What A Joke

[kirst_ie]

Hiya Guys

I took my City and Guilds Vehicle Maintenance exam yesterday i passed my 1st exam with flying colours :D (remove and re-fit vehicle components) But my second exam was on stuff that i haven't even covered yet and i failed miserabley (diagnostics and fault finding) is level 3. Ive complained to my tutor and he said ive just gotta do a re-sit in 7 days Which isn't no where near enough time to know and understand the sort of questions that were on that exam

Does anyone know of any good tips for revision as if i fail again im going to have to pay for it the 3rd time.

Rant over, i needed to moan at someone as my other half and my mom and dad have had enought of listening to me moan.

Any help would be grately appreciated

[Tara]

I find going over stuff im revising right before I go to bed helps, seems to sink in more. Or just rewriting everything, but that can take ages.

Hope the re-sit goes ok

[Bibbs]

What sort of q's where they asking?

[Caz SR]

I would kick up a stink with your tutor if you haven't been tought what is necessary to pass a whole exam! That's unacceptable, unless it was one of those 'up to you' modules.

I found that scribbling a sheet of basic notes and words helped with revision. Doesn't have to be all neat and tidy - in fact my revision sheets were a mess but it helped break up chunks of info.

Saying that, I did all my revision for my GCSEs, A Levels and HND within the last week :!Removed!: did alright out of it though - so don't stress about the time available too much. If anything, it'll help keep it all fresh as your brain can only retain so much info.

Good luck

[kirst_ie]

What sort of q's where they asking?

Stuff like what makes the car return to a straight line?

They gave me a sample of a wet and dry compression test and with the results what would i recommend?

Also what are the recommendations for toe in a toe out with the example's they gave me.

I was completely and utterly stumped cuz i didn't have the foggest idea of what they were on about

[GIDDLEPIN]

Thing is you might clue yourself up on these particular questions and any answers we give will help you understand, then they will throw a completely different set of diagnostic questions requiring solutions. I agree with Caz, your tutor should know what the exam entails and should have prepared you with ALL necessary training needed to successfully complete the course.

Les

[Bibbs]

I hate to say it, but if it's a qualification .. you should know *everything* .. the test is just to confirm you do, and to give you a bit of paper to say you do.

You shouldn't just know the answers to the questions asked. What's the point in that?

If you've not been taught it, speak to the tutor.

[kirst_ie]

I hate to say it, but if it's a qualification .. you should know *everything* .. the test is just to confirm you do, and to give you a bit of paper to say you do.

You shouldn't just know the answers to the questions asked. What's the point in that?

If you've not been taught it, speak to the tutor.

You are right i do know everything that i have been taught and that i have practised time and time again

This is what i said to my tutor this morning.

Aint if funny that i passed the level 2 stuff things that i have been doing for the past 2 years, removing parts and putting them back which i attended every lesson and took everything on board, but i failed really bad on stuff that i haven't done yet, so if i passed stuff that we've done then obviously they haven't taught me eveything that i needed for that exam.

But you are right they should of known in advance what exams i would be doing

[Flat Pack]

Sounds like your college has screwed up at some point. Is this supposed to be the end of your course? If not, perhaps they've just accidentally entered you for some exams that you shouldn't be sitting yet.

Is your tutor actually the person that teaches your course or just someone you have to check in with from time to time? If they're not teaching the course they probably haven't got a clue whether or not you've been taught the material or even if you should sit that exam. They'll just be rolling off the standard 'if you fail again, you have to pay for a resit' line.

Do you know anyone else on your course? How did they get on?

[kirst_ie]

Sounds like your college has screwed up at some point. Is this supposed to be the end of your course? If not, perhaps they've just accidentally entered you for some exams that you shouldn't be sitting yet.

Is your tutor actually the person that teaches your course or just someone you have to check in with from time to time? If they're not teaching the course they probably haven't got a clue whether or not you've been taught the material or even if you should sit that exam. They'll just be rolling off the standard 'if you fail again, you have to pay for a resit' line.

Do you know anyone else on your course? How did they get on?

As far as i know i should of sat the exam but 80% of the questions are right above my head, i was always told fault finding and diagnostics were level 3

Yeah my mate passed just about anyway, but he has been in the trade for the lest 4 years so he's quite clued up. There was only two if us doing city and guilds the othere are doing IMI

[Jinxed]

k Ill do my best to communicate a strategy that did me right.... sorry if this isnt an appropriate strategy for the type of information you need to store and recall but it might help somebody anyway :)

1) you NEED the relevant information.... Acquire it at any cost asap... obviously without this your pretty much rogered

2) Give it a read through and dont even try and remember it... just plod through it slowly as u like and make sure you understand what its getting at...

3) mentally seperate the stuff you understand from the stuff you dont... the stuff you understand condense into mental pictures that contain as much information as you can(elaborate the picture in your mind to include whatever aspects you need) hard to explain but once you get one right youll know what im saying... its easier to remember one picture(catchphrase style with moving bits even) than it is to remember 500 words. This enables you to describe the picture in your mind rather than remember a big long explanation.

4) stuff you dont understand... try and fit all on one side of a4 with very small writing if necessary. keep it short condensed and precise. keep all relative things together. Draw mini flow chart type diagrams if necessary or easier. Nothing is more depressing than having a file of stuff you have to read every time and you spend so much time turning pages and balancing wieght that your in fact expending anough time doing other things. when its all on one side or close to.... revising is easier... the time consuming bit is getting it on one side. then...

mnemonics

chunk stuff .... if theres a table of numbers ... try and stick entire lines together to make it one item and not say 4 items per line

if lists of words try and make a sentence that will help you remember eg. richard of york gave battle in vain ;) = colours of rainbow

and if the chunking is a bit too hard going ... i found it to not work without a lot of effort for me... sack the mnemonics and just keep reading the a4 and imagineing the pictures and explaining them to yourself till you can go through everything you need in a very short space of time(eg. under approximately 30 minutes i found was very handy for a 4 hour exam). im not gonna claim this will work for everyone.... a good visual imagination seems pretty essential and its a lower state of development than semantic representation ac theory but i got 8 hours of exam in one day sorted out by starting this regime 4 days before and had a very thick file in my head after 3 hours when practised at it!

and I have to say I never found revising right before an exam useful at all... it just scared me more, the latest i found useful was a read through(of the a4) before i set off for an exam, but im sure some ppl are diferent.

Im not saying this is easy ... esp the first time you approach an exam in this way.... but it is effective when you get the hang. Id say using this strategy and a timetable that got you to just reading the a4 and recalling stuff approx 3 days before exam(with devotion) should have you pretty much prepared for the exam. I hand on heart swear by the methods ive described. Sadly no guarantee someone else will get them to work at all.....

best of luck and hope you get something from this... getting screwed by a tutor isnt fun

[kirst_ie]

Just a bit of an update

I retook my test on Tuesday and got a pass, the pass rate is 60% i got 62% bit of a let down ah but still ive passed.

Thanx for eveyone help and support.

Kirst

[Al J]

A pass is a pass.

Congratulations!

[Red Yaris 54]

Good news

[JAHill]

Top job mate!

A pass is a pass but can't you argue another 3% due to the cockup? Wouldn't that make it a Merit? Been a while since I did any exams.

For our networking exam, about six of us where sat in the pub getting steadily wrecked, reading our notes the day before, trying to remember the seven OSI layers amongst other things. Kate, one of the students just kept saying them in order with a brief description, in a put on Jamaican accent as she'd just been on holiday there. For some reason it just stuck in my head. Even now I can reel them off! ;)

[kirst_ie]

I wish i could, yeah it would make it a merit then, but the exam is all computer generated and you can't !Removed! it

But like you said a pass is a pass

[Jinxed]

Congrats glad youve got thru it up n onwards ;)