exam technique, rub out and mark or leave as it is?

[usernamenotfound]

Both of my DC did CEM exams (2014 & last year) and neither managed to finish all the questions especially NVR.
Both qualified.

Very best of luck, this time next week the exam will be all over!

Rhiane, that is reassuring, Thanks. Well done you and your kids !!
I can't wait for this to be over ( and then to stress until the result day )

[hen45]

My daughter had this issue too, I found it so stressful as I knew she had the ability to answer the questions, she just seemed to find so many ways of messing up the answer sheet!! On the actual day (a few years ago) she was completely thrown when she came to the last question on NVR but had two spaces left on the answer paper. Total panic and nearly rubbed t all out / collapsed into tears but then noticed the last question had two answers required!! She’d never come across that in any mock test / practice paper so it was completely unexpected. Anyway, she kept her head and was fine but it could have been very different. She maintains to this day that either the question or the answer sheet weren’t numbered. I can’t believe it could be true but I guess we’ll
never know. I’d try and teach your daughter how to take some deep breaths and try her best not to panic. I think she can ask for help from the invigilator if it does go wrong and she realises in time?

[usernamenotfound]

My daughter had this issue too, I found it so stressful as I knew she had the ability to answer the questions, she just seemed to find so many ways of messing up the answer sheet!! On the actual day (a few years ago) she was completely thrown when she came to the last question on NVR but had two spaces left on the answer paper. Total panic and nearly rubbed t all out / collapsed into tears but then noticed the last question had two answers required!! She’d never come across that in any mock test / practice paper so it was completely unexpected. Anyway, she kept her head and was fine but it could have been very different. She maintains to this day that either the question or the answer sheet weren’t numbered. I can’t believe it could be true but I guess we’ll
never know. I’d try and teach your daughter how to take some deep breaths and try her best not to panic. I think she can ask for help from the invigilator if it does go wrong and she realises in time?

Thanks hen45 for sharing this experience. bless your dd. poor thing, it must have been very stressfull, glad it was all good in the end.
my dd didn't have any probelms before and first occurrence was mid-Aug on her first mock exam. And I was happy when she said she had gone back to rub all those and put it in the right place, which really shows she was keeping cool. Then when the results showed that the rubbing out was not good enough, we both were shocked. In a way it is good that she has done it in mock test, we had time to talk about it properly. Now, I stopped mentioning this to her, the more I say it feels like I am stressing that she is going to get it wrong, ifykwim. three more days to go
I think there is an option to alert the invigilator, but don't know how useful it is.

[Skylark]

My daughter had this issue too, I found it so stressful as I knew she had the ability to answer the questions, she just seemed to find so many ways of messing up the answer sheet!! On the actual day (a few years ago) she was completely thrown when she came to the last question on NVR but had two spaces left on the answer paper. Total panic and nearly rubbed t all out / collapsed into tears but then noticed the last question had two answers required!! She’d never come across that in any mock test / practice paper so it was completely unexpected. Anyway, she kept her head and was fine but it could have been very different. She maintains to this day that either the question or the answer sheet weren’t numbered. I can’t believe it could be true but I guess we’ll
never know. I’d try and teach your daughter how to take some deep breaths and try her best not to panic. I think she can ask for help from the invigilator if it does go wrong and she realises in time?

Thanks hen45 for sharing this experience. bless your dd. poor thing, it must have been very stressfull, glad it was all good in the end.
my dd didn't have any probelms before and first occurrence was mid-Aug on her first mock exam. And I was happy when she said she had gone back to rub all those and put it in the right place, which really shows she was keeping cool. Then when the results showed that the rubbing out was not good enough, we both were shocked. In a way it is good that she has done it in mock test, we had time to talk about it properly. Now, I stopped mentioning this to her, the more I say it feels like I am stressing that she is going to get it wrong, ifykwim. three more days to go
I think there is an option to alert the invigilator, but don't know how useful it is.

All the best for the big day. Ours was last Saturday and I can understand all your worries. We just have to trust our children, that they will take everything we taught them on board.

[usernamenotfound]

thank you Skylark

[usernamenotfound]

DD came out of the hall smiling, that means we all are
Exam went well, no surprises, no unexpected errors either.

Thanks everyone for the support and wishes. It helped us a lot.

[hen45]

Great news, best of luck with the result

[Daogroupie]

Fantastic news.

I was thinking about her and hoping it was going well.

She has cracked it and it should be all good from now on.

So great you put the focus on it that was needed.

The most important thing in Multiple choice is recording the answer.

If you don't do that properly then the whole thing has been a complete waste of time.

The mocks were very good for you because they showed you that her approach was wrong and disaster was potentially looming.

This is the point of mocks, find out what is wrong and then fix it.

So glad to hear it all came together in the real thing. DG

[usernamenotfound]

Just wanted to let you all now that my dd passed with very good score, would be able to get to her prefered school
Thank you all for your valuable help when it was really needed for me and her.

Also, I have learned later that if the Optical marker couldn't read/ read two answers or any ambiguity on the paper, it will be marked separately. Adding this info for coming years, I wish I had known this before exam, we did fret over how dark it should be/ if too dark rubbing out would be difficult .... not me but my dd. I am so happy that we can put this behind us now, until next one is in year 5

[rhiane]

Just wanted to let you all now that my dd passed with very good score, would be able to get to her prefered school
Thank you all for your valuable help when it was really needed for me and her.

Also, I have learned later that if the Optical marker couldn't read/ read two answers or any ambiguity on the paper, it will be marked separately. Adding this info for coming years, I wish I had known this before exam, we did fret over how dark it should be/ if too dark rubbing out would be difficult .... not me but my dd. I am so happy that we can put this behind us now, until next one is in year 5

Excellent new, Congratulaions