Do you consider yourself to be a bright and brilliant student? Yet find yourself losing marks when it comes to exams?

Here’s why you must be failing to score well, despite knowing all the answers: you are good at preparation but not presentation!

It’s equally important to transfer all of your knowledge onto the exam paper as much as you have acquired it, so as to reflect your capability as a student.

A few quick fixes to up your exam-paper presentation skills are:

• Writing appropriate answers:

Be precise and to the point with you answers. Do NOT lose focus and write lengthy answers irrelevant to the questions asked, in order to make your answer sheet look fuller.

• Neatness:

You might have accidentally written down a wrong answer but would like to correct it. Make a single strikethrough and start afresh instead of making an unruly mess of it.

• Spacing:

Give each and every answer some room to breathe! Leave a small gap between all the answers. This will help each answer standout individually and you won’t have to worry about not being graded. Also put margins – for the examiner to pen down your marks and for a bit of rough work you’d likely do.

• Highlight your key points:

Underline every important bit in a wall of text. If you are providing a lot of context in your answers, you need to point out the most crucial information in it. Things like dates, years, specific places, etc., are the common key points and those need to be in the spotlight. This helps immensely if the teacher is provided with a very limited time to correct your paper – they’ll immediately know that you are giving the right answer when they see the highlighted words.

• Legible handwriting:

Reading answers written in a messy handwriting can be as confusing as arguing with a headless chicken. Make sure all your letters within your words and sentences are clear when writing your answers. Do not forcefully write in a fancy style thinking you might score extra points, it’ll backfire. You can practice calligraphy in your free time instead!

Tricky extra tip:

• Flowcharts!

If you find yourself in a sticky situation where you have very less time to attempt many questions, turn your answers into flowcharts. This will help save time but guarantee that you have answered every question by the end. You can look at our SeekoG Minds Maps to get an idea of how flowcharts work.