Inside Tomorrow's Pharmacist (2001)

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Exams - lovely exams

Exams - lovely exams by Imogen Savage

The sun is shining. The sky is blue. A gentle breeze stirs the air, bringing the scent of early summer. Miserable people with long faces, skulk along corridors with piles of papers, or huddle over desks in stuffy rooms with the blinds drawn down. We lecturers really don't like exams. And they are always when the weather's nice, always. Just show me those green folders and the little bits of string and I can think of dozens of things I would much rather do right now.

Of course it's far worse for you students who actually have to sit the wretched things. If you are someone who dreads exams, it's worth remembering that we lecturers can feel the same way too. For us, part of this sinking feeling is the thought of the great stack of marking which has to be done fast. If 90 students have done your questions, this can turn into a real endurance test! But there's also just a touch of anxiety, especially if you're fairly new to the job. We are proud when our students do well. If they don't, we can feel we might be at fault somehow. Were the questions too easy? Or (worse) too complex, or just plain wrong for the course?

However you feel about exams, it's probably fair to say that by the time you get to college you've done a lot of them. This is good, because in my book, preparing for exams means a lot more than swatting up lecture notes. You need to feel comfortable with the whole ritual of the exam.

The first thing to get straight is what you can take in and out of the exam hall. Then you won't get a nasty shock when you realise you don't have the right sort of pencil, or that the invigilator thinks your fancy calculator is actually a personal computer. You can't take any books of your own in of course, but things like the BNF may be provided. If they are, don't mark the pages, or take the books away unless someone tells you it's OK. Strangely enough, the same may be true for some types of exam paper, although you should be told if this is the case.

Next, be absolutely clear on what the format will be because multiple choice questions are on the increase. These are lovely for us lecturers because a machine reads them and does the marking. All we have to do is make sure the exam sheets get to the right place. But they could come as a nasty shock if you are expecting a more traditional type of paper where you get to write real words, not check a box. You may know the answer, but just not fill in the little circle properly, or panic and check the wrong option. Getting used to doing this type of exam is really important, as it will make the preregistration exam a less horrible experience.

Now to the nitty gritty: what's the paper like? It's probably in sections; how many questions must you do from each one? How long have you got for each question? Are any of the questions compulsory?

Getting familiar with the general structure of the papers you will face well before exams will help you feel more in control. It will also help you plan your revision. Take some time looking through past papers, and talk to someone in the year above. This year's finalists couldn't do that because they were the first ever fourth years. They coped very well, but it can't have been easy, not knowing quite what the paper would look like. But in general, courses tend not to change very fast, and lecturers tend to ask the same type of things from year to year. If you look at past papers, some sort of pattern may emerge. But don't forget that lecturers can change, and the style of questions may vary from person to person. When I was a student, we spent ages predicting which questions would come up, and we were mostly right too.

The most important thing to keep in mind is a) each lecturer will have a certain number of questions and b) they will be based on what they have covered in your course. This doesn't just mean in formal lectures, it includes practicals and tutorials — in fact everything on the timetable. So unless you are told that a session is optional, the golden rule is: everything on your course is examinable. You're unlikely to be quizzed on the finer details of an assay, or the full contents of the latest Code of Ethics. But you should have a basic idea of how these things work, and what they are used for.

If this sounds rather agitating, or just a bit too woolly, then dig out your course handbook. It should set out what each part of your course will cover. This is what we can examine you on. So if you think that something hasn't been covered in class, then tell someone about it.

Exams should test more than your short-term memory. They show your ability to think clearly and creatively under pressure. For tomorrow's pharmacists, this is a vital skill.

If you really want to do well, then don't just learn off our lecture notes and quote them back verbatim. It should get you through but it makes a dull read and doesn't really show us what you can do. Give us some evidence that you can think round the question; tell us something we don't know. For example, in pharmacy practice, this could mean comparing the official line on a professional issue with your own views and experience. Perhaps you've read something in The Pharmaceutical Journal, or had direct experience during vac work. The ultimate brownie point is to mention the lecturer's own research!

When I was an undergrad I don't think I even thought about the actual marking process. I half believed the myth that lecturers marked on weight — the more you know the more you write theory. So chuck the papers down the stairs and grade them according to how far they tumble — unless a well-placed bribe flutters out from between the pages!

Absolutely not true of course; the process is scrupulously fair. In exams, all students are equal because your answers really are anonymous. Unless you have particularly weird handwriting, or use English words in a strange way, we cannot begin to tell who has written what. Names are not matched up with candidate numbers until every last mark has been collated.

We check what you have written against our perfect answers (ie, marking schemes) These are vetted by the external examiners, and a proportion of papers may be second marked as a check. In general, the marks that people get in exams tend to match up pretty well with the way they do in their course work. But every now and then there can be a surprise.

Once all the marks have been submitted, all the teaching staff meet to review and agree the final pass list, and decide who must re-sit. Cases where someone didn't actually sit an exam will be flagged up and personal tutors can comment on the reasons. Usually this happens because of illness or family problems, and tutors will know in advance.

If you do feel ill, but actually sit the exam, the situation is not the same because your paper will be marked. Those marks will be entered, and will not change. So if you do wake up feeling really poorly it might be better to stay away rather than struggle through and not do very well. Then you should be able to do the exam for the first time when others do their re-sits. But I'm talking illness here — high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea, severe pain from an injury perhaps, not a hangover or just feeling stressed because you haven't done enough revision. So you would need a proper certificate from a doctor.

The only time that exam marks can change is if you have a viva, or oral. These usually only take place for students who are borderline between degree classes. So however much you want to get away from it all, do not go on holiday before the results have been announced. Check exactly when this will be, and make sure you are in college. Otherwise you could miss that first.

Dr Savage is a lecturer in primary care pharmacy, King's College, London