Exam questions – Help students get better at tackling them
Sam Holyman outlines her favoured approach for helping students get better at tackling exam questions…
- by Sam Holyman
- Lead practitioner of science and author
When I was at school, I’d enjoy my lessons and usually feel like I’d learned something new. But then, when I settled down to do my homework – usually an exam question – I often had no idea what it was asking, let alone how to go about trying to craft an answer.
Fast forward more than a quarter of a century (yes, I’m that old), I’m now a teacher and see this same problem play out time and time again.
We have a fantastic lesson, and I’m confident that the students ‘get it’. So why can’t they seem to even begin the exam questions?
When we go through how to start, the response is usually a retort of ‘Is that it?’ or ‘Oh, I can do that’ – but then comes the next question, and it’s met with the same reactions and blank faces, with no one even attempting to start tackling it. Argh!
Modelling the approach
I’ve come to realise that simply assigning exam questions for homework removes ‘the expert’ from the room. Instead, we can build confidence and encourage learners more by giving them the courage to try in the classroom.
I’ve moved to explicitly modelling how to answer exam questions during lessons, often starting one as a plenary and encouraging students to complete it by the end of the lesson.
This approach lets me break down the process and provide students with a clear framework to scaffold their responses.
A common issue is that students will rush straight to the question without first reading the rubric or introduction.
The rubric is often a goldmine of information that can help students focus on the key topic, or even provide details they can use in their answer.
I’ll read the rubric aloud and ask students to identify the information it gives us. Using a visualiser, I may annotate it with the specification reference or topic name to help them refer back later.
Unpicking exam questions
Students can also often not understand command words or subject-specific vocabulary – and if you don’t understand the language of the question, you won’t even begin to grasp what it’s asking, be able to identify the relevant topic or start crafting an answer.
The second part of my technique is to box all the command words in the question. Using a visualiser, we’ll discuss these as a class and complete the activity together.
We’ll then annotate the meaning of each command word using the examination board’s subject-specific command word list. This ensures that students recognise what the examiner will be expecting from their answers.
Finally, I read the question again, this time asking students to identify any subject-specific words. I underline these words using the visualiser, and with the help of a glossary or further class discussion, annotate their definitions directly onto the exam question.
Only then do I allow students to tackle the question. I’ll sometimes encourage small groups to work together to support each other’s learning, setting a time limit and allowing them to use their lesson notes and peers for support.
I then reveal the mark scheme and encourage students to assess their own work. Once they’ve completed this self-assessment, they show me how many marks they believe they achieved using their fingers.
This quick check helps me gauge the class’ understanding and decide whether further work on the topic will be needed or not.
Using this technique, I’ve seen students grow in confidence, gain clarity as to what examiners want and better understand what the question is asking.
Focus on command words
We’ll frequently use exam questions to illustrate how lesson content is assessed, but in Year 11, I’ll shift focus to the looming exams themselves.
Understanding the requirements of command words is crucial for crafting succinct answers that maximise marks.
My Y11 starter activities will therefore often concern the ‘command word’ – unpicking what the term means, and illustrating this with an appropriate exam question.
These starters serve as warm-ups and retrieval practice, keeping past learning alive while honing students’ exam technique and building confidence.
Since adopting this approach of breaking down exam questions and focusing on key words, I’ve noticed a real shift in my students.
They’re more willing to attempt questions when armed with a framework for approaching them – and the more they try, the more progress they make.
Sam Holyman is lead practitioner of science across the Sidney Stringer Multi Academy Trust and author of multiple bestselling science textbooks, including entries in Collins’ A-level Organise and Retrieve your Knowledge series.
