Getting better marks in an examination
Understanding how examinations work
The aim of this page is to help you get higher marks in an
examination.
You will still need to learn the subject material and apply that knowledge
in the examination.
This is not a set of model answers or a magic fix that gets extra
marks, but if you read this page and apply what it says you will improve your
chance of getting a good grade.
The page is written with the UK examination system in mind,
especially the IGCSE ICT specification, but much of the information applies to
other subjects and other levels of examination as well. So if you are taking
GCSEs, O' Levels, A' Levels or anything else that has a written examination,
you may find this page useful.
How to work through the examination paper
Mainly for the IGCSE ICT but this applies to other examinations as
well
First go through and answer all the stuff that you know straight
away.
Then go through again to answer stuff you need to think about, or
where you need to analyse some information or do a calculation.
Finally go through and do your best on whatever is left.
That way you will maximise your chance of getting marks on
questions that you can answer, rather than waste time worrying about ones you
are stuck on.
With multiple choice, if there are ones that you cannot answer
have a look at how many As, Bs, Cs and Ds there are on the ones that you can.
The spread is usually fairly even, so if there is a shortage of one, guess that
if you don't know.
Finally, the paper gets harder from beginning to end, so if time
is short, concentrate on earlier questions. Also, each question starts easy and
gets harder, so again, concentrate on the first parts. That way you are more
likely to pick up the simple marks rather than spend time on the hard stuff.
All the marks have the same value.
For the practical examination, I would be surprised if there were
no questions on databasesand spreadsheets. These are regarded as
being the more difficult packages to work with and are useful for setting
questions for the higher grades, so practice producing database searches and
reports, and spreadsheet formulae.
You should also practice taking screen captures, putting images into documents and
printing. All these will be needed to produce evidence of your work and you
will have more time for the actual questions if you can perform the tasks
easily
Multiple choice section
Section A
In the multiple choice section, questions increase in difficulty.
There are 16 questions in the section and 8 grades, so in theory the first two
questions are aimed at grade G, the next two at F and so on.
Actually, although the person writing the questions aims for that
gradual increase in difficulty, it may not work out that way for the students
sitting the examination. It may be that a G student will be able to answer an E
question but not the G ones, or a C student can answer an A question but not
the D ones. A lot depends on which bits of the subject they can remember, or
read about the previous day. So, even if you are stuck on some of the early
questions, don't give up, you may find that the later ones are on topics that
you are good at.
Written answer questions
Section B
The questions in section B increase in difficulty through the
paper. They also increase in difficulty through each question. This is known as
sawtooth ramping and is illustrated by the picture.
Ideally then, the first question will start with G marks and then
get harder until the last bit of the first question is a C mark.
The next question then starts with F marks and gets harder up to a
B mark.
As with the multiple choice questions, what really happens is that
some of the weaker students are still able to answer higher graded questions,
and some of the better students still make mistakes on the easy stuff.
What the sawtooth ramping means for someone answering the
questions is that they should concentrate their efforts on getting the easy
marks first. For a student worried about getting a C grade or above, they
should aim to answer all of the first question, most of the second, the first
half of the third and so on. If they can do that, it won't matter so much if
they don't have time to complete the last question.
All marks are worth the same amount. The first G mark on the first
question is worth just as much as the last A* mark on the last question.
Students who want an A* will of course still need to answer everything.
The extended writing question
Assessing quality of written communication
These are marked on what is known as ‘indicative content' That
means that the mark scheme doesn't have fixed marking points that you have to
get right. Instead, there are a larger number of points which might get mentioned.
The list of points is not closed, you can score marks for other sensible and
relevant text.
The markers are looking for a reasoned argument about the topic.
The clues should be in the question. e.g. if it asks for a discussion on
the benefits and drawbacks of different types of social media. It
means that to get full marks, you would need to discuss:
·
more than one type of
social media
·
more than one benefit of
each
·
more than one drawback of
each
In addition, the discussion would need to be a discussion,
preferably making comparisons, not a load of bullet points.
Having said that, markers are quite aware of how much time there
is for writing the answer, so you should be able to get full marks with
somewhere around three quarters of a page of writing. Provided of course that
it makes sense.
As well as looking at the content, the markers must also assess
how well the answer is written.
They will be looking for:
1. good spelling, punctuation
and grammar.
2. appropriate use of
technical terms
Don't get too concerned about this. A well balanced but badly
spelled and ungrammatical discussion of the topic set will still score more
than a correctly spelled and grammatically perfect load of waffle.
How not to get better marks
What not to write
If your answer to a question consists of any of these, you are not
going to get a mark for it.
1. It's easier / faster /
simpler / cheaper / safer. Do not use these words, or similar ones, without
explaining why something is easier etc.
2. The stem of the question
(that's the bit of text setting the scene that comes before the actual
question), either as it stands, or rewritten in your own words. There are never
any marks for repeating the stem back to the examiner. It is also a waste of
your time to rewrite the question itself.
3. Bits of another question,
or stem. Examiners take a lot of trouble to avoid writing questions where the
question, or stem, is the answer to another question.
4. Obscure names for bits
of hardware or software. Markers
are often instructed to allow really well known trade names as answers. e,g,
Skype instead of VoIP communication system, Firefox instead of browser
software, Excel instead of a spreadsheet. BUT, (a) they may be told to mark
such answers as wrong and (b) they will certainly not look up or give marks for
names that are not internationally established trade names.
5. Waffle. Don't fill up the
available space with rambling sentences that include every buzzword that you
can think of that has anything to do with the topic of the question. It annoys
markers who have to waste their time trying to make sense of it, and it wastes your
time in writing it.
6. The answer to the question
that you wanted but which wasn't asked. OK, you spent valuable revision time
memorising answers to common questions, and then those horrible examiners asked
something else. That's tough, but you have to answer the question that is
asked. A perfect, correct answer to a different question is not worth any
marks.
The practical examination
Each of the questions in the practical examination should have
marks to cover all of the grades. However, different students are good at using
different types of software, so the difficulty really depends on your ability
with each package.
Each question will still start off easy and get harder.
I would be surprised if there were no questions on databases and spreadsheets. These are regarded as
being the more difficult packages to work with and are useful for setting
questions for the higher grades, so practice producing database searches and
reports, and spreadsheet formulae.
The markers only see what you produce as a printout, so you should
also practice taking screen captures, putting images into documents and
printing. All these will be needed to produce evidence of your work and you
will have more time for the actual questions if you can perform the tasks
easily.
And don't forget to label all of your printouts and put them in
the correct order when you hand them in. You could lose marks if you don't do
that.
Labelling your work
This section deals with the labelling of work for practical
examinations and coursework.
The IGCSE ICT has a practical examination rather than coursework,
but the same advice applies in both cases.
The instructions at the beginning of the 4IT0 practical paper
state.
Label your printouts clearly as instructed in each task
And
For all tasks, you MUST enter the task number, your name, candidate
number and centre
number BEFORE PRINTING.
There are two main reasons for this.
1. Packs of papers have been known to arrive at the marker's house
with a label saying that the packet was damaged in transit / was opened by
customs. There have been times when what arrived at my house looked like it had
been shuffled. If the individual sheets had not been labelled it would have
been very difficult to work out which ones were from which student.
2. It reduces the amount of cheating, or at least makes it a bit
harder for the students. There have been occasions, particularly in coursework,
when it was obvious that one student's work was simply a duplicate printout of
someone else's. Having to put individual details on each sheet BEFORE PRINTING.
makes it harder for students to do that. It also makes it much easier for
examination centres to spot that the wrong student is picking up a printout.
Sometimes the instructions on an individual question will be more
specific, i.e. enter details in a header. This may be a separate marking point.
i.e. for being able to create / use a header. It may also be to stop
you from putting the details in the wrong place. e.g. if the question asks for
a screen capture to be put into a word processed document as an image. The
examiner may not want the student's details to be part of the image, so the
document header is specified instead.
So what happens if the details are missing?
That depends on the specification and instructions to markers.
If it's a big piece of coursework and just the odd page is missing
it's details, markers will usually be able to ignore it. Especially if it's on
a diagram page or some other item that wasn't part of the main, word processed
document.
If it's an examination, like 4IT0 / 02, you will almost certainly
lose marks.
Remember that someone has to mark it all
Well almost all, the multiple choice part of the examination can
be marked by machine.
For anything that will be marked on-line, that's paper 1 of the
IGCSE ICT and many other papers as well, it is essential that you:
·
use BLACK ink. The papers
are scanned and then the markers see them on a computer screen. If you write in
anything except black, the writing may not be legible, or even visible.
·
DO NOT USE pencil, coloured
pencil, gel pens. Even if these are black, they may not be visible to the
scanner.
·
keep within the space
given. The other bits of the paper are not shown to the markers, so they don't
see anything you may have written there. If you have to use extra space, make
sure that you say so in the space you were supposed to use. The marker can then
flag the script to be looked at to find the answer. If you write the extra text
on an extra sheet and attach it to your written paper, it will be picked out
during the scanning process and marked as a complete paper by a single marker.
·
write legibly. For the same
reason as the black ink, if your writing is very small or very untidy, it may
be unreadable when scanned.
What will be in the next paper
If you're wanting to find out what the actual questions are going
to be, this isn't going to be much help.
The paper's content is only known to a small number of people, and
they are unlikely to tell you.
If you just want to know what topics are likely to turn up, then
there ways to find out. It will involve a bit of work and a supply of previous
papers.
Firstly, you can simply work your way through every past paper,
and mark scheme, that has been written. This will certainly help you to learn
about the subject, and you should be able to spot which items turn up most
frequently.
The problem with the IGCSE ICT is that, for the 2014, there are
only three past papers and one exemplar paper, so this method is of limited
use. If you're a teacher, preparing for the long term, start keeping track of
questions now. If you're a student, then you're out of luck.
The second method is more broad, it only gives Learning Objectives
(LOs), not specific topics.
It involves knowing just one piece of information. All LOs must be
examined within a certain number of examinations. i.e. the person writing the
examination has to include a question on each LO at some point.
The number of examinations varies from course to course, some have
more LOs than others. But it is always true that the longer it has been since
an LO has been examined, the more likely it is to turn up next time.
Conversely, if an LO was examined last time it is less likely to
turn up next time. So don't prepare for last year's exam, it won't be that
helpful.
Of course, there are still going to be some LOs that will turn up
in just about every examination. e.g. systems, networks, hardware and software. That's
because it's difficult to write an ICT question scenario that doesn't involve
at least one of those.
How the marking is done
Pearson, and most other examining boards use four types /
categories of marking.
1. Computer marked. These can be with an optical mark reader,
sometimes an optical character reader, and is
the method used for most multiple choice examinations.
2. Clerical. This is for questions where there is only one, or
possibly a very short list, of correct answers. e.g. a 4IT0 multiple choice
question can only have one correct answer. This type of marking does not
require the marker to know anything about the subject, so markers can work on a
several different examinations.
3. Some subject knowledge required. This is for questions where
there is some freedom in how the student may express an answer. e.g. stating
three Internet services. The
mark scheme will have a list of services, but the student will probably not not
have them in the same order and may use slightly different words to describe a
service. The marker needs to be familiar with the subject so that they can
recognise acceptable answers.
4. Expert subject knowledge required. This is for anything that
does not fall into the previous categories. The markers will have a good
knowledge of the subject and will often be, or have been, an examination
writer.
How examinations are written
and why they are nearly always correct
In the UK, examination writing must comply with a code of conduct
agreed between the examination boards and the government.
This means that every paper goes through a similar set of stages
and checks before it ends up in front of you at the examination.
There are hundreds of different papers produced every year, each
involving a team of people who write, review, check, discuss and argue about
the content until they all agree. Amazingly, and despite what some news media
like to claim, this process works and there are very few mistakes in the
published papers. Of course, if an error does make it through, it becomes
national news, which in a way shows how rarely it happens.
So, if you think there is a mistake in a question when you are
doing the exam, it is quite likely that you have misread or misunderstood
something. In any event, try not to get worried by it. If it is still possible
to answer the question, do so. If there really is a mistake, it will be allowed
for when the papers are marked.
If you think that the mistake makes it impossible to answer, leave
the question and carry on with the rest. If there really is a mistake, it will
be allowed for when the papers are marked. If there isn't a mistake, you
couldn't get the right answer anyway, so you may as well use the time on other
questions.
How grades are awarded
Whether you pass or fail an examination, and what grade you get,
is decided by an Awarding Committee. The people on the committee will look at
examples of scripts with different marks and make a judgement as to what grade
they are worth.
The decision will also be influenced by a statistical analysis of
the marks and comparison with similar papers from previous examinations.
Only a selection of scripts will be seen, and not all grade
boundaries will be looked at, some will be decided mathematically based on
those that are.
Is it worth appealing a poor grade
If you don't get the grade you wanted, is it worth appealing?
There are two common types of appeal, clerical and re-mark.
The clerical appeal just
asks for the marks to be checked for accuracy in adding them up, the re-mark
involves a senior marker, usually the person who wrote the examination,
re-marking the script.
Markers do make mistakes, they can miss out questions when adding
up or just get their sums wrong. However, an increasing number of papers are
now marked on-line, with the marks being collected and added automatically by
the computer system. This includes the IGCSE ICT paper 1.
If you take an examination that is marked on-line, a clerical
check would be a waste of money.
Other papers are still marked by hand though, including the IGCSE
ICT paper 2. With these papers, if you think your marks are a long way out, a
clerical check may be worth while.
A complete re-mark can
be done on both on-line and hand marked papers, but is it worth it?
You must remember that marks can go down as well as up during a
re-mark.
If your mark is just below a grade boundary, it may only take an
extra one or two marks to go up a grade. But, the same applies to going down a
grade if you are just above a boundary.
I won't try to claim that markers don't make mistakes, we're human
so of course we do, but there is a lot of double checking of marking. I've
carried out hundreds of re-marks over the years and not many scripts have
gained enough marks to improve the grade.
Of course, ICT is a fairly objective subject. Questions usually
have a limited selection of correct answers. This makes it easier for markers
to get things right themselves. Other subjects are more subjective, with
correctness being more a matter of opinion. e.g. a painting in an art exam may
appeal to one marker more than it does to another. I'm sure that there are ways
of dealing with that sort of thing but I don't know enough about it to comment.
You passed! Now what?
Further ICT qualifications
Under the UK qualifications system, an IGCSE pass is either level
1 or level 2.
Level 1 is for pass grades D to G, Level 2 is for A* to C.
If you want to make a career in ICT and / or take further courses,
you really need to get the Level 2.
Once you have your grade A* to C, you can look to take further
Level 2 courses or move on to Level 3.
Level 3 could be e.g. GCE A' Level, the International
Baccalaureate (IB), Business and Technology Education Council (BTECs) Level 3,
or National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) Level 3.
Level 2 could be e.g. other IGCSEs / GCSEs with an ICT content,
BTEC Level 2, or NVQ Level 2.
The GCE A' Level / IB route is more commonly used by those
students who are aiming for a university place. The BTEC / NVQ route is more
commonly used by students who want a more practical based course leading to
professional ICT qualifications.
There are relatively few GCE A' Level / IB courses available,
essentially one per examinations board. They tend to be theory based, with some
practical, and they cover a broad range of ICT topics. There is no follow-on
course.
Experience has shown that students who get C grade at IGCSE
usually struggle to do well at A' Level.
There are probably a hundred or so BTEC / NVQ courses but you will
need to take several of them to get the equivalent of an A' Level. They tend to
be practical based with some theory and each one covers a fairly limited set of
skills. There are follow-on BTECs and NVQs that will take you all the way up to
a degree level qualification, although these tend to be highly specialised and
are often taken as part of career progression once you have started employment.
Even if you get an A* at IGCSE, you may still need to start BTECs
/ NVQs at Level 2, depending on what you wish to specialise in.
FAQs
questions from the guestbook that may be of interest to others
1. Q. Should you first see the question number and then judge for
what candidate grade the question had been set. This is very useful in any
edexcel exams. If the question had been set for a E candidate I normally expect
to write simpler answers - no need much brainstorming.
A. That is certainly a possibility, but bear in mind that F and G
questions will often be 'closed'. e.g. they involve ticking boxes, joining
terms to definitions with lines. Not much brainstorming required.
2. Q. If a question asks us to write ONE reason can we write two
CORRECT ones and get full marks? And if one is IGNORABLE and the other one
CORRECT can we get fullmarks?
A. Depends on the mark scheme and advice to markers.
In general, you are better off giving the correct number of
answers in the right place.
If you give extra answers for a question, if the extra ones are
ignorable, i.e. correct but not what was asked for, they will be ignored. The
risk is that one of the extra answers is just wrong. In which case, depending
on marking advice, the wrong answer may be marked first, or the first answer(s)
only may be looked at. It is very unlikely that markers will simply try and
pick correct answers out of a load of extra ones.
3. Q. If they ask us TWO reasons - will we get fullmarks if
we write two reasons in one and a NEUTRAL one in our second answer?
A. This depends on how the markers see the answers. With on-line
marking, it is possible that each part of the answer will be seen by a
different marker. In which case, in the scenario you have given, you would only
get one mark. If one marker sees both parts, then they may be allowed to give
both marks, depending on marker advice for this sort of situation. It's a bit
like Q2, giving three answers for a two answer question.
4. Q.Today was the first day of the practical exam window. Has
anyone done the exam? What came?
A. That sort of question is against the examination regulations.
It's OK to:
speculate about questions before the exam window opens
discuss the paper after the exam window closes
discuss previous papers / example questions
discuss material officially sent out as pre-release information.
It's NOT OK to discuss live papers until after the exam window
closes.
Lots of students do discuss live papers, that's one of the
problems with having an examination window. BUT, the examining boards know
about that and they keep an eye on what is being discussed in student forums
and similar sites. Action has been taken against students in the past.
5. Q.How I can get an offline version of these notes! possibly a
pdf with all notes?
A. Sorry, you can't. The ebook contains lots of pages which have
literally hundreds of internal and external hyperlinks. The only way it works
is on a web site. There's also the problem of new versions. I'm in the process
of updating all the notes, adding extra material, and extra links. I suspect
that I'll need to do it again later this year in order to keep things up to
date. And finally, visits to, and searches for a page raises it's status on
search engines. That makes it easier for others to find, and therefore more
useful.
6. Q. I've got large handwriting and sometimes even messy
handwriting with nasty cancellations. Now, my friends say that because of my
handwriting I won't get the grades I deserve. The examiners will either not
read my work or will just give a random mark and not what I actually deserve.
If one has poor handwriting then how does the examiner deal with it?
A. There are several points here.
Firstly, cancellations / crossing out answers. If you have
replaced crossed out work with another answer, that is what will be marked. If
you have not replaced the crossed out work, the marker will try to read it and
award marks if they are there.
Secondly, large handwriting. The only problem with that is if the
writing goes out of the allotted space. See point 3 of Remember that someone
has to mark it all.
Thirdly, messy handwriting. If it's legible it will be marked. If
it's not legible it will be flagged for review, which means that a senior
examiner will look at it. They will have access to the complete paper and thus
may be able to pick up clues as to what a squiggle means from what has been written
for other, more legible, answers. If the answer is still illegible, it scores
no marks.
7. Q. Could you please give a good model answer of a 6 mark
question. Like they may give a 6 mark question on let's say 'discuss the
effects of ict on organizations'. So we are supposed to give points for pros
and cons and now a conclusion. What should I write for the conclusion?
A. The extended writing question is discussed further up this lens
at The extended writing question.
Model answers are not really much use for extended writing
questions because:
(a) the question is always set in a specific context. You will not
get into the higher mark bands if your answer does not match that context and a
model answer is unlikely to do so.
(b) examining boards use anti-plagiarism software and markers tend
to notice when the same answer turns up repeatedly. If by chance you do happen
to have a model answer that does match the context, it is likely that other
people have it as well and it may trigger an enquiry
(c) conclusions for extended writing questions need to address
specific point(s) from the question. A model answer, even in the right context,
is unlikely to do so.
Finally (d), if I write a model answer here, it is likely to turn
up in several answer papers and will probably be spotted.
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