Any advice for exam technique?

[AGBellamy]

Hi, I'm not sure where to put this (I'm not sure of anything anymore) or if there's a thread similar to this. Remove/move as necessary.

I am in desperate need of exam technique advice since I keep hearing different things from different people.

My Psychology essays are getting an average of 18 out of 22, but my history essays are getting 5s, and I need a 6 if I'm going to go to Manchester. My psych teacher tells us that we should do our essays like this:

"write a line

(leave a line)

write a line

(leave a line)"

to make it look neater if we suddenly need to add something we didn't think of before/didn't plan. I understand that there are problems, but I find it easier to write with this style. My History teacher contradicts this and says we should write in this style:

"Introduction

(leave a line)

(Gigantic paragraph on everything that's 'comparable'/a 'for' argument)

(leave a line)

(Gigantic paragraph on everything against the above paragraph)

(leave a line)

Conclusion"

You can tell I'm at a loss for what to do, since in History I do smaller paragraphs so that I can focus, but he keeps marking me down for it and says that the examiner won't be able to follow my argument.

Does anyone have any advice? I'd rather stick with my smaller paragraphs in History and leave-a-line in Psychology, but I don't want to lose marks for my structure.

Thank you,

HGB

[Sandwich]

I would go for what your history teacher says. It doesn't seem so much like exam technique as just a kinda weird way of writing. I dunno if you've seen the examination booklets you have to write in for the IB, but they're REALLY really spaced out. I hated them If you need to add in some extra at the top of a line, unless you have truly monster handwriting, there should be plenty of space without leaving a line. In fact, if you left a line, you'd probably fit about a paragraph's worth of writing onto each page! I've never heard that advice given out before. It sounds like something your teacher likes at random, to be honest, a bit like those teachers who insist that you single underline the date and double underline the title. Individual craziness.

Double spacing handwritten work is unnecessary and unusual. No examiner should mark you down or up for it technically speaking, but it is more annoying to read stuff that's really spaced out, for sure. To be safe I'd write normally on every line. For Psychology as well as History! Writing on every line/every other line isn't = essay structure, for the record, so it shouldn't really have an impact on your mark.

[Julie]

On your exam you can write it however you want. It's up to you. There is not criteria for the technique in which you write. If you want to skip every other line in case you need to add something in, do that. If you want to write everything line after line after line, do it, and if you want to skip a line between each paragraph, DO IT! I don't understand why your teacher marks you down for such a thing. It is not in the markschemes. That's like saying your going to get graded on your handwriting- everyone has different handwriting...

Anyways, do it the way he says, just to satisfy him. When exams come, if you feel more comfortable doing it another way, than do it your way. He's not going to see your IB exam anyways, so he'll never know.

[Proletariat]

It's incredibly better to double-space written essays; especially since most of my practice papers have been stream-of-consciousness writing due to the time limits, if you ever do get a chance to edit you'll almost certainly find changes along the way, and that's where the extra space really comes in handy. Plus I have messy writing, and a double-spaced written essay is much more legible than a single-spaced one.

To be honest I've been taught to double-space written essays ever since Grade 7, and I don't know if it's the indoctrination talking now, but that's the only way that makes sense to me.