21st April 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
We’ve posted articles before about the difference when a student requests long-term tuition, compared to last minute tuition close to exams. At this time of year this difference couldn’t be any more important, and it’s crucial that tutors and students understand how their lessons should change when they start at this time of year.
Generally at Blue Tutors we advise that tutors concentrate on developing understanding in their students. This is the cornerstone of academic success, and there are no shortcuts to gaining a deep understanding of one’s subject, which is required for understanding at a higher level. However, when lessons start at this time of year, tutor and student might have only 5-6 hours together, and in that time it’s unrealistic to expect a student to dramatically improve their understanding of every topic in their course.
There are really two options. The first is to concentrate on a small part of the student’s course, and ensure that they develop a much better understanding of that. This can be a good tactic, especially if the student can build on that understanding next year. However, the second option is one which tends to yield the most benefit, and that’s to develop exam technique and learnt methods, so that the student can quickly improve their grade.
What do we mean by exam technique and learnt methods? Well, exam technique is largely about managing the exam that a student is taking, and knowing what the examiner is looking for. It’s often about the form of answer given, knowing how much (or how little) to write for an answer, and realising when a short, maybe seemingly incomplete, answer is a good way to quickly pick up a lot of marks. It’s also about the student understanding what questions to answer first, and managing their time during an exam.
Learnt methods are often grouped into the phrase ‘exam technique’, but should be distinguished. If there isn’t time to develop understanding of a subject, students can often answer questions on the subject simply by following a set method, a recipe, when answering. The student may not understand why they are doing what they’re doing, but can still produce a good answer. Obviously this isn’t ideal, and the better exams will restrict a student’s chances of success if this is what they’re doing, but it’s a method which can produce very good results very quickly.
Exam technique and learnt methods alone won’t get students 100% on an exam, but they will dramatically improve many students’ scores. The skill from a tutor’s point of view is to realise when to gear their tuition towards these things, and that’s usually around this time (1-2 months) from an exam.