Revising for Online Exams

Hi guys,

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well. Today I wanted to talk about revising for online exams. This is something that is new for the majority of us, so I thought that I would share my thoughts.

I haven’t actually begun to properly revise yet, as I still have an essay to finish. Aside from two assignments, the rest of my exams have been converted to open book assessments. This means that I will still have access to the internet and other resources as I write. This sounds like a dream, but there are things that need to be considered.

Each exam has to be completed within 2 hours (+ any extra time that you’re entitled to). We’ve already been warned that this doesn’t give you enough time to be trawling the internet for the information you need. My game plan is to prepare a document of information/quotes that I think will be useful to have open whilst I sit the exam. We only have 1000 words per question (there are two), so quotes can’t be too long either. Although we won’t know what the questions are until we open  the paper, I plan to choose the topics that I would like to answer questions on and collect general information in advance. This is made easier by the fact that you can’t repeat material from essays, so some topics are automatically ruled out.

In my opinion, my department has thus far been very supportive in trying to help us achieve our best during this period of uncertainty. The tutors for each of my modules have been taking time out of their lives to provide us with Q&A sessions via the Moodle chat function. I have found these sessions very beneficial so far, and each of the questions/answers has been transferred to a document that I have created to correspond with any information that we are given about the individual exams.

This is a very unusual time for all of us. Whilst exams are important, I don’t believe that they should be so stressful that they negatively affect your mental wellbeing. If you are struggling, please reach out to someone you trust. No one should face this period of uncertainty alone.

What do you think about online exams? How are you preparing for them? Let me know in the comments below!