Minimise making silly mistakes on the exam

[Jed]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to minimise making silly mistakes in the exam?
Thanks in advance. 

[Mao]

take it slow and steady. dont rush through anything =]

and make sure you READ THE DAMN QUESTION
i've lost so many marks on practice exams because i just dont read the question properly

[ninwa]

and if you have extra time, for the love of god and all that is holy don't just leave, double check and triple check your answers

I've lost count of how many marks I've lost in exams because I couldn't be f*cked double checking

[/0]

I think it is better to try and pace yourself so you don't just rush through the exam. While heaps of checking time is good, it is harder to find mistakes you have already made.

[aksman]

make sure you go through all the questions requiring calculations again and not just refer to your answers for accuracy.
sometimes you enter the wrong number in your calculator the first time, so double-checking the calculation questions always helps.

[Glockmeister]

take it slow and steady. dont rush through anything =]

and make sure you READ THE DAMN QUESTION
i've lost so many marks on practice exams because i just dont read the question properly

Definitely agree on this one. I lost about 4 or so marks on questions on an Insight paper that were probably quite stupid (e.g adding and extra CH3 when asked to draw Propyl ethanoate.)

[Pandemonium]

they had this question in an exam question that i did that was hella trippy

triglyceride + methanol ------> glycerol + 3x WHAT ORGANIC MOLECULE?

i am like wot? you can't do that like that. so i wrote the fatty acids
answer turned out to be the biodiesel variant. go figure.

[Mao]

triglyceride is basically a tri-ester

tri-ester + methanol (in NaOH solution) reacts to become glycerol + methyl- [fatty acid]noate

that is a general biodiesel =]

[/0]

Bring a highlighter!

[Pandemonium]

triglyceride is basically a tri-ester

tri-ester + methanol (in NaOH solution) reacts to become glycerol + methyl- [fatty acid]noate

that is a general biodiesel =]

not so fast ---- it didn't have NaOH present.

[polky]

TAKE NOTE OF DILUTIONS (god I hate dilutions).

[Rosie]

What really is the difference between a molecule and a mole. I know they are not the same thing but when used in calculations I tend to misinterpret molecules as mole.

[polky]

it's like using a dozen to represent 12.  A dozen pineapples = 12 pineapples, so if you have 10 dozen pineapples how many singular pineapples do you have?  12x10 = 120.

woohoo chem tmr.

[Mao]

triglyceride is basically a tri-ester

tri-ester + methanol (in NaOH solution) reacts to become glycerol + methyl- [fatty acid]noate

that is a general biodiesel =]

not so fast ---- it didn't have NaOH present.

not necessarily in NaOH. its just a catalyst that offers alternative reaction pathway. [but usually it's there]

[bucket]

draw a flow chart of the scenarios given =]
works best with titration questions as that was you can keep track of dilution factors.

ie.

2.0g of shit ----> diluted to 200ml ----> 20ml aliquotes taken ----> titrated against blablabla, titre=0.2738345634