Ballet competitions in relation to exam technique

Having a look at the stats for the posts, the clear winner (most popular) is when I upload a presentation to the pages site and provide a link. This isn't going to happen anytime soon. The second place goes to the girl in the ballet competition whose music cut out. Given that this seems to have been the next most popular I thought I would share something else from the same competition.

Usually the dads sit in the audience and watch, for me I have the job of videoing my daughter but - seeing as my daughter is only one of many, many dancers - we get to watch the other young girls. What we found is that some of the dances are quite long, much longer than the recommended two and a half to three minutes. We thought about this and realized that a long dance (although satisfying for the parent) isn't best for the child from a competition perspective. You can get all the points you need from the two and a half to three minutes. If the dance goes on for longer the situation changes in that each additional second out there is a chance to make an error and loose the points you have gained. The key to this we worked out was to, get on, get the points, and then get off. Our daughters' ballet teacher obviously knows this as I have had to shorten songs in the past to bring them within time.

This reminded me of exam techniques. Let's explain, I like exams, a lot more than I like other assignments. They are usually a lot easier to study for and they are over quickly. Also, over the years I have had many exams and have learned very good (I think at least) exam technique - and I usually do very well. There are a few techniques that I will share for those interested, the first of these is similar to the dancing competition. Get in, get your points and get out - in an exam this means rule number one is: DON'T ANSWER THE QUESTIONS IN THE ORDER THAT THEY APPEAR. Read all the questions then answer the easiest first. If the question is something you remember and find easy, you gain more points per unit of time. Once done with the easiest question move onto the next easiest (second most efficient in terms of points per unit of time) and so forth. Even if there is a question you don't know how to answer at all (I'll cover how to deal with this in a later post) and you don't answer it, you could well have passed.


I wish my kids would just listen to this advice...