You get up, get prepared, come to college, find your exam room on the list and stand outside the room waiting to go in...
Once you're through the door and all settled down (with phone turned off and in your bag), you take a seat, grab a pen, look at the clock to see how close to 9am it is, and wait....
A person appears and places in front of you a Question Paper and an Insert...You look at them and know that the next 1 hour and 45 minutes are important and will be influential in your next steps...
You are allowed to start the exam...
and suddenly, it's at THIS point that students will immediately make a mistake that can let them down and hold them back with their marks....and it took less than a minute for it all to unfold...
The key is: IGNORE THE QUESTION PAPER FOR THE FIRST 15 MINUTES OF THE EXAM!
You should already know what's in it...We spend all year on it! There will be 5 questions, in a set order, with a set amount of marks, with a set amount of time you should spend on it, with a set way to answer it to achieve the marks you need to achieve to pass that question and move on to the next one.
The paper shouldn't be your area of focus. The unseen element of the exam should be - the insert.
Please read it. Take it in. If you finish reading it before 15 minutes are up, read it again. You will always absorb more on second reading and it's making sure you have understood what you have read that will ensure you are in a good position to start looking at the specific questions you have in front of you.
You are being examined on your reading skills. Take those 15 minutes to understand what you are being examined on. Read for 3 things: 1) an understanding of the story overall, 2) an understanding of the characters/narrators in detail (what do they feel, think, say, do?) 3) understanding of writer's methods of language and structural features.
As soon as you start putting pen to paper in the Question Paper, you are being marked. Don't start writing until you know what you want to say. ALWAYS re-read the source appropriately before you start to answer the 4 questions of the Reading section. Take your time, be confident, be clear and relevant in your writing up of your answers and make sure that you explain yourself fully by analysing WHY these things are happening and WHY you have chosen to comment on them.
Spend the first 15 minutes of the exam reading the stories, articles, letters, speeches you are given. Then, and only then, look more specifically at the questions (in order, 1 at a time) and answer it as we plan to do so all year long (Questions 2 and 3: x3 P.E.E.; Question 4s: x3 PE.T.E.Rs)
The quality of your reading will determine the quality of your writing of your answers in both papers. Take your time, understand fully what you have read and explain it clearly to the examiner in your answers, one at a time until you get to question 5...
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