5 Surviving Written Exams

Dianne Prost O'Leary
©1996,1999,2009,2016
Last modified October 12, 2016.

Many departments use a written exam as a major component of the graduate degree requirements. Typically, the exam covers three areas of your major in depth equivalent to one or two graduate level courses plus their prerequisites. Sometimes, though, the purpose is to ensure breadth at an undergraduate level, and the exam might cover the content of perhaps 5 undergraduate courses. Less commonly, there may be a ``practical'' component to the exam, requiring you to write a program or solve an applied problem within a specified time limit.

Whatever the level of the exam, there are some features that distinguish it from exams within courses:

• It is a one-time event. Thus, there is no chance to adapt to the style of your examiners' questions and grading idiosyncrasies.

• Ideally, the exam tests whether you have assimilated the material in a way that draws connections among courses. Thus, reasonable questions include all those that might be asked in a course exam, plus ``metaquestions'' that draw on the knowledge of several courses at once.

5.1 Preparing for a Written Exam

Here are some suggestions on preparation:

• Make a study plan. Know when and how you are are going to master each component.

• Most students find a study group to be helpful. It keeps studying a top priority, since you are responsible to the group to present certain material or discuss your answers to certain study questions. It gives you access to other people's problem solving skills, and a lot can be learned from that! Group members have a sense of working toward a common goal, and can support each other to combat the isolation and panic that single studiers can experience. Beware of groups that spend more time in socializing than in work, and groups in which the members come unprepared, but in general, the group is a useful tool.

• Even if you belong to a group, realize that preparation for the exam will require a significant investment of your solitary time. You need to prepare for the group session, and do extra work in the areas you find hardest.

• Don't just read the textbooks passively. Take notes! Try to explain the material to an imaginary audience! Look at the examples in the text but then close the book and try to work through them before you check how the author did them. Work problems in the backs of the chapters. Work problems from old exams. If you cannot work a problem, seek help from more advanced students or a professor. If you find a problem hard but doable, go back and rework it in a couple of weeks to make sure you have mastered it. Finally, have a set of notes of facts and formulas that require memorization, and spend the last few days mastering them.

• Some schools have open book exams. Don't mistake this for a chance not to study. Many students spend 90% of their time in an open book exam leafing through the textbooks, not a good recipe for success. Have your material organized so that you can find any fact you might need. If possible, have 6-8 pages of notes with all of the facts and formulas you think you might need. Study just as hard as for a closed book exam; the only step that you can skip is the final memorizing of facts and formulas.

• Pace your study so that you have adequate time for the other demands in your life. Start early enough so that your job, family, course work, recreation, etc. still fit. Don't let yourself get exhausted from worry or work. An exam can change the course of your life, but it can't ruin it.

5.2 In the Exam

Follow the common sense rules that have gotten you through other exams:

• Come well prepared, with a good night's sleep, writing implements and scratch paper, a watch, and, if permitted, notes and books and a snack.

• Read all of the questions before you begin, and try to allocate your time.

• Do the easy problems first, trying to pick up fast points.

• Don't be discouraged by what you don't know; concentrate on what you do know and what you can derive.

• Make your answers well organized and legible; this will make your grader much more relaxed in reading your work.

• If time permits, check your work.

• If you believe that a question covers material not on the syllabus, note this on your answer sheet, but still try to answer the question.

5.3 After the Exam

If you fail the exam, make an honest assessment of your weak areas and prepare to try again!

Most departments have procedures for appealing the results of an exam. If you believe that your exam has been graded incorrectly, compose a thoughtful, concise, and non-belligerent summary of what you believe the error to be. Don't ``nickel and dime'' the graders, disputing every point. Concentrate on errors that you can document in textbooks or by other objective means.