Generic exam question - how many questions to attempt?

[Jackass]

I'm already kicking myself over this as I made a tit of my first exam, I wouldn't say I failed it, but pretty much nothing I prepared came up, which was a bit of a shock.

Anyway, I finished about 30 minutes before the end (surprised I lasted that long tbh) and was so pissed at the events that transpired and was so sick of writing absolute rubbish, that I just rushed through my last question and got out of there.

Looking back at the paper, I'm absolutely kicking myself that I didn't use that time to attempt an extra question, as one of the ones I avoided, if I had taken a couple of minutes to plan how I would approach the question, I actually think I would have made a good fist of it. (I'm usually quite good at taking the first 5 minutes or so to plan how I'm going to approach the paper, but this was a complete cluster fu*k of worst case scenario..)

Anyway, I'm curious about what affect submitting an extra question would have. If you are given 5 questions and answer 3, if you answer a 4th, will they always grade you on the best 3 of the 4, or will they just grade you on the first 3 you answer or is it entirely up to the lecturer?

The reason I ask is because the main dreaded exam I have is on Monday, which is bound to be another nightmare (at least I'm expecting it this time), but I know for certain questions that (hopefully!!) I will be able to make a good attempt at maybe at least half of the question and am banking on some reliables coming up to get me through, but if I have the time, if I attempt as many sections as I can, would I be graded on the highest ones or the first ones I put forward? I'm going to do it anyway, I'm just curious about what people think.

mad turnip

what type of exams are these are they science,eng or maths based? If they are you can be in trouble as these exams tend to be you know it or you don't.

[Jackass]

Economics - first one was Macro, so it's pretty on the ball or not, I misread one question and answered a similar, but not exact scenario to the one questioned, the other one I was in ball park but wide of the mark (with my graphs etc.) and the last one I knew half of the answer but without graphs and the second part I just talked through my hole. Thankfully I've a strong midterm score propping me up, so should pass the module, but very possibly fail the exam.

The one on Monday is pure quants, so you either know it or you don't. I'm just looking to pick up marks where I can, hope she's good with attempt marking. I should pass it, but I doubt I'll ace any one question in all of its parts, so I'm thinking of just scatter bombing the feckin thing by attempting everything and then hope for the best! :pac:

It's not rocket science, I just don't have the resources to get clear explanation on everything needed at this stage, but I've made up a lot of ground in the last week to hopefully pull through. Only have myself to blame, always relying on panic study to get me over the line! :rolleyes:

Fad

I know some lecturers can be very much, answer three, if you answer four I will correct the first three.

errlloyd

I was told once in Law we were only meant to answer the amount stated so we at least imply we spent all of our time trying to do them to our best ability.

RayCarley

I would presume that they just take the best questions you do. So if you do 4 and only had to do 3, then they'd take the best 3.
Especially for something maths based I would expect that to be the norm.

Having said that, I'd only do the extra questions if you can't gain anything by going over the other questions repeatedly. And never do an extra question if you haven't at least attempted every part of the questions you did do.

Rothmans

Depends on the lecturer. For most of our law ones, they say they will only correct the first 3. Makes sense when you could be correcting 100s of papers.
But I remember in 2nd year for intermediate microeconomics, lecturer said she'd give the best answered questions the marks.
In sum, it depends on the lecturer.

taz70

I know this is an old question, but I was curious so looked up to see if there was a rule.

The examination regulations say that ALL questions should be graded and the worst result(s) are excluded. So if it says to answer three and you answer five, then the best three results must be used to calculate the final grade for the paper.

So it's not up to the lecturer. But it would make sense to devote as much time as possible to whatever number of questions they ask you to write.

mad turnip

taz70 wrote: »

I know this is an old question, but I was curious so looked up to see if there was a rule.

The examination regulations say that ALL questions should be graded and the worst result(s) are excluded. So if it says to answer three and you answer five, then the best three results must be used to calculate the final grade for the paper.

So it's not up to the lecturer. But it would make sense to devote as much time as possible to whatever number of questions they ask you to write.

this is the case in most exams if its enforced or not is a different story.

convert

taz70 wrote: »

I know this is an old question, but I was curious so looked up to see if there was a rule.

The examination regulations say that ALL questions should be graded and the worst result(s) are excluded. So if it says to answer three and you answer five, then the best three results must be used to calculate the final grade for the paper.

So it's not up to the lecturer. But it would make sense to devote as much time as possible to whatever number of questions they ask you to write.

Interesting, as I've seen a few exam papers where, under 'instructions for candidates', it is clearly stated that (in the case of a paper where the student is required to answer 4 questions) only the first 4 questions will be graded, with any extra answers being disregarded.

taz70

convert wrote: »

Interesting, as I've seen a few exam papers where, under 'instructions for candidates', it is clearly stated that (in the case of a paper where the student is required to answer 4 questions) only the first 4 questions will be graded, with any extra answers being disregarded.

Hmmm. I would say that this could be challenged if a student so wished. Then again, if it's explicitly stated on the paper, maybe the lecturer is covered. I'd say that if it went to appeal, an individual statement on a paper wouldn't hold up against an exam regulation.

mc8755

I just finished four years of an SBBS degree and our lecturers always told us whatever we put down has to be graded so they'll always take the best answers to give the highest possible grade. Maybe that's different for other subjects, but if you answer a question it doesn't make sense for a corrector to disregard it based on the order you answered them/the order they received the answer booklets.