*Sighs* Past papers…
In my HSC I was always asking people, “what is the best way to study before trials and HSC?” and each and every time I was hoping that someone would say something other than: “past papers.”
Past papers will nail my coffin.
They are so time consuming! To do past papers I have to have a whole lot of time and motivation that I’d rather spend watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S bloopers on YouTube. Priorities. (Hyperlinked goodness – you’re welcome)
In all seriousness, past papers are important. The classic “set the timer for three hours, test yourself at home in exam conditions” doesn’t work for everyone! It certainly didn’t work for me. If I forced myself into exam conditions at home, and I encountered a question that I didn’t know how to answer, I’d crack out of the exam conditions, tears would stream, brows would furrow, anxiety would build, faith in my knowledge would crumble and you could probably hear sirens in the distance. In an actual exam, you have no choice but to push on. But for me, pushing on at home seemed ridiculous when I could just stop, open my book, work out the answers, and actually learn something – rather than just confirm there’s something I don’t know in a fit of panic.
Why this works
This strategy allows you to actually cover so many more questions in three hours than you would if you just did the one paper, front to back, sitting at a desk, in exam conditions. The point of this is to focus on your weaknesses in a way that you can fully attack them then and there. It’s about acknowledging that there are parts of the syllabus you know well, but not just sitting comfortably knowing that. This is about finding the weak links in your chain of knowledge and repairing them, quickly, effectively, and with less sweat.
So, here is how to do past papers, but like, not really do past papers…
Multiple Choice:
These are not difficult to do in a past paper so I didn’t whine much about these (key word: much). Multiple choice are the part of the exam that you can do in the last minute and still have a shot at gaining some marks. Notoriously, it is the part of the exam that will have some really ANNOYING answers – y’know, the ones that you almost picked but one word through you off and now you want to tell the world that you almost had the right answer so you’re still smart.
Multiple choice questions are super quick to do. I mean, you can literally do an entire 20 question multiple choice section on a legal paper during the time of recess. Your answer checking is super simple. The answers are always right or wrong. If you got them wrong, quickly work out what the correct answer has that your answer doesn’t have. Always make sure that you work out exactly what is happening in a question that threw you off the right answer. Multiple choice: Quick, easy, and a 25% chance of getting it right.
Highlight the ones that you really struggled with, we’ll come back to this.
Short Answer Responses:
Some of these will be worth 3 marks and some will be worth 8 – it totally depends on the subject and the type of question being asked. A question worth three marks is probably worth something similar to three or four sentences, so that’s not too time consuming to do. It’s the longer ones that are like mini essays that take up too much time in your study. Here’s how to do the past paper without actually doing it.
Read the question.
Dot point the things you would discuss in this response. Write as many dot points as you would write main arguments throughout the response.
Is there enough there to sustain a response?
You’ll know that you have enough to sustain your response if you hardly hesitated when jotting down some arguments for your response, and you know that you could talk out loud for about thirty seconds on each argument if your friend asked you to explain it.
You’ll know this is a weak point if you struggled to extend your ideas to match the number of marks that the question. Even more, you’ll know you need to work on this area of the syllabus if you can’t flesh out any of your ideas. Highlight the ones you struggle with, we’ll come back to this.
Essays:
When you look at the essay question, write up a first sentence of two for your introduction, as it would appear in an exam, and then write out the topic/argument that you would present in each paragraph, fleshing out some “examples” to back you up. You’re basically writing an essay plan. So it might appear something like this:
*Intro sentence about the Golden Age of Weimar Germany*
Argument One: Stressemann
-New leadership
-Renewed sense of confidence
-Provide brief background about what it was like before.
Argument Two: Hyperinflation and Dawes Plan
-Currency
-American influence
-Example of how hyperinflation was affecting citizens (no prices on menus)
Argument Three:
-Film and cabaret
-Provocative
-Provided social occasion
-Flourishing attitude of citizens.
This is effective because it is a good approach to take in an actual exam as well. In an exam you need to be able to organise your thoughts quickly so that you can write your introduction with the arguments ready to be introduced. Also, it emulates the need to think forward very quickly. In legal exams, I always did a mini (totally messy) essay plan on the back of the booklet so that when I had a rush of ideas at the start, I’d write them all down, so that when I got stuck half way through I didn’t have to waste time panicking. Instead, I just referred to my sheet and followed the next idea through.
Now, if there is an essay question that you have no confidence in answering (because you don’t know anything to write, or maybe you only have enough arguments to satisfy a short answer question) then highlight it. We’ll be back.
What to do with the highlighting:
You’ve now created yourself a brand study tool that is actually super effective. I know that sometimes you want to reassure yourself that you know your favourite dot point back to front, and I am totally in that for the confidence boost. It’s not really effective in terms of making the most of your time when you’re on the cram to exams.
Flick through, and collate the highlighted questions. Open your text book or study notes, and go through and see if you can answer them with a resource at hand. If you can’t – it’s either because this question is totally illegal in the world of BOSTES (and that doesn’t happen, ever, so it’s not that) or else your notes are lacking in a certain spot. Brush up on that spot! But if you can answer it with the book open, then go back and actually answer it. Write out the short answer or a paragraph for the essay.
Basically…
This whole thing stems from the idea that time is of the essence, and doing past papers in exam conditions just isn’t for everyone. There is certainly a lot of merit it completing past papers, but they don’t resonate with everyone’s unique study style. This is about finding your weaknesses, and infiltrating! Wasting time confirming knowledge on what you already know isn’t as effective as honing in on what you don’t know, and coming back out of the past paper knowing more than you did when you started!
Want some feedback on your essays? Have a look at our essay marking policy here, and then post your essay so we can help you out!
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