How do you avoid mistakes (2 Viewers)

[shivacs]

My trial result upsets me so much. In MX2 and in MX1 I made so many silly mistakes and lost marks. When I look back at the paper, it seems that a primary kid wouldn't make those mistakes. If I didn't make those mistakes, I could easily beat the guy at the top.

The scary thing is that I have time to check my paper and I checked them at least once and I overlooked them. It doesn't finish here, I also lost marks in physics & chem in similar fashion and it looks like I throw my marks away.

How do you tackle these sort of problem? I know my stuff, I normally don't get nervous (well may be a bit) in exam, I focus and still I come up with frustration.

Any experience/suggestion?

 

[random-1005]

My trial result upsets me so much. In MX2 and in MX1 I made so many silly mistakes and lost marks. When I look back at the paper, it seems that a primary kid wouldn't make those mistakes. If I didn't make those mistakes, I could easily beat the guy at the top.

The scary thing is that I have time to check my paper and I checked them at least once and I overlooked them. It doesn't finish here, I also lost marks in physics & chem in similar fashion and it looks like I throw my marks away.

How do you tackle these sort of problem? I know my stuff, I normally don't get nervous (well may be a bit) in exam, I focus and still I come up with frustration.

Any experience/suggestion?

you cannot really do anything, hope for luck, except probably read through everything in question directly after you finish it to check for mistakes, however this would be time consuming.

In a test environment you can rarely see your own mistakens, however, with my tests i seem to remember mistakes like 2-3 hrs after finishing the paper, when i have thought through the questions, extremely annoying, but i managed to take 1st place for 2 unit and 3 unit which is all that matters for now, will aim for perfection in the hsc.

 

[q3thefish]

Under exam conditions, it can seem really hard to detect any stupid mistakes because you're experiencing that much pressure from the time constraints and this kinda feeds your mentality that your answers are correct.

Well depending on the subject, say.. any science - look at the verbs in the Q and see if you answered it or not. Like 'assess' or 'describe', these words require you to answer in a particular way and you're gonna lose marks if you don't.

For maths, if you have the time, re-do any Q that you feel unsure about.

English - nothing can save us from this..

 

[Aquawhite]

You need to practice doing past papers under the exam conditions, i.e. do them how you'd do them in an exam and actually redo the paper again if you can get the time down enough.

 

[Xcelz]

maybe your doing the exam too fast and would benefit from a few deep breaths during reading time to relax?

 

[shivacs]

These are really good comments everyone. Please keep them coming because I feel that they are helping me. Particularly in regards to what random-1005 said about reading the question just after I've done the working for it, it might have helped in a TRANSCRIPTION ERROR I made!!!! In a volumes question, the height in the question was 15cm and I put down 10cm (subsequently losing a mark).

I really do not go too fast because if I do, I know that I will make random errors (which I did anyway). When I went back over my paper in the exam, I did pick up a couple of errors but still overlooked some.

I'm interested to know what goes on in the back of your head when you're checking your exams to minimise these stupid mistakes to avoid banging your head against a brick wall later on!

 

[Aerath]

Yeah, exactly. If you have time, you should check it as many times as you can. For some of the longer questions, take a deep breath, a gulp of water, and then look at it from a marker's perspectives. What would YOU give marks for? Now, make sure that you've done every single one of those steps.

 

[possessionless]

should have seen the mistakes i made in our 2u trial. honestly like 20-30 marks of mistakes. some of them are worth a laugh actually.

 

[Dr_Fresh]

I had the exact same problem. What I did was read the question 2-3 times and even when I'm working through the question, I keep referring back to it. It takes a big longer than usual but I avoided mistakes. I usually couldn't be bothered to check my work, so this worked for me. Its a matter of personal pref whether you work thru the exam fast and go back check it or do it while ur working thru the question. Try it and see if it works.

 

[electrolysis]

You need to practice doing past papers under the exam conditions, i.e. do them how you'd do them in an exam and actually redo the paper again if you can get the time down enough.

This imo.

 

[bell531]

I find re-checking your test once you've finished all the questions much less useful than just slowly and purposefully going through each question initially. Usually, even if I don't have time to go over the test again, I don't make many silly mistakes this way

 

[Continuum]

My trial result upsets me so much. In MX2 and in MX1 I made so many silly mistakes and lost marks. When I look back at the paper, it seems that a primary kid wouldn't make those mistakes. If I didn't make those mistakes, I could easily beat the guy at the top.

The scary thing is that I have time to check my paper and I checked them at least once and I overlooked them. It doesn't finish here, I also lost marks in physics & chem in similar fashion and it looks like I throw my marks away.

How do you tackle these sort of problem? I know my stuff, I normally don't get nervous (well may be a bit) in exam, I focus and still I come up with frustration.

Any experience/suggestion?

how much sleep did you get the night before ahha
always happens to me when i get <4-5 hours of sleep :\

 

[Timothy.Siu]

its luck

 

[Gussy Booo]

I really think, the key lies in being calm.

Go into the exam feeling calm, and don't go in feeling cocky.

It might help. I'm in the same situation, and I'm trying to find a good way of solving this problem.

The way you enter and exam is really important. Your mentality has to be right. Just be calm, modest and think about what you have to do.

 

[Aquawhite]

I really think, the key lies in being calm.

Go into the exam feeling calm, and don't go in feeling cocky.

It might help. I'm in the same situation, and I'm trying to find a good way of solving this problem.

The way you enter and exam is really important. Your mentality has to be right. Just be calm, modest and think about what you have to do.

Yes. I totally agree. When I went into the trials for the 2U and 3U exams I was still a little nervous and I didn't know how I would be for time, so I stressed on getting through the questions quickly; now I know I have plenty of time left so I will take my time doing each question and really eliminate every single stupid error.

 

[Uncle]

the level of mathematics at high school involves at least tenfold more steps compared to primary school.
there's substitution errors, accidentally differentiating when integrating, etc.
the list goes on.

best you find out which type of errors you make the most and fix that up.
and yes staying calm helps.
panic and mistakes are much more likely to happen.

 

[Aquawhite]

the level of mathematics at high school involves at least tenfold more steps compared to primary school.
there's substitution errors, accidentally differentiating when integrating, etc.
the list goes on.

best you find out which type of errors you make the most and fix that up.
and yes staying calm helps.
panic and mistakes are much more likely to happen.

In the 2U paper for CSSA, in one of the questions involving e's and log's together (so they would cancel each other) I was distracted with the amount of it all and forgot to integrate thus losing the mark for integrating correctly and getting the correct answer.

Simply threw 2 marks away.

 

[ah.sport]

make sure you finish in enough time so that you can go back and check over your answers for any silly mistakes.

 

[Michaelmoo]

Well I'm not really someone to look up to for not making stupid mistakes. I do them all the time, but I can give you some tips.

• As others said, go over your work if you have time. If you have time, i suggest you do some of the questions again (thats right). Roughly do it again without looking at your answer, compare your final answers after and see if you've made a mistake. You can't do the entire paper again; but for questions that your likely to make stupid mistakes (heavy algebra, etc). Obviously you don't have to check questions that say prove x = y etc.
• Try to remember some of the conventional "stupid mistakes". E.g. reverting an integral substitution, writing units etc. Maybe write them down somewhere and remember to never do them again.
• Get some good sleep. I know it sounds stupid but especially for maths, I find that I'm less likely to make stupid mistakes if I sleep well

O yer, and finally and most importantly READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY. I cannot stress this enough, even in maths its really important. I used to ignore this aswell untill earlier this year. I tragically suffered simply because I didn't read carefully (yes it was a stupid mistake).

Anyway good luck.

 

[Cloesd]

My trial result upsets me so much. In MX2 and in MX1 I made so many silly mistakes and lost marks. When I look back at the paper, it seems that a primary kid wouldn't make those mistakes. If I didn't make those mistakes, I could easily beat the guy at the top.

The scary thing is that I have time to check my paper and I checked them at least once and I overlooked them. It doesn't finish here, I also lost marks in physics & chem in similar fashion and it looks like I throw my marks away.

How do you tackle these sort of problem? I know my stuff, I normally don't get nervous (well may be a bit) in exam, I focus and still I come up with frustration.

Any experience/suggestion?

You want to A) slow down doing the papers. It could be quite possible if that time you spent going over the exam after you'd finished was used doing the exam right the first time around you'd have got a better mark.

This is not to say you shouldn't go over your work. But going over your work troubleshoots a different TYPE of problem. IF you make a logical error, not a calculation error, look at the quesiton the wrong way maybe THEN going back and looking at it from a new perspective may actually help.

I think thought, you're most "attuned" with the question AS your doing it, if you come back after you've finished youl'l have LESS of a chance of tracing the flow of thought/working then you did the first time around.

I think the heart of the problem is you need a better short term memory. Sure you can remember all your formulas. But if you forget to carry the one youl'l still lose mark.


The problem is short term memory.

How to fix it, im not sure. (maybe that matching game played in primary school?)