The Written Paper

SAQs
For candidates sitting the exam for the first time, the SAQ section can seem the most daunting of the two. This style of exam has not been approached or attempted before (except in my case - wry laugh at onesself!). Adam has highlighted in his recent posting on Exam Intelligence the importance of layout of your SAQs. As you can see from his jpeg examples, it makes a huge difference to the examiner marking the paper. One little tactic is to try and put yourself in the examiner's shoes: you have 60 or 70 copies of the same question to mark, you're probably going to get a bit bored after a while - it's human nature. It must be intensely irritating to arrive at a question that you can't read, or is squashed against the far margin (or is irrelevant!). So, here is some SAQ advice:

- Learn to write nicely - make it larger and well spaced-out. Start practicing now - don't wait until the day.
- Be relevant; answer the question asked. It sounds obvious but you'd be surprised. You only get approximately 10-12 minutes to write the question (plus two-three minutes planning). Don't waste time on lengthy definitions/introductions if not asked for.
- Use diagrams - as mentioned in a previous posting, an accurately-labelled diagram may save you a lot of time and gain more marks than a block of prose.
- Get your timing right - this section of the exam is time-pressured. Work out your strategy of answering questions i.e. do you work through the paper sequentially making a question plan then answering the question, or do you make plans for all questions in the paper, then answer them? You must have a game-plan thought out.
- If you haven't already started, time your questions...strictly! You have to complete all 12 questions in 3 hours; that's 15 mins per question. Anyone who has done the exam before will tell you it is exhausting and they're right. To write solidly for 3 hours is difficult, both on your hand and on your mind. Like running a marathon, you need to train for it, and build up your stamina in answering these questions. Start by answering 4, then 6, then 8, then 12 questions in a row...timed!

MCQs
A word of warning, ignore these at your peril. There is a tendency to concentrate on the SAQ section, thinking that past experience in MCQs will see you through. This is the mistake I made and I paid for it with a 1+ and that is part of the reason why I have the privilege of doing this again. I probably can't offer much in the way of new advice on how to be successful with MCQs - everyone has quite extensive experience. Do as many MCQs as you can lay your hands on. The only difference this time around is that negative marking has been removed and consequently the pass mark will increase. You should probably be aiming to achieve approximately 80% i.e. average of 4/5 on each stem.