Recently Homework Nest introduced a new and exciting project, Revision Question Segment that allows students to access questions frequently asked in class discussions and examinations. The main idea behind this project was to give students an idea on what to expect and to make exam preparation easier. Our team at Homework Nest partnered with an amazing team of examination experts and we managed to gather questions from different universities around the world ease accessibility to our students. The content has been prepared on slide share and you can access and download them for free here.
Many of you are wondering how we arrived at this decision. After our last interview with our CEO, Tony Craig on his college life, he shared some challenges he experienced. One of the issues he expressed was the lack of enough revision material due to limited access. He shared that along with other students, they would struggle to get these questions online and if they were lucky enough to have students in other institutions, they would exchange past papers and questions shared in class. Tony really wished to have easy access to this content and we sort to inquire why these revision questions were so important to him and other students. Here is what he shared with us.
1. Exposure to a Variety of Questions
Exam questions are set in different ways, depending on the intention of examiner. Tony shared that while he was studying, there were professors who wanted to assess critical thinking, decision making, problem solving and basic knowledge. Basic knowledge questions were mainly definitions and questions that are directly derived from class notes. The teacher mainly wants to assess how well you understand the basic concepts of the subject and whether you can give a few examples from these concepts. Critical thinking, decision making and problem solving questions are often in the form of case studies and analytical questions. They are often looking into how you can apply all the concepts learnt and use them to solve real life problems. Therefore, revision questions are able to expose you to different approaches to answering questions.
2. Helps The Student Understand the Examiner’s Mindset
Most examiners aim at setting exam questions with considerations to changes in the curriculum, job market and external factors such as the influences of technology in learning. In addition to this, the mindset of the examiner is to evaluate critical and analytical abilities of the student. However, it can be challenging to predict what exactly a specific examiner seeks to evaluate as some use different methods in setting different papers. Some examiners can use different terms so as to confuse the student which could mislead how they answer the question. One common example is questions relating to the terms “Compare and Contrast.” Most students confuse these two terms and end up answering the question wrongly by either giving a contrast or similarity instead of both. Revision questions will make it easy for you to understand what exactly the examiner had in mind while they were setting the questions and what they expect of you in delivering the answers. This way you are able to approach questions more accurately without going out of topic.
3. Identify Frequently Asked Topics/Questions
Examiners often apply the method of question or topic repetition for a number of reasons. One is that the questions and topics could be a common challenge among students and they are seeking to gauge their understanding of these topics. In many instances, these questions are mandatory if the exam paper provides the option to select a few number of questions.
Secondly, these questions and topics are key concepts in the subject and they are highly applicable in the job market. The third and most important reason is that most students tend to assume these repeated questions and they do not take time to review them which is often a trap created by the examiner. For the diligent students, repeated revision questions are often considered as free marks as they have practiced them a number of times and they understand the concept making it easier for them to handle these questions even when framed differently.
4. Introduce You to Unfamiliar Territories
“We once exchanged revision question papers with students from another country who were taking the similar course. For a moment, I almost confused the content for another subject because of how these questions were set.” Tony shared this experienced that almost got him thinking that he was not studying extensively and enough. Later on, he realized that the examiner was focused on the same subject but the approach used to frame the question was quite different and with different response expectations. He also stated that he realized that the level of complexity was more advanced than what they were used to in their institution. Revision questions are able to expose you to different and unfamiliar examining approaches that could not be similar with those in your institution.
5. Improves the Quality of Your Study Notes
The chances that you will come across concepts and terms that have not been discussed in class in revision papers are very high. With a variety of revision papers, you will be able to identify what has not been taught, do research on it and build on your class notes. In addition to this, you will be able to stay ahead of your classmates when it comes to having content that some of them might not be bothered to review. Tony states that, at the end of my campus years, “I gathered all the books I used for writing my revision notes and I was surprised at how I had used up so many books in creating extra notes to supplement what was already taught.” These notes were instrumental as at times these concepts were examined and many students claimed to be clueless.
