Question

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday The Case of That Sinking Feeling leave that question Tbis was going to be easy. Debbie Mallery said to herself as she two possible answers and finally decided just to at down to take her test, a midterm exam covering the basics blank. The pattern was the same for the rest of the m of restaurant management. She had spent a few hours the previ questions. A few questions Debbie would answer easily, then ous night and an hour right before class studying key terms and get stuck on a hard one. concepts. She felt she knew the material. She felt ready. Finally, Debbie finished the multiple-choice questions and came to the essay. Only then did she notice the instructions that points, and the multiple-choice shock: She real- Debbie was surprised to see, though, that the exam had two parts: a multiple-choice section and an essay section. indicated the essay was worth S0 Debbie hadn't really thought about what she might say in an questions 25 points. Then Debble got another essay. But she figured working on the multiple choice ques- ized she had only 10 minutes left to write her essay tions might help give her some ideas. froze-and Debbie had the horrible feeling that she didn't have enough time to complete the test. Even though she had studied The first two multiple-choice questions Debbie answered ily, but she got stuck on the third one. She went back and forth over eas Debbie now felt certain she would fall. 1. What mistakes did Debbie make in her test preparation that probably harmed her performance? 2. What mistakes did Debbie make during the test that hurt hert 3. What was right about Debbie's initial approach to the test? to devote to each portion of the 4. What should Debbie have done differently in calculating the amount of time testt Why? What specific strategies would have helped Debbie with the multiple-choice questions? What strat she have used on the essay egies could 5, 6. If you were in Debbie's shoes, what would you do with only 10 minutes left in the test?

Answer 1

1. The first mistake Debbie did was not knowing the pattern of the test. Even though she was confident about the material it is always better to give a quick glance at the syllabus. She should have started preparing for the test before hand and also plan for atleast one revision before the exam. The recollection of the learnt topic will be better after a revision. She should have taken ample rest the night before and go to the test with a clear and pleasant mind unlike what she did in this case by studying just the previous night which left her strained during the day of the test.
2. During the test the few mistakes she did were not reading the instructions, not knowing the marks allotted for essay and multiple choice questions. She also did not plan the time she should allot to answer the essay and multiple-choice questions. She got stuck at the question she couldn’t answer and lost precious time there. Instead she should have just skipped those difficult questions and should have dealt with them at the end or in second round of answering. She lost the track of time during the exam not realising she used up almost all the time answering those questions which are worth just 25 points out of  the total 75 points.
3. She was right to answer the multiple-choice questions before answering the essay.
4. She should have allotted one third of the total time for answering the multiple choice questions and the remaining two thirds of the total time for answering the essay. This is because one third of the total points were allotted to the multiple choice questions and two thirds were allotted to the essay. So it would be wiser to allot the time according to the weightage.
5. For the multiple choice questions she should have answered them in two rounds, first round for the easy ones and the second round for the difficult questions. By using this technique she will not end up stuck with one question losing precious time during the test.  For the essay she should have started it when there was ample amount of time and use some of that time to plan on how to write and what all points to include. By doing so she could write it in a more presentable way without missing any important points. This  would have helped her to get a better score.
6. With the left over ten minutes, if I were Debbie I would have taken a deep breath, stop worrying as it would have been of no use and focus on the essay. As the time was just ten minutes and it’s not enough to write an entire essay. It is a fact that quality essay gets better score than a big essay without good content. So I would write a smaller essay with as many important points as possible in the time left.

These are my views on the given topic. Hope this helps you out. Please feel free to give your feedback and if you need any further detailed answer. Thank you and have a great day.