Worried about your final examinations? Wondering how you can improve your marks? Are you worried that maybe you do not impress your teachers with your answers? Well, it might be one of those factors that might affect your grades.
The way you write, the language you write and how you write creates a lasting impression on the respective subject teachers, which is how they score you. Moreover, not every teacher has the time to go through pages of answers written exclusively for them.
Thus, it is essential to attract their attention right at the beginning and appease them with their writing. Wondering how you can achieve that? Well, there are ways to improve your answers and different methods to employ to impress your teachers.
Importance of impressing your teacher
Well, it is obvious why you want to impress your teachers. Marks matter more than anything, and especially if you want to get into a good college on a scholarship.
So, you have to work hard, study and write your answers well in order to impress upon your teachers that you really gave it all. That’s not all, your teachers hold the right to write recommendation letters for you to the university, for which you really need to prove how hard you have been working on their subjects by writing a good answer in the finals.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.â€
Tips to impress your teacher while writing your final exams
Now that you have learnt the need to get into the good books of your teacher, you need to learn how to. Well, first you need to be regular to their classes and attend as much as you can, no matter how boring or hard the subject is. This is not only applicable right before the exams, but throughout the year. The subject teacher will not be impressed otherwise.
Once you have handled that, then it’s time to concentrate on ways to extract those additional marks. Wondering how? Well, listed below are some tips to do so.
- Structured answers: the way to the teacher’s heart
Teachers love it when everything is in the right order, especially if it’s an answer. The way to a teacher’s heart is writing your final answers in the most logical and structured way. Think about how you will answer a particular question and write down a rough structure. You can jot down your ideas in the form of heading sand then expand on it.
Construct each answer structurally; write a statement, provide example whether from the text or somewhere else, and then conclude. This will certainly win over your teachers.Also, do not forget to divide your answers into short paragraphs. Nobody likes to read uniform and lengthy answers.
- Highlight key points
When you are writing your answer, highlight the key points. Don’t get creative and highlight and colour it with highlighters or coloured pens. If you are writing in black, then use a blue pen to write out the highlighted portion and vice versa.
Or, you can simply underline the key points with a pen or a pencil. This will stand out and attract the attention of the teacher to the points which are relevant. Thus, no time will be wasted in reading unnecessary portions nor would any marks be lost.
- Illustrate amply
When you are writing an answer in your finals, it is imperative that you illustrate, either with good examples, or with a diagram, whichever is necessary. This puts the point across and allows your teachers to perceive how much you have understood and studied which impresses them.
For example, if you are writing an answer on James Joyce for literature upon his ‘theory of aesthetics’, then illustrate with portions from his various books like ‘the portrait of the artist as a young man’, ‘Ulysses’ and so on.
Similarly, if you are writing a biology answer, then simply draw a diagram along with it to put your point across.
- Write well
Many students, under duress, fail to write well and use the proper words to confer their thoughts. This fails to impress the subject teachers and thus, they cut marks as they are unable to understand your point. So, when you write, use appropriate words. Write in simple terms but write well, without misusing words.
Also, write in a good handwriting as teachers fail to comprehend what you have written because of your handwriting.
- Be organized while answering
When you are writing your finals, make sure that all your papers and answers are organized well. Teachers look for well-written answers, written neatly and in an organized fashion. Never skip from one answer to another while writing one answer. Your quality of writing suffers as your thoughts do the same.
If you have written something down and wanted to cut it, just a simple strike through with your pen would do. No need to strike through it again and again.
Also, try and answer your questions as per the numbers assigned. Like for example, do not write one answer of SectionA on page 1 and another of the same section on page 8. This irritates the teachers. Leave space but don’t make the teacher go back and forth looking for your answer.
Distinctly divide your answers well. Â You should always highlight the place where your one answer is ending and other answer starts. This saves time for the teachers to look for answers and so, they can reward you with some extra marks.
- Spell out the points
If you can, then write your answers in the form of points as much as you can. To attract the attention of your teachers and impress them, try and assign headings and subheadings to your answer.This will put across your points even more and spell it out even more so.
- Number according to the question paper
It is essential that you number your questions in accordance with the question paper. Many students assign different numbers for different answers and blatantly forget the numbers assigned in the question paper.
Check which are the questions you are attempting from each section and number accordingly.
- Highlight the formulas
For maths teachers, formulas are extremely crucial to solving any mathematical problem and they look for it in the answers written by students. This is applicable for most science subjects. So, whenever you are attempting any such subjects, it is essential that you write down the formula first that you would be using and then solve the problem. If possible highlight it as well, so that your teachers are able to see it first.
- Attempt questions wisely
When you first take a look at the question paper, it is essential that you choose the questions that you are comfortable answering. Do not choose the questions which you are not comfortable with simply to impress your teacher. If you write a good and well-structured answer to any question, with ample amount of examples, your teachers will surely be impressed and reward you with marks.
So, go ahead and employ these tips to win over your teachers while writing your final papers. However, if you need any help with studying or with any assignments, you can always ask for help from online educational websites to know about various methods to improve your answers and acquire the marks you want. So, good luck with your preparations for your finals!
“First impressions are the most lasting.â€