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I am working through the revision kit under exam conditions and found that whilst I can get the right answers and score some marks, I am not fast enough to complete the questions, especially the calculations. I just finished one FCF valuation question where I missed the time allocation by a factor of nearly 2, i.e. a 16-marks question took me 44 mins and five A4 pages to complete! And that’s excluding 2 minutes of reading time that I gave myself before I start writing.
Am I doing something wrong (not pressing buttons on calculators fast enough) or breaking up the calculations too much? I am already writing constantly and as fast as I can. The only thing that I can cut out are some of the workings, but that’s running the risks of doing wrong calculations and not getting any partial marks for them. And if I look at the model answers, they have almost as many workings as I do too. Do your other students have the same problem? What suggestions can you give on balancing writing out headings, explanations, workings, formulas vs speed?
Thanks.
The time pressure is a problem for everyone – don’t worry.
Just keep practicing, and remember that it is better to do something for every part of every question (even if you do not finish any of the parts) than to leave some parts out completely. You are after getting at least 50% of the marks on every question in order to pass.
Thank you John. I was really worrying that I am doing something wrong.
One follow-up question: I have seen the recommendation to “make an assumption” if I don’t get to the end of the calculations. However, if my assumption is off and doesn’t match the answer, will I still be able to gain some marks for the discursive part (based on a wrong conclusion)?
Thanks.
Yes – you do not lose marks twice for the same mistake.
If your discussion is correct for the figure that you are using (whether that figure is right or wrong or even guessed) then you will still get the marks for the discussion part.
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