help! NEED Tips for writing short, concise and to-the-point answerS

[qshyrn]

I know the course very well and I seem to ALWAYS struggle with finishing the exam paper.. The unit 4 one seems longer than the unit 3 one. I am good with MC and can finish it in about 15 minutes, but i still struggle to finish the long answer bits in the 1hr 15mins left! (i still get low to mid-60s though, losing marks for the qs i dont do)
I am always writing very long answers cuz i always worry that ill miss a key point or something in the question (ITS VERY HARD FOR ME TO TELL WHETHER A POINT SHOULD BE INCLUDED OR NOT!).
Does anyone (especially previous biology students who got a great mark on exam 2) have any good tips for my problem?

ill give u an example: In 2007 VCAA  5. d:
At present the island and mainland populations are both classiÞ ed as the same species.
It has been proposed that the two populations of snakes may eventually evolve into two separate species.
d. Outline the steps involved in the process of speciation, with particular reference to the snakes in the two
populations. You may use a labelled diagram or ß ow chart to illustrate your answer.

-now, i go on about theres no gene flow, different selection pressures, the effects of genetic drift and mutation introducing new alleles into the population and everything you can think of about this speciation process.... (i go way over the 8 lines the question gives me..) so basically it takes me AGES TO WRITE

now when i checked my answers i was pissed cuz on the examiners report it had only 3 points:
"Students needed to make the following points in their responses:
• the island and mainland snakes were geographically isolated or no gene flow
• each population experienced different selection pressures
• populations, if reintroduced, were unable to produce viable fertile offspring."
MAYBE THE 3 MARKS IT GIVES, IT MEANS YOU HAVE TO PUT DOWN 3 KEY POINTS??? (is this always the case?)
its 2 days till the exam and im really worried  

[qshyrn]

bump

[cipherpol]

I typically do one dot point per mark, but it never hurts to write extra. Just don't contradict yourself.

[ninwa]

I have the same trouble as you - I never know what points should be included so I write and write and write and in the end, only half of my answer actually gets me marks.

Yes, typically it should be one mark per point. Stick to that in the exam. Remind yourself that you'll probably get more marks if you write a little less for each answer and actually finished the exam.

When I did biology I made a sort of "bargain" with myself - if it was a 3 mark question for example, I would only write extensively what I thought were the 3 main points then move on. If I had time at the end, I would go back and add dot points to my answer of the extra stuff which I wasn't sure should be included or not.

I'm also pretty sure that in my exam I wrote all my answers in dot points rather than full prose, which really helped to condense my thoughts into the relevant points. I'm not sure if that'll lose you marks though. (I got A+ on both exams and 43 for bio)

[qshyrn]

thx everyone who replied was really helpful!

I have the same trouble as you - I never know what points should be included so I write and write and write and in the end, only half of my answer actually gets me marks.

Yes, typically it should be one mark per point. Stick to that in the exam. Remind yourself that you'll probably get more marks if you write a little less for each answer and actually finished the exam.

When I did biology I made a sort of "bargain" with myself - if it was a 3 mark question for example, I would only write extensively what I thought were the 3 main points then move on. If I had time at the end, I would go back and add dot points to my answer of the extra stuff which I wasn't sure should be included or not.

I'm also pretty sure that in my exam I wrote all my answers in dot points rather than full prose, which really helped to condense my thoughts into the relevant points. I'm not sure if that'll lose you marks though. (I got A+ on both exams and 43 for bio)

Thanks for the advice ninwa, im gonna stick to your bargaining method lol (never really thought of this) seems like a great idea!.
 
Gonna try the 2008 vcaa one now!