tips for short answer exams? (1 Viewer)

[luminescence]

hello everyone, i have an upcoming english exam (its tmw), but it's a format that i'm not very familiar with.
does anyone have tips for short answer exams? i've only ever done imaginative or essays before.

for context, my current unit is about poetry, and the eras it could come from are:
medieval, renaissance (unlikely), romantic, victorian, modernist, and post-modern australian poetry (unlikely).
we are allowed 45 minutes, roughly 2-3 unseen poems, and will have to answer ~5 questions.

any advice is appreciated. thank you all in advance <3

 

[Study to success]

for short answer, make sure u get straight to the point and answer the question directly, from the first sentence. Don't waffle too much and don't overwrite it, cause writing an excessive amount won't get u extra marks. The lines should determine how much to write.

Depending on how many marks each question is, I usually times the amount by 2 so for a 3 marker I would spent 6 mins, etc. But since ur in year 10 u can probably give urself a bit more time, but also having some buffer time can be useful if u have to read over a text a bit more.

Also know ur techniques and make sure u have specific evidence and quotes throughout ur answers

 

[gammahydroxybutyrate]

hello everyone, i have an upcoming english exam (its tmw), but it's a format that i'm not very familiar with.
does anyone have tips for short answer exams? i've only ever done imaginative or essays before.

for context, my current unit is about poetry, and the eras it could come from are:
medieval, renaissance (unlikely), romantic, victorian, modernist, and post-modern australian poetry (unlikely).
we are allowed 45 minutes, roughly 2-3 unseen poems, and will have to answer ~5 questions.

any advice is appreciated. thank you all in advance <3

take a moment to understand what the question is actually asking for, ballpark the amount of time and length of your response based on the mark value, and give a response. as above, don't try and bs or waffle unless you actually have no clue. be concise and effective with your answer - give your position, give your evidence and a one liner conclusion.

 

[luminescence]

for short answer, make sure u get straight to the point and answer the question directly, from the first sentence. Don't waffle too much and don't overwrite it, cause writing an excessive amount won't get u extra marks. The lines should determine how much to write.

Depending on how many marks each question is, I usually times the amount by 2 so for a 3 marker I would spent 6 mins, etc. But since ur in year 10 u can probably give urself a bit more time, but also having some buffer time can be useful if u have to read over a text a bit more.

Also know ur techniques and make sure u have specific evidence and quotes throughout ur answers

oh that's great, we have 20 marks to gain in 40 minutes (of writing time) so i've already been practising with roughly twice the number of marks for my time limits. i am really bad at being concise so that will probably be my main focus tomorrow. thank you!!

 

[luminescence]

take a moment to understand what the question is actually asking for, ballpark the amount of time and length of your response based on the mark value, and give a response. as above, don't try and bs or waffle unless you actually have no clue. be concise and effective with your answer - give your position, give your evidence and a one liner conclusion.

my current skeleton is thesis, macro techniques, micro techniques, then a conclusion. (with context throughout my response).
do you have any tips to understand poems quickly? i usually have trouble with comprehending especially modernist and medieval poetry.

 

[dillydally]

my current skeleton is thesis, macro techniques, micro techniques, then a conclusion. (with context throughout my response).
do you have any tips to understand poems quickly? i usually have trouble with comprehending especially modernist and medieval poetry.

dont pay too much attention to time and ensure you reread poem multiple times (or till you comprehend it), focus on identifying themes and language techniques to base your analysis off. if you are truly struggling, just go for imagery. most of the time stimuli have some form symbolism too

ofc outline the most impactful idea in your thesis and maintain it throughout your response. its very common to start babbling

 

[Study to success]

dont pay too much attention to time and ensure you reread poem multiple times (or till you comprehend it), focus on identifying themes and language techniques to base your analysis off. if you are truly struggling, just go for imagery. most of the time stimuli have some form symbolism too

ofc outline the most impactful idea in your thesis and maintain it throughout your response. its very common to start babbling

I mean tbh I would say to pay attention to time cause u don't wanna be wasting time on one poem and then end up not finishing the exam. Also to add on, for short answer in general, it's better to go for the larger techniuqes like metaphors, irony, personification, paradox, symbolism cause they're obv more stronger than something like alliteration or onomatopoeia. Also imagery is kinda a weaker technique (well at least that's what my tutor said) so I would only go for imagery if there's nothing else u can use

 

[Study to success]

my current skeleton is thesis, macro techniques, micro techniques, then a conclusion. (with context throughout my response).
do you have any tips to understand poems quickly? i usually have trouble with comprehending especially modernist and medieval poetry.

I think just try reading it multiple times and honestly jsut practice is the only way to help with comprehending. Also for ur skeleton I'd say just go for the macro techniques cause short answer isn't the same as ur essays and it's just getting straight to the point from the start to the end. Ur conclusion doesn't really need to be a conclusion and it should probably just be one sentence linking things up. And make sure everything u write links straight to the question and not unnecessary side stuff

 

[dillydally]

I mean tbh I would say to pay attention to time cause u don't wanna be wasting time on one poem and then end up not finishing the exam. Also to add on, for short answer in general, it's better to go for the larger techniuqes like metaphors, irony, personification, paradox, symbolism cause they're obv more stronger than something like alliteration or onomatopoeia. Also imagery is kinda a weaker technique (well at least that's what my tutor said) so I would only go for imagery if there's nothing else u can use

when i say dont pay much attention to time i meant not to stress abt it oops. as in manage your time equally. youre better off allowing a stimuli to sink in before writing a response with a few minutes less as opposed to scrambling to write something lacklustre

 

[cheesynooby]

try to go beyond describing and explain the relation of all your points to the author's greater purpose (so try to identify this in the reading time) (maybe even evaluate a bit)
also set a time benchmark! it's very easy to run out of time especially if you haven't had much experience with shorter english questions so set a halfway mark so you aren't caught off guard when you have 5 min left