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March 29, 2024, 07:20:56 am

Author Topic: How do I know what information will earn me marks?  (Read 1042 times)  Share 

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ezferns

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How do I know what information will earn me marks?
« on: June 19, 2017, 06:12:53 pm »
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Hey everyone,

So my question is how do I know what information I should use when answering questions to get full marks? I know that for a, say, 3 mark question, I need 3 points, but my question is how do I know what exactly the examiner wants? So far in my sacs and tests I end up writing way too much including all the info possible and I always seem to miss out on a key point.

For example, in my Immunity SAC, there was a question on the primary and secondary responses. The question asked 'With reference to specific immunity, explain the difference in the primary and secondary immune response. (3 marks)'. I wrote about how the primary response consists of a low production of antibodies, how this response led to the development of memory cells and how the secondary response resulted in a larger production of antibodies. I thought this would earn me the three marks but it turns out I needed to include how there are no memory cells before the primary response.

How can I know what to add and what not to add?
« Last Edit: June 19, 2017, 06:32:47 pm by ezferns »

plsbegentle

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Re: How do I know what information will earn me marks?
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2017, 06:53:39 pm »
+1
Hey everyone,

So my question is how do I know what information should I use when answering questions to get full marks? I know that for a, say, 3 mark question, I need 3 points, but my question is how do I know what exactly the examiner wants? So far in my sacs and tests I end up writing way too much including all the info possible and I always seem to miss out on a key point.

For example, in my Immunity SAC, there was a question on the primary and secondary responses. The question asked 'With reference to specific immunity, explain the difference in the primary and secondary immune response. (3 marks)'. I wrote about how the primary response consists of a low production of antibodies, how this response led to the development of memory cells and how the secondary response resulted in a larger production of antibodies. I thought this would earn me the three marks but it turns out I needed to include how there are no memory cells before the primary response.

How can I know what to add and what not to add?
Well firstly, understand what the question is asking, if you're asked about how x affects y, and u just mentioned about what is x and what is y. This is not answering the question. Secondly, look for key words, in your question, "difference", "primary" and "secondary" are key words and anything you write that is irrelevant to those words will cost marks. Finally, mark allocation is important as well, 3 marks mean 3 points you have to cover, if a question is 1 mark, a sentence or even a word is suffice given you've answered it correctly. Also, generally if you write beyond the space given, you are writing too much!

With the example you have given, you've given a difference but i don't think you read the question correctly, it asked you to write in "reference to specific immunity".You haven't even said anything about how the antigen first comes in contact, causing the b cells to... and in a subsequent encounter, the memory b cells from the primary response is allowed to proliferate and so on... (i kinda forgot..).So again, identifying key words and understanding what the question is asking. If highlighting helps, by all means do what is best for you, i personally didn't do it but its different for everyone.
Good luck!
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Bri MT

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Re: How do I know what information will earn me marks?
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2017, 07:01:49 pm »
+1
In my experience there are two main things you can do to improve your knowledge of how to answer the question:
1. Understanding key terminology (compare, contrast, describe, explain, show, justify, role, significance etc.).
2. Learning the patterns for each question from feedback (teachers, examiners report)  eg for natural selection questions the pattern was describing the trait in terms of alleles, due to xyz there is a shift in the allele frequency overtime, with the result that .... (not those exact words, but you get my point)    It is important to note that you can't JUST rely on these patterns, you also need to understand the question, someone who only relied on that pattern last year would've had a bad surprise when they saw the question was worth 4 rather than the usual 3 marks, but if you also understood the content you could surmise what the extra point was.

This is something I'm currently struggling with in psych, but after doing lots of practice exam questions for bio last year I could confidently answer even very unfamiliar questions

Quantum44

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Re: How do I know what information will earn me marks?
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2017, 07:05:47 pm »
+1
Hey everyone,

So my question is how do I know what information I should use when answering questions to get full marks? I know that for a, say, 3 mark question, I need 3 points, but my question is how do I know what exactly the examiner wants? So far in my sacs and tests I end up writing way too much including all the info possible and I always seem to miss out on a key point.

For example, in my Immunity SAC, there was a question on the primary and secondary responses. The question asked 'With reference to specific immunity, explain the difference in the primary and secondary immune response. (3 marks)'. I wrote about how the primary response consists of a low production of antibodies, how this response led to the development of memory cells and how the secondary response resulted in a larger production of antibodies. I thought this would earn me the three marks but it turns out I needed to include how there are no memory cells before the primary response.

How can I know what to add and what not to add?

Structure your answers in dot points and give a point per mark. So for a three mark question you need to have three dot points. You need to answer the question and be concise in doing so. In explain questions you often have to go through a process or reference a definition to get all marks. Always try to think of the buzzwords associated with the question as often you can't get full marks unless you reference a specific word.

There's no way you can truly know what they are looking for but generally if you stick to those rules you will do as well as you can. In your example you have to delve into the logic behind the question. And the key reason why there is a difference requires a comparison between the number of memory cells before and after primary exposure.
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