I am pretty much certain that many of my co-affiliates/students would have dismissed my blog as baloney on seeing it’s heading and would have come in to read it in full, not expecting to gain much from it, but out of curiosity and eagerness to know much more about how I seem to have come to the absurd presumption, which forms the heading to my blog for the month of July 08.
Well...for those of you think I seem to be out of senses to have such a presumption, I request your open-minded & tolerant reading of the rest of the blog before you make inferences & would appreciate your comments.
As an ACCA student, one of the numerous cues that my mentors gave me was to give high importance to presentation and organisation in my exam answers, and not just pay attention to the process of obtaining knowledge requisite for passing the exams. In simple words, it was a mixture of exam technique and knowledge that fetched marks in the exam and thereby led to success in exams.
And one of the key issues in presentation is one’s ability to “KISS”. And not to take it any further….KISS stands for ‘Keep it Short (&) Simple’.
It might have been observed by all of you that the most daunting task, going into an exam is communicating ones thoughts in an appropriate manner. Although the facts and content are known, at times, we find it extremely tough to put it in writing in a convincing & attractive manner.
When faced with the aforesaid situation, one often resorts to beating around the bush and scampering for the ‘right phrases’. This leads to wastage of both effort and time, as ideas and thoughts reiterated ‘do not’ fetch extra marks!
At this juncture, may I take you back to my first blog for the ACCA exactly 1 year ago, where I stressed the vitality of devoting equal time to every mark available. To be able to manage one’s time effectively one must be adept at keeping things short and simple as this besides easing time-pressures, also highlights the key points, for which you expect to be awarded with a mark by the marker. Professional exam markers are as time-pressurized as the examinees (students) and prefer a short and specific answer presented in a lucid and attractive manner.
Now you might ask how one can overcome the problem of not getting the right words to frame your answers. The way out of this issue is very simple and known by one and all. Practice, Practice and nothing short of exam-question practice will give you the confidence and proficiency in drafting impressive & most importantly succinct exam answers. But with work and domestic-time pressures taking a toll, you might want to debate on the availability of time for sufficient practice.
For this may I recall a study methodology that helped me and many of my ACCA friends during our student days (which certainly wasn’t long back) – a bulleted revision & oral elaboration approach, which involved attempting questions from previous year exams and pilot papers by listing out the answers in bulleted format and then orally recapitulating the explanation that you would provide under each bullet. This enabled practice of larger number of questions within limited time, without having to write up the whole answer & still being able to develop one’s ability to expand on the bulleted points and at same time Keeping It Short and Simple (“KISS”).
Now, as I conclude my blog , I am overwhelmed with guilt within, as I realize I have written up a 660 word blog on a topic which seeks to keep things short and simple. So while I go away and attempt to enhance my skills and abilities to KISS(Keep it Short & Simple), I must thank you for your uncomplaining and patient reading of this blog in full and would appreciate your comments!
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