Silly Mistakes!!!

[Mags]

Do you guys have any tips for reducing the number of silly mistakes you do in an exam?

I've been doing a few practice exams, and in all of them i lose approximately 5 marks over things i know well but for some reason just stuff up...

I hope I'm not the only silly one out there!

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! 

[b^3]

You are definietly not the only one out there (for me, 2+2=6 comes to mind)
Basically, for me this helps SLOW DOWN!, then when going over the exam, cover your working, and actually do the quesion again (in your head if possible) then check that you get the same answer (that is if you have time to do that). Otherwise don't read what you have done when checking, otherwise you will make the same mistake again.

[REBORN]

+1 to b^3. Misreading a q on my [u3] exam comes to mind.

I will be going about 25minutes slower this time. Actually [reading] the question helps -.-

[b^3]

+1 to b^3. Misreading a q on my [u3] exam comes to mind.

I will be going about 25minutes slower this time. Actually [reading] the question helps -.-

Ohhh yeh I forgot that one, Read the dam question, thats why I bring two highlighters into the exam with me now, means I can't mis the important bits, (lets not get started on the topic of wether they work or not again).

[lexitu]

I think some good advice is to come back to re-read (slowing down is good too). A lot of the time things are skipped in the initial processing and it's usually when you come back to fully reprocess again that you notice things. It happens a lot in my own writing - I'll make a typo and won't notice (even if I check) until I do a proper proof-read 20 minutes later.

[Lasercookie]

I was losing about ~15 marks due to silly mistakes :/.

I now stop myself and think about what I intend to write every time before I put pen to paper. Also, I have this habit of writing too much, so my answers are getting more concise if I don't write the first thing that comes to mind.

Actually reading each question during reading time also helps for me. That means when you actually do the question, you are technically re-reading it. And then re-reading it a third time when you go back to check your work.

[paulsterio]

Take a highlighter into the exam, and before you start the question, physically highlight the whole question, everything that's there, that forces you to read what is actually there, not just imagine that you've read it and then not go over it again

[tony3272]

  Just made a bunch of stupid mistakes on the chem exam i just did....

But another thing is to check if you answer seems logical. If it doesn't, then you may have stuffed up with something somewhere.

[Greatness]

But another thing is to check if you answer seems logical. If it doesn't, then you may have stuffed up with something somewhere.

Yep that's helps me pick up a lot of my mistakes - but id say this is more relevant for maths/science.

Another good tip is what the wise DHa told us: write out every step of your working. If you keep writing you'll finish the question quicker than you will if you do some/most of it in your head! It's really easy to make mistakes transposing a formula in your head, or trying to anti diff/diff something from memory just look at the damn formula sheet - they give you the bloody thing!

[jane1234]

On my methods practice exams last year, I was consistently losing 2-3 marks due to silly mistakes.
What I found helpful was to get myself into a habit of: 1) Read the question. 2) Do the question. 3) Read the question AGAIN. 4) Check that you have answered the question... before moving onto the next one. It's amazing how much you miss reading it the first time around.
Also, with maths most questions are pretty simple to check - just sub your answer into the original equation, antidifferentiate a derivative etc.
During the actual exam, I managed to find around 5 marks worth of silly mistakes by doing this. So silly mistakes can be beaten!

[chrisjb]

for my one maths subject, it's a matter of just taking my time to not make silly mistakes. I don't bother with too much time to check over my answers (maybe I'll leave like 5-10 mins at the end), it's more important to make sure you're putting the numbers in properly and stuff (I've noticed the cas calculator buttons sometimes don't click properly)

As for my humanities subjects, the only silly mistakes likely to occur are from not reading the question properly. I've noticed that nowadays I read the question, usually twice if it's more than 4 marks, then as I'm writing I naturally read over it again a couple of times as I go. This seems to reduce silly mistakes, and I can only imagine it has come from practice... So practice!

[gs]

You'd be surprised, but we are all robots around you. How can you make a mistake? Shame on you.....

...Nuh but seriously, get some sleep dude. We all make mistakes.

[gs]

...Just some more than others haha.