Don't Leave Out Questions!

Posted by Shaun Drury on Thursday 06th of March 2008 in Education and Revision Help

What annoys me the most when I am marking pupils practice papers is when they leave a question blank. In doing so they are guaranteed to get zero marks for that question, and I thought they were trying to get as many marks as possible!

The fact is, that even if your are completely guessing, just writing down a number off the top of your head is better than leaving the question blank. Maybe by some miracle, it could be the correct answer and you’ll get marks for it. Real examiners would love you to leave loads of questions blank as it makes marking lots of papers a doddle, don’t give them an easy time.

This technique applies to all subjects, but has special relevance in mathematics/physics and exams where there are multiple choice questions. In multiple choice questions the correct answer is right in front of you, and you have a big chance of guessing the right one, it would be insanity to leave those questions blank. In mathematics/physics it is vital that you write at least something down for each question, even if it is just a random equation of some random working out. There are more marks available in these subjects for your working out than your actual answer, so if by some miracle you write down the correct numbers you’ll get some badly needed marks.

Too much emphasise in today’s teaching is placed on getting a child to work out the correct answer before writing it down. To me this is ludicrous and is having a detrimental effect on test scores. It sometimes gets to a point where the child is under so much pressure to get the answer correct they fear guessing and fear getting it wrong. We learn from our mistakes, and if we don’t make any, then I don’t believe we’ll learn that much.

So, next time, just guess, what’s the worst that could happen?

Prepared by Richard Coleman
6th Form - Tunbridge Wells Centre