The STEM Exam Handbook
You've had the walk home where the answers arrive one after another, twenty minutes too late. The integral you set up wrong. The question you never reached. The last part you'd have got in ninety seconds, if you'd had ninety seconds.
Free · 147 pages (A4) · 193 pages (6 × 9) · DRM-free PDF
That gap between what you knew and what you scored is bigger than you think. On a paper marked mostly on method, a student can know eighty per cent of the material and walk out with fifty-five per cent of the marks, purely on execution.
The gap is mechanical, and so is the fix. This book is about the three hours themselves: how the paper is built, how the marker's rubric actually works, and the decisions that decide your grade before you've written a line.
What this book helps you do
The four-minute triage that decides most of your mark
Marks-per-minute arithmetic, and wall-clock deadlines instead of guesswork
How method marks work, and why an unfinished question can outscore a finished one
Salvage: what to write when you can't finish, and what it's worth
Ten annotated scripts, plus two whole papers walked through
Open-book, take-home, and multiple-choice papers
A protocol card, error log, and two-week countdown to photocopy
What is inside
The downloadable editions include the complete chapters and toolkit listed below.
What You Are Actually Being Marked On
- The Paper Is a Machine
- How Marking Schemes Actually Work
- Where Marks Leak
The Exam Hour
- The First Four Minutes
- Order, and Clock Discipline
- The Abandonment Decision
- The Last Ten Minutes
Writing Under Pressure
- Writing for Method Marks
- State the Plan
- Salvage
- Checking Work You Have No Time to Check
The Term Before
- The Past-Paper System
- The Error Log
- Retrieval Practice for Problem Subjects
- The Final Two Weeks
Particular Kinds of Question and Paper
- Units, Figures, and Sanity Checks
- Data, Graphs, and Uncertainty
- Multi-Part and “Show That'' Questions
- Multiple-Choice and Short-Answer Papers
- Open-Book, Take-Home, and Formula Sheets
The Room
- Nerves, Blanking, and the Restart
- After the Paper
Toolkit
- Ten Annotated Scripts
- Two Papers, Start to Finish
- The Marker's Shorthand
- The Protocol Card
- The Error Log Template
- Marks-per-Minute Tables
- The Two-Week Countdown
- Where to Find Papers and Schemes
Two PDF editions are included
Both layouts are free to download from this page. Use the 6 × 9 edition when you want the paperback reading experience or a compact printout. Use the A4 edition for a larger screen page and easier home or office printing.
A4 screen edition
PDF · 147 pages · 471 KB
A larger page for reading on screen, and the easier one to print at home or in an office.
Download this edition6 × 9 print edition
PDF · 193 pages · 501 KB
The paperback proportions, best when you want a compact printout or the book reading experience.
Download this edition- Title
- The STEM Exam Handbook
- Subtitle
- Timing, Triage, and Partial Credit in Maths, Physics, and Engineering Exams
- Author
- Gaurav Tiwari
- Publisher
- Gaurav Tiwari Publications
- Formats
- 6 × 9 PDF and A4 PDF
- Language
- English
Download The STEM Exam Handbook
Both editions are free and contain the same complete book. Pick the layout that matches how you read.