Well I've taken the afternoon off from work and am trying to do some finally cramming in preparation for my exam which is coming up at 6:30pm this evening.
This is the bit I find really quite difficult. I'm not good at deciding what sections to concentrate my revision on. I've done some work on basic electronics and semiconductors - the two areas I said I was weakest at, but I can't be much more specific than that.
I think the best plan of action is to run over the formula sheet a couple more times and make sure I'm happy with which formulae does what. Then I'll go over the very basic things such as units of indices - I'd hate to get questions wrong just because I put down 'to the power of ten minus 6' instead of 'to the power of ten minus 9'.
And amongst that I'll continue answering questions in QADV so that I get used to the question format before I get to the hall.
Since the exam starts at 6:30pm, I'll have to think about leaving in about an hour. Better get cracking then.
This is the bit I find really quite difficult. I'm not good at deciding what sections to concentrate my revision on. I've done some work on basic electronics and semiconductors - the two areas I said I was weakest at, but I can't be much more specific than that.
I think the best plan of action is to run over the formula sheet a couple more times and make sure I'm happy with which formulae does what. Then I'll go over the very basic things such as units of indices - I'd hate to get questions wrong just because I put down 'to the power of ten minus 6' instead of 'to the power of ten minus 9'.
And amongst that I'll continue answering questions in QADV so that I get used to the question format before I get to the hall.
Since the exam starts at 6:30pm, I'll have to think about leaving in about an hour. Better get cracking then.
Well I've taken the exam. After 2 hours and 62 questions, the course I have been attending since August is complete. Now all there is to do is wait for the results.
Unfortunately it didn't go as well as the mock exam last Thursday. The paper was quite a bit more difficult and I definately needed most of the two hours to complete it and check it a few times.
I used the approach of read the paper first, then complete the easy questions, then go back for a third time and complete the not so easy questions. On the fourth pass I completed the few maths based questions that were there and then the fifth pass I guessed at the questions I didn't know then answer to. The it was just a case of flick through to ensure I didn't miss any questions and double check the answers I'd put. So all in all, I probably went through it 6 or 7 times.
There was an interesting mix of questions ranging from some very easy ones that I might expect to see on a foundation exam, to some quite tricky ones that I really had to think about and even then wasn't sure if I was answering correctly.
One of the worst things though was the fact that there was a duplicate question. It was an easy question to answer, but I was sure there was a subtle difference between the two I spent a little while near the end of the 2 hours trying to find out what it was. The question was identical in every way though, so it turned out to be an easy extra point.
So I now have to wait about 4 weeks for the paper to be marked and the result sent through. I'm hoping that I will have got through although I'd say my confidence level is currently 50/50. I wasn't the only one who thought the paper was particularly difficult. Most (if not all) of the group did. Assuming that's the opinion of the paper in all test centres, hopefully the examiners will set a low pass mark.
If it's set at 60% I should be okay, but if it's set any higher than 65% then I might start getting worried.
Unfortunately it didn't go as well as the mock exam last Thursday. The paper was quite a bit more difficult and I definately needed most of the two hours to complete it and check it a few times.
I used the approach of read the paper first, then complete the easy questions, then go back for a third time and complete the not so easy questions. On the fourth pass I completed the few maths based questions that were there and then the fifth pass I guessed at the questions I didn't know then answer to. The it was just a case of flick through to ensure I didn't miss any questions and double check the answers I'd put. So all in all, I probably went through it 6 or 7 times.
There was an interesting mix of questions ranging from some very easy ones that I might expect to see on a foundation exam, to some quite tricky ones that I really had to think about and even then wasn't sure if I was answering correctly.
One of the worst things though was the fact that there was a duplicate question. It was an easy question to answer, but I was sure there was a subtle difference between the two I spent a little while near the end of the 2 hours trying to find out what it was. The question was identical in every way though, so it turned out to be an easy extra point.
So I now have to wait about 4 weeks for the paper to be marked and the result sent through. I'm hoping that I will have got through although I'd say my confidence level is currently 50/50. I wasn't the only one who thought the paper was particularly difficult. Most (if not all) of the group did. Assuming that's the opinion of the paper in all test centres, hopefully the examiners will set a low pass mark.
If it's set at 60% I should be okay, but if it's set any higher than 65% then I might start getting worried.