“Do we have to know this for the exam?” asks the student, and suddenly a whole lecture theater is actively listening to the lecturer instead of scribbling some notes. Especially if it’s about a complicated question. First year students fear the long question, dislike the derivation, and complain to each other about any extended answers which take longer than a couple of lines to write.
First things first: knowing whether something is on the exam is extremely important. There’s no point wasting a night learning Biot-Savart derivations if they’ve never been asked, and that’s literally no points, as in no marks, no score, no percent, no nothing. Focusing our attention on exactly what we need to know helps us learn it better.
But some exams do include those long answers. You can find them by looking at past exams, or learning from others who’ve seen this exam before. And if you find a long answer that comes up over and over again, that’s not a reason to fear. That’s a cause for celebration! A long answer means a great big chunk of exam is known, a big bonus stack of marks just waiting to be taken by anyone prepared to prepare!
A long answer is a lot of marks. A long answer is usually a written answer, which means you can pick up many of those marks even if you don’t finish the question. A long answer is always the same steps, so you can switch to autopilot and enjoy an almost relaxing interval in the exam, something you’ve seen before several times, instead of having to worry about new questions.
How should you learn a long derivation, or practice a long sequence of steps? Simple: with a blank piece of paper. Write down the derivation. When you get stuck, fold the paper so you can’t see what you’ve written. Go to your notes or textbook and read the full derivation. Then put the notes away, and here’s the trick, START THE DERIVATION AGAIN FROM THE START. If you get stuck again, or somewhere else, repeat the procedure with folded paper from the start each time.
The mistake most people make is getting stuck, looking at the solution, then continuing after the point they stopped. So that sticking point is still in their brain! If just reading the right answer once actually uploaded it into your mind you wouldn’t need to study, you’d read the book on the first day and chill out for the rest of the term. Training your way through the whole derivation smooths out any sticking points, practices the solution exactly as you’d write it on the exam, and makes a nice easy path through the problem every time you do it.
A long problem is only a problem until you practice it. Then it’s a lot of marks instead.
First things first: knowing whether something is on the exam is extremely important. There’s no point wasting a night learning Biot-Savart derivations if they’ve never been asked, and that’s literally no points, as in no marks, no score, no percent, no nothing. Focusing our attention on exactly what we need to know helps us learn it better.
Life doesn’t have a definite answer. Enjoy the few things that do!
But some exams do include those long answers. You can find them by looking at past exams, or learning from others who’ve seen this exam before. And if you find a long answer that comes up over and over again, that’s not a reason to fear. That’s a cause for celebration! A long answer means a great big chunk of exam is known, a big bonus stack of marks just waiting to be taken by anyone prepared to prepare!
A long answer is a lot of marks. A long answer is usually a written answer, which means you can pick up many of those marks even if you don’t finish the question. A long answer is always the same steps, so you can switch to autopilot and enjoy an almost relaxing interval in the exam, something you’ve seen before several times, instead of having to worry about new questions.
How should you learn a long derivation, or practice a long sequence of steps? Simple: with a blank piece of paper. Write down the derivation. When you get stuck, fold the paper so you can’t see what you’ve written. Go to your notes or textbook and read the full derivation. Then put the notes away, and here’s the trick, START THE DERIVATION AGAIN FROM THE START. If you get stuck again, or somewhere else, repeat the procedure with folded paper from the start each time.
The mistake most people make is getting stuck, looking at the solution, then continuing after the point they stopped. So that sticking point is still in their brain! If just reading the right answer once actually uploaded it into your mind you wouldn’t need to study, you’d read the book on the first day and chill out for the rest of the term. Training your way through the whole derivation smooths out any sticking points, practices the solution exactly as you’d write it on the exam, and makes a nice easy path through the problem every time you do it.
A long problem is only a problem until you practice it. Then it’s a lot of marks instead.
