Is there anything we can do to minimise silly errors?

[soccerboi]

I was thinking of going through all the practice exams that i've done and write up a list of all my silly errors, and try to remember them so that i can hopefully consciously avoid them on the day.

Any other ideas that can help reduce silly mistakes?

Cheers
soccerboi

[Genericname2365]

The thread title's a bit ironic 

[soccerboi]

The thread title's a bit ironic 

LOL i better change that. haha
And i read it over to make sure, but it still happened...

[jaydee]

i think silly mistakes can be eliminated to an extent. But we all have bad days right? I think the difference between a 100% and a 95% just happens to be how ur feeling on the day. In the pressure of the exam and the time limits spotting mistakes isn't always the easiest either.

[thushan]

i think silly mistakes can be eliminated to an extent. But we all have bad days right? I think the difference between a 100% and a 95% just happens to be how ur feeling on the day. In the pressure of the exam and the time limits spotting mistakes isn't always the easiest either.

Agree. Same thing happened for me in Spesh exam 2 last year. On a good day I could have done much better, but I just had a bad day.

[WhoTookMyUsername]

Your bad day is still 99.95 D:

[Hutchoo]

^^ HAHAH. Yeah, Thushan.

[Shenz0r]

I've got the same problem as you, like sometimes I make pretty stupid errors (forgetting that esterification produces water, forgetting the charges on some reactants in a redox reaction so it balances wrong, finding mol instead of mass)

I think you should underline as many words as possible and try to mouth them out loud, then answer the question, then after you're done answering you should read over and see if you've answered the question. Underline key words in your answer.

For stoich questions, even after I've calculated the value of the thing I'm finding, I still write a full statement saying "Therefore, the ............. is x", just to be sure that I'm finding what I'm supposed to find.

And after each calculation I redo it on the calculator just to make sure I haven't done anything wrong, preferably without looking at my working

[paulsterio]

3 words of advice!

CHECK YOUR WORK!

[pi]

3 words of advice!

CHECK YOUR WORK!

+ my three words:

READ THE QUESTION

[charmanderp]

Read the question. That's basically the biggest one. Check values a bazillion times when transcribing them from calculator to paper and vice versa. Check units all the time. Make sure you know exactly what is being reacted to produce what. Etc.

I like to think to myself every five minutes or so about the many, many, many hours of work that I've invested in this subject, and what a waste it would be if I made a silly mistake. That generally makes me a bit sharper

[t35t]

Guys, I was looking at the vcaa 2011 examiners report, and on question 8)c), a vast majority of the state had lost the mark due to writing H+ instead of general + charge for the NH3 of the amino acid. Personally, I ALWAYS right my + symbol just on the top left corner of the NH3 group- I thought it would be clear with the delta symbol... But given that the stupid examiner has most likely interpreted this as students writing H+, I was wondering then, if whether writing delta + should be avoided?

I do admit however, writing "delta +" in a manner not directly on top of the N could *possibly* be interpreted as H+... but honestly??

[Lesliel1]

highlighters. these bad boys are SO important.
Use a different colour for different parts of info. For example you might use one colour to highlight all info for a particular substance (mol, conc, titre) and then another colour for dilution and maybe another for the units you have to put it in. Not only does it make things easier for you to track info but its also a huge time saver... well for me it is.

[thushan]

Guys, I was looking at the vcaa 2011 examiners report, and on question 8)c), a vast majority of the state had lost the mark due to writing H+ instead of general + charge for the NH3 of the amino acid. Personally, I ALWAYS right my + symbol just on the top left corner of the NH3 group- I thought it would be clear with the delta symbol... But given that the stupid examiner has most likely interpreted this as students writing H+, I was wondering then, if whether writing delta + should be avoided?

I do admit however, writing "delta +" in a manner not directly on top of the N could *possibly* be interpreted as H+... but honestly??

Nah, it's not even delta +. It's + directly on top of the N; and it's not because you're not putting H+ or anything, but its because the formal charge is on the N atom.

[Bismuth]

Go through past exams and write down the common errors between them all (your errors are usually very similar or in some cases, reoccurring).

For example, you may forget to show water or the by-product of a substitution reaction or perhaps you always forget to balance the key element in redox equations.

Write these errors down. Now when you're in your exam,  remember these errors and actively look for them after you've finished your paper. Actually think back and see if any of your common errors could have came up in the exam. This works much better for Maths with reference books, but it is still applicable here.

Of course, you can't write every single error down and look for it. I think if it has occurred twice it's worth noting, even if you think you've hammered the tendency out. Under the constraints of the exam, you might have the tendency to repeat it. It'll only work for YOUR errors.

Other than that, carefully reading the question is important. Make sure to answer THAT question especially when it comes to theory. The other aforementioned techniques work well too.