Preparing for your first board exam can feel very overwhelming. You suddenly find yourself faced with such a critical stage of your life with little to no guidance. Since guidance is crucial for success, we have compiled the most common gce o level mistakes that you should avoid during revision.
Jumping Straight to Past Papers
Teachers, tutors, older siblings and other experienced figures emphasize the importance of practicing past papers. While it is not wrong that extensive past paper practice is essential, exaggerated emphasis may be misleading.
Make sure to thoroughly revise your notes and resolve any doubts before you rush into past paper practice. Many students may struggle with past papers as they haven’t spent enough time building their concepts.Therefore, it is advisable that you sensibly divide your time between revision and past paper practice.
Spending Too Long Making Notes
Spending too long making notes is one of the most common gce o level mistake students make. Your notes serve as a personalized guide for you. While taking neat and clear notes is a valuable study tool, you must take special care not to waste too much time on it.
It is easy to get carried away in the art of note-making. To overcome this, redirect your focus to making clear and concise notes. Avoid excessive decorations and unnecessary details at all costs.
Skipping the Harder Questions
Skipping the challenging parts ‘for later’ or altogether skipping them can be very detrimental. This approach may cost you many precious marks. A scoring student never avoids difficult questions. In fact they pay special attention to it.
They not only practice difficult questions, but they go over them repeatedly. Whenever you come across a difficult question, try your best to solve it by yourself first. If you are unsuccessful, look for the answer and mark the question so that you can practice it again later.
Not targetting Weak Areas Through Self Assessment
Marking difficult questions and targeting weak areas will help you achieve perfection. Keep testing yourself from time to time so you can figure out your mistakes. Your mistakes can tell you a lot. You need to analyze why you made those mistakes and correct them instantly. Whether it’s a doubt or misconception, make sure to eliminate the mistake once and for all!
Not doing Sufficient Past Paper Practice
Before you sit the actual exam, we suggest practicing a good amount of past papers to familiarize yourself with the paper pattern. Past paper practice will help you apply your concepts practically. Extensive past paper practice can help you identify repeated questions and give you an idea of what kind of questions you should expect in the exam.
Besides making you well versed and articulate, it’s useful to test yourself in exam like conditions before the actual exam. This will lessen your anxiety and make you feel more comfortable in your final exams.
Not Checking Your Paper Against the Marking Scheme
Checking your paper against the marking scheme tells you what the examiner expects you to write. You develop the ability to align your responses to their expectations and score much better.
You may know the correct answer in your head, but you only get awarded for the points that you mention in the answer. The marking scheme helps you understand what the question is asking. You develop a sense of how to shape your answer in the best possible way while covering all the necessary points.
Avoid These Common GCE O Level Mistakes
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