Exam 6-US Intro

How is Exam 6 Different

Many of you have already taken Exam 5 so you're familiar with an upper level exam, but Exam 6 is different:

• As with Exam 5, it's a short answer-style exam (versus multiple choice).

• Unlike Exam 5, Exam 6 is all about memorization vs calculation. Use our quizzes to help retain information.

• The amount to memorize can be surprising so make sure you give yourself some extra study time. People generally find that Exam 6 takes about 15% more study time than Exam 5.

• Exam 6 covers a lot of material, roughly 2,500 pages, making it tough to memorize that amount of info. BattleActs condenses the material to a realistic amount, helping achieve the level of mastery required to pass the exam.

• Given the mountain of material, organizing the articles can be a task in itself. No worries - we’ve significantly reduced prep time. Use our ranking table to quickly organize your study approach.

• The syllabus changes frequently which adds extra prep time if you are taking the exam again. Save valuable time by reading the “Syllabus Changes Here” article. We’ve highlighted all the changes and modifications for you. This feature means you won’t spend valuable study time hunting through articles to figure out what has changed.

• The material is very broad and the subjects don't fit together particularly well, especially in the regulation sections. We point out relationships between readings where possible.

• Many people find the material is not that interesting. This can make it challenging to stay motivated. We try to write our articles to make the material less dry...and we have the Leaderboard so you can see how you are doing compared to everyone else.

• You need to be able to answer questions efficiently on exam day. You’ll see tips in our wiki articles to help you with this.

• You have to have a well-rehearsed, time management strategy exam day. See On BattleDay for more on this.

Tips for Short Answer Exams

Some of you may have already read this if you used BA for Exam 5, but this might still be worth reading over as a refresher.

Tips for a short answer exam.

• You can get partial credit for any given problem.

• There is an emphasis placed on "showing your work".

• Exam graders focus on (1) do you understand the process? and (2) do you communicate it effectively so someone else can follow what you did?

• Many problems have steps that require judgment and there can be a range of acceptable answers, or even the question may be unclear. If you are not sure, then state your assumption or how you are interpreting the question.

• In a long multi-step problem, it’s sometimes difficult to get all the way to the end without making a small mistake. Don’t stress over this. If your method is correct, you’ll get most of the points for the problem.

A short answer exam requires a change in study strategies.

• You need to be able to recall information vs recognition. It takes longer to memorize for recall than it does for recognition. Give yourself enough time to review and test yourself frequently.

• Short answer tests focus on understanding in addition to memorization of facts.

• Use the quizzes to initially learn the material, then use active studying by explaining the concepts in your own words.

• Build test writing skills. Learn what you need to write to get full credit. Be thorough but concise. You don't need to take time making things look neat. Writing bullet points is quicker than typing full sentences. You should virtually never write a whole paragraph. Look at the point value of the question to determine how long your answer should be. You should roughly have one bullet point or one significant answer for each quarter of a point.

• Use commonly used abbreviations to save time on exam day.

• Practise, practise, practise! The more problems, and more importantly, the more types of problems you solve, the better prepared you’ll be.

Points to Keep in Mind for the Computer Based Testing Environment.

• In the Pearson platform, you won't be able to write out formulas in the same way as with paper and pencil. So you have to be more careful how you lay out your solutions. It has to be clear what steps you follow so the grader will know you understand the method, even if you don't do the whole problem correctly. For a more complicated calculation, try to avoid putting the whole calculation in one cell. If possible, break the calculation up into two or three cells so the graders can clearly see your steps. You want to label your calculations so the grader understands what you are doing. Remember, the graders will see the formulas you put into the cell.

• You don't need to spend time on formatting such as underlining or bolding.

The BattleActs Difference - Common Sense

Here are a few things you should keep in mind:

• There's no reason to memorize all the vast amount of material (roughly 2,500 pages)
• We analyzed prior exams and have identified the topics and specific questions that are repeated from year to year. This frequently tested material is your fundamental base. We’ve highlighted all of this for you, and you need to know it REALLY, REALLY well.
• Once you feel confident with this fundamental base, you can move on to historically less frequently tested material (time permitting.)

This is all just common sense.

Studying for Exam 6

Take a little extra time up front to get organized and you will save yourself a lot of time in the end.

1. Organize the readings. “Where do I start first?”. There are a lot of readings, so use the Ranking Table to organize the readings, set up a study schedule and determine how much time to spend on each article. Not all topics are tested equally, so they don’t deserve equal amounts of your attention. Unlike Exam 5, you don't have to read the articles in any particular order. Tip: Here's another way to use the table to your advantage. If you have more time to study, read a higher ranked article that requires more concentration. Tired after a long day at work? Get a lower ranked article out of the way. Click here for more tips on how to use the ranking table.
2. Set up a study schedule. Look at a calendar. See how much time you have until exam day. Use the Ranking Table, draw up a study schedule. Leave the last few weeks for review and practice exams. Spend 80% of your time on the top 24 readings. Spend 20% of your time on the rest.
3. Start studying. We recommend you do a quick read through of your chosen wiki article, then scan the source article and go back again to the wiki article for in-depth studying. Some people choose to skip reading the source material.
4. Memorize and practice the fundamentals. Do the quizzes and calculation problems. Use the BattleTables and Top Questions button to easily see what is most frequently tested in each article. Once you have mastered this material, move on to what is less frequently tested.
5. Test your retention. Our BRQ (Battle-Readiness Quotient) in the navbar next to your name. This provides you with an objective measure of how well you know the material. It starts at 0% and rises as you work through the quizzes.
6. Stay motivated. Use the Leaderboard to see how you're progressing versus everyone else. Crush your friends! (You can appear anonymously if you wish.)

The BattleActs Scoring System

The table in Quiz Scores table provides two critical pieces of information for each paper:

• BRQ score out of 10. This score gives you an objective measure of how well you know the material. Note that your score tends to drop for each day you don't attempt a BattleCard. This is to simulate the fading of memory over time. By exam day, try to get your score around 9 for the higher ranked readings and around 8 for lower ranked readings.
• A lapse statistic which represents the number of days since you last attempted a particular BattleCard.

You can use these features to decide what to review based on your quiz scores and the average days lapse.

Helpful Hints

• When you're doing the quizzes, your retention is improved by writing or typing out the answers. Practice writing or typing clear, concise answers so that on exam day, the answers will come to you quickly and automatically. You won’t have the time on exam day to figure out appropriate answers. For details on this, see Common Reasons for not Passing.

• Note that some BattleCards are actually old exam questions. Anywhere you see E, you can click to see the indicated exam question and examiner's report answer, just for that question.

• There is more information on how the BattleCards work that you should read at least once. It's short.

Last 3 Weeks Before Exam

Use this time to review and do at least one practice exam. We keep an exam as a hold-out sample from the BattleCard database, so you can use this exam for fresh practice .

• Read the On BattleDay article. These are simple tips, yet will save you a lot of precious time on exam day.

• Use the quiz subscores to identify your weak areas. You can also use the Battlecard filtering function page for this and to filter and display questions you need to practice more. Prioritize your weak areas based on how likely they’ll show up on the exam. The color-coding of BattleCards is a popular feature!

• Do at least one practice exam. We keep a recent exam as a hold-out sample from the BattleCard database, so you can use this exam for fresh practice. When doing a practice exam, you will want to duplicate the exam situation as closely as possible. Go somewhere where you will have 4 hours of uninterrupted time. Time management for this exam is KEY. Even if you know the material 100%, but don’t manage your time on exam day, you will put yourself at a huge disadvantage.

Now you are ready! Go to the Ranking Table and start reading / studying / calculating!

Disclaimer

The BattleActs study system is designed to help you focus on what we believe to be the most important and most frequently tested topics on the exam. Questions may come up from material not covered in our study system. We suggest that you use your own judgement where to use your time when reading the source material.