You think you know how to prepare to answer Exam Questions

Hi All,
I would like to share with all Janice's friends out there.

Doing well on open ended exam questions, demands that you be well and thoroughly prepared with the concepts, ideas, theories and arguments of the subject. What do I mean? I shall illustrate it with a Chemistry Q appeared in your Mid-Yr Chem exam.

In the experiment to generate 30 ml hydrogen gas in a school lab. 3 experiments were carried out. I hope I got the Q details correct

Exp 1 10ml of H2SO4 10g Zn - 30 sec
Exp 2 10ml of HCl 10g Zn 5 drops of CuSo4 20 sec
Exp 3 10ml of HCl 10g Zn - 40 sec

What are the concept, ideas, theories or argument tested in this exam Q?
(a) the idea of writing balance equations in the above Q
(b) the concept of ion reaction with metal
(c) the concept of catalyst CuSO4
(d) the argument why Exp 2 takes half the time cos of the theory of catalyst
(e) the argument why Exp 1 is faster than Exp 3 cos of the theory of more H+ ions
in H2SO4 than HCL thus faster reaction
(f) the concept of computation of metal presence quantitatively in terms of mole

In conclusion, if you want to do well, practise lots of exam questions and relate back and grasp the concept,ideas,theories or argument being tested.
You see, when you read your text book, you may not be able to extract all the key points or concepts of each chapters. But when you have done lots of past years
questions, take note of the key concepts or pts tested in these exam questions and remember them. You see it is easier to remember key pts or concepts than remembering the whole text book. Worst of all, you may be remembering the non-key pts or concepts if you just read your text book only. Of course your text book must always be your pt of reference including your teachers notes.

Best of Luck.


Disclaimer : I do not claim this is the perfect method but I hope it will help.