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Understanding Assignment and Exam Questions-1

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Writing & Maths, Stats English It

Study Skills Study Skills & numeracy language skills

and Access Unit

Section 6: Assignments, Revision & Exams

Understanding Assignment & Exam Questions

Many students rush into researching and writing their essay or begin writing in
an exam without properly understanding the title or question first. Sometimes
the question can be more complex than it seems and it is worth spending some
time unpicking the real meaning behind it before you do anything else.

Analysing the question

The first stage of writing an assignment or answering an exam question involves


looking closely at the instructions and working out what has to be done in order
to complete the task.

Breaking down the question for understanding

Every assignment or exam question is a problem waiting to be solved. You must


first understand the exact nature of that problem, which means understanding —
or decoding — the question.

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Firstly, you should read through the question and underline any key words:
words which provide you with the information that you need in order to proceed
with the task.

In the following example the key words and phrases have been highlighted in
bold:

With the decoding of the human genome, many scientists


thought our potential health risks would be identifiable
through a simple blood test. In reality, however, it may not be
that simple. Discuss the value of case-history taking in the
diagnosis of medical conditions.

Bear in mind that many assignments and exam questions may not be phrased
like a conventional question. They might appear more like statements or a set of
instructions and be quite long. Be sure to read over everything carefully as
instructions may be ‘hidden’ within statements.

In the case of assignments, it is also a good idea to check over the course aims
and objectives, learning outcomes and marking criteria, which should have been
included in your course information. These may help you understand what you
are expected to demonstrate in your assignment and provide clues about what
you need to cover.

Question / ‘instruction’ words

Once you have identified the key words in a title, you need to understand what
they are telling you to do. The first key word to focus on is the instruction
word. Instruction words tell you how to approach the topic.

Here are some instruction words that frequently appear in essay titles, along
with their definitions (for more examples, see Cottrell, 2003):

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Analyse: Break down the subject into its constituent parts and explain the
relationships between the parts (not just the ‘what’ and the ‘where’
but also the ‘how’ and the ‘why’).

Assess: Consider the value or importance of something after looking at the


arguments for and against.

Compare: Identify the characteristics or qualities two or more things have in


common (probably pointing out their differences as well).

Contrast: Point out the differences between two or more things (probably
point out their similarities as well).

Describe: Give a full account of something. Spell out the main aspects of an
idea or topic, or the sequence in which a series of things happened.

Discuss: Write about the most important aspects of something (probably


including criticism); give arguments for and against; consider the
implications of something.

Evaluate: Consider the value, importance or usefulness of something, paying


due attention to positive, negative and disputable aspects, and
citing expert evidence as well as giving your own views.

Assignment and exam questions also contain other important key words that
may indicate:
- The subject matter of your essay
- The focus of the analysis (i.e. what you’re trying to discover about the
subject)
- Any limiting factors you need to take into account (e.g. dates, historical
periods, particular events etc.)

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Look at the example below to see how you can break down a title to make it
more manageable:

[Reproduced from Jeanne Holloway’s The Learning Kit by permission of Connect Publications]

The next stage is to write out the question in your own words to make sure
you really understand what you are being asked to do.

You may also want to consider your own gut feelings about the issues the title
raises. Where do you stand on the question of the influence technology has on
our lives? More specifically — do you think developments in technology over the
last hundred years have made life too easy?

Next steps

You can then break down the decoding process into a list of things you need to
do in order to answer the question.

For example:
- I need to… explain the word ‘technology’.

- I need to… decide what the phrase ‘too easy’ means here.

- I need to… identify a number of key developments in technology over the


past hundred years and explain how they have affected our lives.

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- I need to… work out the arguments for and against the view I’ve been asked
to ‘assess’.

- I need to… reach my own decision on the comparative merits of these


arguments.
(Holloway 1999)

You can then use these prompts to help get you started on an assignment or
exam question. In the case of an assignment, a list like this might guide your
search for information and sources in the library (see our resource Getting
Started on Assignments). If you are sitting an exam, a list could help prompt
recall of the information you need to answer the exam question.

As an alternative to creating a list of the things you need to do to tackle the


assignment or exam question you could mind-map the question. This would
involve putting the topic of the assignment or exam question in the centre of a
piece of paper and then around it writing down the aspects of the question you
need to address in order to answer the question fully. If you prefer mind-
mapping to lists, this is an easy way to make sure you maintain an overview of
the question, as well as providing a ‘reminder’ list of what you have to cover.

Below is an example of mind-mapping the question we’ve been analysing. The


student has put the requirements of the assignment in blue. At the same time
he has brainstormed some ideas to guide his research and coloured them yellow.

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Check as you go

When researching a new topic, you may find you need to make changes to the
direction of your argument as you find more information. This is fine as long as
you keep referring back to the assignment or exam question from time to time
to make sure you haven’t wondered off topic.
When it comes to writing up the assignment or exam answer, structuring your
writing in advance can help keep you on track and make sure you answer the
question fully.

Produced by Robert Gordon University: Study Skills & Access Unit 6

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