How to pass exams: the Exam Axiom.

There’s a lot written and talked about passing exams, tests or whatever. And lots of it is true and useful. But it’s easy to miss the wood for the trees sometimes when you’re being bombarded with ‘good advice’ from left, right and centre. Sometimes it’s helpful to re-focus; or to put it another way, to cut through the cr*p to the heart of the matter.

In his Meditations (Book 8), the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius recognised this when he said:
This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material? And what its form? And what is it doing in the world? And how long does it subsist?

What is the fundamental Exam Axiom? OK, ready for it? Here it comes…drum roll…

To pass any exam, score more points than the pass mark.

Good, eh? What do you mean it’s obvious? Well of course it’s obvious. But how many people have actually told you that, in such simple terms before? How many times have you actually thought about it like that?

Although it seems pointlessly obvious, actually the Exam Axiom is pointedly obvious!

It focuses your thinking on what you actually need to do to pass. You need to score more points. So the next question becomes how do you score those points? The answer to this many vary between candidates and exams, but this is the basic truth that you have GOT to address if you’re going to succeed. How do you score more points in this type of exam? What’s holding back your score – is it your knowledge, or your timing? Do you drift off from the question, or ignore the exam instructions? Do you actually know how your exam is marked, and if not have you asked? Are you losing marks because the examiner can’t read your answers, or are you making silly transcription errors in multiple choice questions?

The Exam Axiom isn’t the last word in exam technique, but it’s a good starting point to focus your strategy. How can YOU score more points that the pass mark? Write your answers on one side of the paper only.