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Exam Techniques

Exam technics

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10 views

Exam Techniques

Exam technics

Uploaded by

bernardmatlhare20
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to pass

Effective study
Study the whole syllabus
You need to be comfortable with all areas of the syllabus, as questions in the Objective Test exam
will cover all syllabus areas. Wider reading will help you understand the main risks businesses
face, which will be particularly useful in the Case Study exam.

Lots of question practice


You can develop application skills by attempting the Test Your Learning questions at the end of
each chapter. While these might not be in the format that you will experience in your exam, doing
the full question will enable you to answer the exam questions. These have been designed to test
as much breadth and depth of your knowledge as possible – they don’t follow the exam format
but will leave you well prepared to tackle any exam question on the topic. For example, you will
only be able to answer a question on an element of an interest rate swap calculation if you know
how to do the full calculation. When preparing for your exam you should practice exam standard
questions, which you will find in the BPP Exam Practice Kit, your recommended accompanying
study support to this Course Book.

Good exam technique


The best approach to the computer-based assessment (CBA)
You’re not likely to have a great deal of spare time during the CBA itself, so you must make sure
you don’t waste a single minute.
You should:
(a) Click ‘Next’ for any that have long scenarios or are very complex and return to these later
(b) When you reach the 60th question, use the Review Screen to return to any questions you
skipped past or any you flagged for review
Here’s how the tools in the exam will help you to do this in a controlled and efficient way.
The ‘Next’ button
What does it do? This will move you on to the next question whether or not you have completed
the one you are on.
When should I use it? Use this to move through the exam on your first pass through if you
encounter a question that you suspect is going to take you a long time to answer. The Review
Screen (see below) will help you to return to these questions later in the exam.
The ‘Flag for Review’ button
What does it do? This button will turn the icon yellow and when you reach the end of the exam
questions you will be told that you have flagged specific questions for review. If the exam time
runs out before you have reviewed any flagged questions, they will be submitted as they are.
When should I use it? Use this when you’ve answered a question but you’re not completely
comfortable with your answer. If there is time left at the end, you can quickly come back via the
Review Screen (see below), but if time runs out at least it will submit your current answer. Do not
use the Flag for Review button too often or you will end up with too long a list to review at the end.
Important note –studies have shown that you are usually best to stick with your first instincts!
The Review Screen
What does it do? This screen appears after you click ‘Next’ on the 60th question. It shows you any
incomplete questions and any you have flagged for review. It allows you to jump back to specific
questions or work through all your incomplete questions or work through all your flagged for
review questions.
When should I use it? As soon as you’ve completed your first run through the exam and reached
the 60th question. The very first thing to do is to work through all your incomplete questions as
they will all be marked as incorrect if you don’t submit an answer for these in the remaining time.
Importantly, this will also help to pick up any questions you thought you’d completed but didn’t

xvi Financial Reporting


answer properly (eg you only picked two answer options in a multi-response question that
required three answers to be selected). After you’ve submitted answers for all your incomplete
questions you should use the Review Screen to work through all the questions you flagged for
review.

The different Objective Test question types


Passing your CBA is all about demonstrating your understanding of the technical syllabus
content. You will find this easier to do if you are comfortable with the different types of Objective
Test questions that you will encounter in the CBA, especially if you have a practised approach to
each one.
You will find yourself continuously practising these styles of questions throughout your Objective
Test programme. This way you will check and reinforce your technical knowledge at the same
time as becoming more and more comfortable with your approach to each style of question.
Multiple choice
Standard multiple choice items provide four options. One option is correct and the other three are
incorrect. Incorrect options will be plausible, so you should expect to have to use detailed,
syllabus-specific knowledge to identify the correct answer rather than relying on common sense.
Multiple response
A multiple response item is the same as a multiple choice question, except more than one
response is required. You will normally (but not always) be told how many options you need to
select.
Drag and drop
Drag and drop questions require you to drag a ‘token’ onto a pre-defined area. These tokens can
be images or text. This type of question is effective at testing the order of events, labelling a
diagram or linking events to outcomes.
Gap fill
Gap fill (or ‘fill in the blank’) questions require you to type a short numerical response. You should
carefully follow the instructions in the question in terms of how to type your answer – eg the
correct number of decimal places.
Hot spot
These questions require you to identify an area or location on an image by clicking on it. This is
commonly used to identify a specific point on a graph or diagram.

A final word on time management


Time does funny things in an exam!
Scientific studies have shown that humans have great difficulty in judging how much time has
passed if they are concentrating fully on a challenging task (which your CBA should be!).
You can try this for yourself. Have a go at, say, five questions for your paper, and notice what
time you start at. As soon as you finish the last question try to estimate how long it took you and
then compare to your watch. The majority of us tend to underestimate how quickly time passes
and this can cost you dearly in a full exam if you don’t take steps to keep track of time.
So, the key thing here is to set yourself sensible milestones, and then get into the habit of
regularly checking how you are doing against them:
• You need to develop an internal warning system – ‘I’ve now spent more than three minutes on
this one calculation – this is too long and I need to move on!’ (less for a narrative question!)
• Keep your milestones in mind (eg approximately 30 questions done after 45 mins). If you are a
distance from where you should be then adjust your pace accordingly. This usually means
speeding up but can mean slowing down a bit if needs be, as you may be rushing when you
don’t need to and increasing the risk of making silly mistakes.
A full exam will be a mix of questions you find harder and those you find easier, and in the real
CBA the order is randomised, so you could get a string of difficult questions right at the beginning
of your exam. Do not be put off by this – they should be balanced later by a series of questions
you find easier.

Introduction xvii

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