
When you're in the exam hall, write down as soon as possible any formulae, dates or quotes you've been trying to remember on the back of the paper.
Take time to read the paper carefully before starting, and check you're answering the questions, and not just writing what you know.
And for parents:
Get hold of a copy of the exam timetable, and subtly ensure your son or daughter is in the right place and the right time.
Try to create the conditions that best suit your child's preferred working pattern.
Understand that regular short or medium bursts of quality working may be far more effective than marathon revision sessions.
Provide plenty of good food and drink, particularly on exam mornings.
Don't pile on the pressure. Favour encouragement over nagging, and remember that exam grades are not everything.
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