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Examiners' Tips

How To Study

  1. Make sure you can do what the syllabus requires
    For example the Area of Study requires you to show that you
    • understand the events, people, ideas and societies portrayed in the texts (eg.What are the different ways belonging is represented in your texts?)
    • recognise the assumptions underlying the representations of the idea of Belonging (eg. is Belonging considered something desirable? Under what conditions? When might it be undersirable?)
    • think about the ways you see the world through texts (eg. What techniques are used to represent the events, people, attitudes, ideas etc. in the text. Do you always believe what you read? What makes you trust the view presented in a text? How do the different texts you have studied enable you to perceive more detailed, complex (even contradictory?) views of Belonging?
    • have used the texts you have studied to think about your own personal experiences of (feelings of) belonging and (feelings of) exclusion.
  2. Identify the main ideas and be able to express these succinctly and in sophisticated language.
    • Go to the description of your elective (rubric) and use the requirements and as headings for your ideas. You will also need to do this with each text you intend to refer to in the examination. This is a very important step as it is the elegance of your synthesis that will enable you to cover a large number of ideas in the limited time you have.
    • Summarise your ideas using examples from the texts you have studied. The most compact way is through a table. You should use this activitity to build up the vocabulary you will need for the examination as you don't really have too much time to think about your expression.
    • Illustrate all your points with a reference to the text or a quotation. The most efficient way of doing this with verbal texts is to embed the quotation in the point you are making. This not only saves time but also means that you don't have to think of synonyms, the writer/ speaker is doing your thinking for you.

Read our Examination Techniques