SHOW NOTES

Uncertainty in the exam hall sounds like your teen's brain either screaming out or just quietly muttering things like:
 
- What does the question really mean? 
- What is it actually asking? 
- What do they want in the response? 
- How much detail should I go into? 
- What will get marks and what WON’T get marks? 

So, let’s talk about how to turn that uncertainty into confidence - and results. 


FEATURED ON THE SHOW:

• Episode 73: Not All Stress is Bad
   
• Episode 74: Fear of the Unknown
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Facebook
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Instagram
   
• Have your teen trained by me in the 10WGT: 10 Week Grade Transformation Program
   
• Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.

TRANSCRIPT:
 

You’re listening to the Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode number 75 - dealing with and minimising uncertainty for your teen in the exam hall. Uncertainty like: What does the question really mean? What is it actually asking? What do they want in the response? How much detail should I go into? What will get marks, and what WON’T get marks? So, let’s talk about how to turn that uncertainty into confidence - and results. 

Hey VIPs - how are you? I hope your teens are smashing any exams they might be sitting now or are about to and that things are staying as positive and healthy as they can be at this time. And if your teen isn’t sitting exams right now, but they will be at some point, then keep listening.

Now this is the third episode of a kind of trilogy of episodes about exams and particularly around exam stress and the practical causes of exam stress. So, if you haven’t yet listened to episodes 73 or 74, then go check those out after this one. (You don’t especially need to listen to them in order, but they do all tie together nicely.)

Episode 73 is where I shared the fact that not all stress is bad, and there is actually an optimal level of anxiety and stress that actually enhances exam performance. (And that level is not zero.) And episode 74 is where we look at one of the causes of exam stress - the fear of the unknown and ways to reduce the stress levels from that particular area if needed. And today, in episode 75 we’re going to consider another source of exam stress: the uncertainty within exams. Uncertainty about what examiners want or are really asking and how your teen can figure that out and give them what they want in their answers.

This is where the APPLICATION part of the the study success formula - or in this case - the exam success formula comes in. Knowledge + application = success. 

In episode 74 we considered the knowledge part and that fear of not knowing what’s going to come up on the exam. And today we’re going to consider the application aspect.

So, first up, let’s consider the uncertainty that many students have about what the question is really asking. What does it really mean? What are they really getting at? Or what are they wanting your teen to get at in their answer?

If your teen has ever been given the advice or feedback after an exam of ‘read the question’ then definitely listen in here. Because just saying ‘read the question’ isn’t really - in my opinion - that helpful. They’ve obviously read the question. What they’re not doing is properly dissecting specific elements within the question, particular word choices, key words and commands within the question. Just reading a question isn’t enough.

Your teen needs to be able to dissect the wording of a question, and know exactly what that question is asking, in what way, at what level. And this is a skill.  It requires your teen to not only understand and know what command words are, it requires them to identify them in the question, even when they aren’t obvious and it also requires them to know what to do with them, how to respond to them.

A command word is the verb in the question - sometimes called the directive, task word or cognitive verb. It could be describe, explain, analyse and there are many, MANY others. Or it could be less obvious, the question might have more than one command word, or it might not actually have a verb at all and instead your teen has to work out the command. 

The thing is, most students focus mostly on the topic of the question, and that’s why they then sometimes struggle with knowing what it’s really asking or how to answer.
When your teen focuses on the topic, they often respond on topic, but not in the way or at the level the question requires.

One of the ways I sometimes see this show up is when a student does what I call spaghetti-throwing. They write a lot about the topic of the question, but they’re essentially hedging their bets and writing everything they know in the hope that some of it will get them some marks.  Now, they will likely get SOME marks, but the problem is that they may not hit top criteria if it’s an extended response and they haven’t accurately addressed the command or focus of the question AND - possibly an even bigger issue with spaghetti-throwing is that either they’re also wasting a lot of time and energy, which means they’re taking that time and energy away from later questions that actually require it and even might run out of time to complete all the questions on the paper.

If your teen is ever a bit confused by a question, runs out of time in exams, or has ever given what they thought was a good answer, but didn’t get great marks, then this may well be something for them to work on. Not only will it reduce their uncertainty and stress, this is a skill that will also increase their confidence and their competence.

The other key to combatting uncertainty as well as understanding what the question is really asking, is to also get savvy with mark schemes. Knowing what gets marks AND what doesn’t get marks. They can do this by not just practising past paper questions, but by actually studying the mark schemes that go with them, alongside them.  By aligning what’s in the question and the nitty gritty wording of that question, including any command words, with what’s on the mark scheme and what the exam marker needs to see - often shown in a sample answer or model response in mark schemes in order to award marks.

This is definitely a higher level skill. It’s actually the final module - Catapult 10 - Mastering Mark Schemes - in the 10 Week Grade Transformation program. But that also means it can have huge pay offs. It really puts your teen in the top ranks when it comes to exam technique and performance. And bonus tip, what they can also do is download the chief examiner report, or retrospective it's sometimes called, for an exam paper. That’s where the chief examiner for that subject and that particular paper, gives a review of every question and where students did well AND where they didn’t do so well and why. Those are really helpful documents but many students don’t really know they exist and even just one or two tips when considered as a strategy rather than as an answer to a particular question that likely won’t get asked in the same way ever again, can be carried forwards and make a big difference to your teen. Because after all, even if your teen is a 10 out of 10 for subject knowledge, if they aren’t able to put it across in the way the question commands and the mark scheme DEMANDS, then not only might they not get the credit, get the marks, but also, the stress in the lead up to an exam and even in the exam hall can be significantly reduced if your teen knows that no matter what the question says, how it is worded, they can dissect it, systematically and confidently AND know how to respond. They’ll feel a LOT less stressed when they have the skills and the exam technique to APPLY the subject knowledge they’ve worked so hard to learn and revise. And the confidence in that is HUGE.  And of course, side benefit - the quality of their answers and responses will be increased dramatically, so that means more confidence, less stress and MORE marks. A pretty awesome side benefit, huh.

So, if your teen is feeling super-stressed about their exams, it might be helpful to get to the root cause of the stress. What is it that’s causing the most fear, uncertainty or worry?  Is it the pressure of what’s riding on their results - the grades they need to get into uni, perhaps they’re aiming for a personal goal like dux or a certain grade or ranking in a certain subject. Some reassurance that a) this is totally normal and may even help their performance here might be a good move, or reminding them of all the different pathways available, seeing as we might not change this factor much.  Or is it the fear of the unknown? Not knowing what will actually be asked? What topics will be tested? In which case subject knowledge and revision are what can be strategically worked on here.  Or is it the uncertainty? Not being sure of what the question is asking or what it wants? In which case working on their exam technique and the skills of APPLYING their knowledge would be good to prioritise.

Now, I’ll be seeing plenty of examples of this at both extremes of the scale and everything in between over the next couple of weeks because I’m about to start external exam marking next week. I’m marking for the Geography QCE exam and every year, I record an exam-marker video diary. You can go find my previous year’s diary videos on the Rock Solid Study YouTube channel and once I’m able to share my observations and insights, I’ll share this year’s diary with you.

So, I’m really looking forward to that. It’s going to be a super-busy but super valuable couple of weeks coming up. I hope you have an awesome rest of your week, and I’ll see you back here next week for another episode. 

See you then!