5 Principles of Exam Writing

Deduce what the question is examining and ensure your response addresses this as early or as effectively as possible.

The purpose of an exam question is to test how well you understand certain topics from the science syllabus. Before putting your response down onto paper, you should be confident about which syllabus dot points are being tested, and most of the time, which specific aspect of that syllabus dot point. If this is not done correctly and you end up not including the right information in your response, there is no chance you will score a good mark for it. This is a skill that should be trained as early as possible, and is done by carefully reviewing the marking criteria and sample answers of the exam questions you are practising with. There is no point practising on many questions until you can do this correctly. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

Structure your writing so that one idea explains the next. Confounding then leads to confusion and misconception.

Science concepts are often process-oriented rather than solely about the final result. Marks are not awarded for identifying a conclusion with no justification at all, because that could have been achieved by rote memorisation without understanding. Every claim (effect) should have a cause which is given just before or after making this claim. In most cases, the objective of a written explanation is to have an uninterrupted sequence of cause-effect ideas.

You can work out how to structure your response in a few different ways. In science research, there is the concept of deductive vs inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is when one starts with a hypothesis and builds on it through additional experimentation. Inductive reasoning is when one begins with a known result and searches for a hypothesis to explain it. The analogous thinking in writing is whether to work forwards or backwards. For example, if the question was about comparing the boiling points of alkanes and alcohols, you can start with analysing the structural differences between these two types of compounds. These give rise to differences in intermolecular interactions which then can be used to explain differences in boiling points. Conversely, if the question tells you the boiling point of two compounds, you can work backwards to deduce that they would have different intermolecular interactions. Then, you can try and work out what sort of structural differences could have caused that.

Concepts that are linked properly mean that the marker has no chance to suspect that you have made up a claim, or don’t actually understand it.

Properly define the concepts that you are going to use in your response.

A piece of advice that is often given to students is that you should write assuming that the marker is “ignorant but intelligent.” This is about the marker putting on an act when they are assessing your response. They are subject experts but are pretending that they don’t have access to that expertise, which could have been used to improve the interpretation of your response. A student response must explain a concept comprehensively so that it stands on its own without the marker bringing in much prior knowledge.

Students will make a mistake in this area when they are too used to their understanding of a concept and write as if they were explaining to themselves. Much like the marker, the student should also use their imagination when writing, and review their explanation from the perspective of another reader. A common issue is not defining important jargon. For example, one cannot just claim that hydrogen bonding is exhibited by a certain molecule. Hydrogen bonds need to be defined and their mechanism explained.

Examples should be provided where they are the most relevant, not just at the start or end.

Some exam questions will ask for the inclusion of examples such as mathematical equations, chemical equations, evidence/experiments, and diagrams. Many more written responses will be enhanced through the unprompted use of these examples. An important thing to get right is where to put these examples throughout a written response. Integration/synthesis is about providing examples where they are most effective, when the explanation given is most relevant to them. A mistake is to treat the examples and explanation as two halves of an answer rather than intermixing them. The reason students do this is because it is an easier way of planning a response. In an English (or HSIE) essay, examples cannot be given all at the start or beginning of your writing, and the same applies in a science written response. The extra work required to consider where examples should be provided is necessary to create a quality written response.

In your writing, identify the number of concepts or points, which effect is greater, whether it is outweighed by another.

There is an overemphasis on definitions and exact phrasings for how to explain a certain concept, but even if all these parts were executed perfectly in a written response, it may not earn full marks. The part that is neglected by students is the use of basic English to make a clear argument. A common logical argument that appears through all the Science disciplines is the idea that there might be one influence that promotes a certain result, and another opposing influence. Hence, the argument that would be made is that a result occurs because one influence outweighs the other. A response that is too focused on reciting knowledge on a topic may succeed in introducing these two influences but fail to convey the idea that they are opposing. Similarly, if there are a number of distinct concepts, this should be made clear or else the marker can misinterpret and suspect a misconception.