(10 marks/150 words)
Here, the examiner wants students to (i) define probity; (ii) mention difficulties officers face in practicing it now; and (iii) suggest means of handling such difficulties.
If a question has three parts as in this example, students have to mentally recollect 4-7 ideas on each part, arrange them in a sequence, and write the answer. If the question has two parts, each part will have 6-9 ideas. Finally, if the question has one part only, the answer will have 15-18 ideas. These numbers are illustrative and the actual numbers can vary from question to question.
The next step is to arrange the ideas in a logical order. Students should make sure that the ideas are distinct and separate and not repetitive. After deciding on 4-7 ideas of a part, they can arrange them sequentially. They can start with the most important points.
Finally, students need to write out the answer. They should practise writing answer to each part along following lines:
♤ Think of the first idea
♤ What is the sentence in my mind which expresses the idea?
♤ Is it clear or vague? If it is vague, sharpen it.
♤ Is it long or short? If it is long make it short. This is the simplest way of improving one’s language.
♤ Is it grammatical or ungrammatical? If it is ungrammatical, correct it.
♤ Follow similar procedure for all the other ideas of the answer.
♤ Reread all the sentences and make further revisions you think are necessary.
♤ Then write down the final draft as answer.
♤ Then go to second part and answer it following above steps.
♤ Follow same procedure for the third part.
♤ To begin with, watch answer length roughly. (Number of lines × approximate words per line)
♤ In the end, count the words for the entire answer.
♤ Trim the answer by omitting inessential ideas or by cutting words or by omitting examples. Obviously, the above steps are designed to help students in writing answers and in improving them. This process of writing answers and revising them will improve the content and language of student
answers. With constant practice, students will learn how to polish the answers. This will become a
habit and improve their answers.
Study and practice in the above manner will help in the examination. Students will analyse questions and write relevant and effective answers. They will get used to tackling questions correctly. They will have clear ideas in their mind which they can readily apply.
However, there is a world of difference between (a) practising in the manner suggested in the preceding section and (b) in actually writing answers in the examination hall. In actual examinations, many students feel tense and anxious. The time pressure will be intense. The process of thinking about 14-15 questions and their parts and writing answers will be mentally fatiguing.
How to cope with these problems? The commonsense approach consists in intensely practising before examinations. Students have to follow the aforementioned techniques for mastering course materials and for writing answers. They need to answers as many mock tests as they can before the actual examinations.
These tests should be taken in conditions identical to an examination situation. These trial runs will condition students to the examination situation and atmosphere. Of course, they should
not look at mock test papers beforehand so that they experience the element of surprise as in real examinations. Mock test will work best if taken after completing substantial parts of syllabus and after learning to write answers along the previously outline lines. By doing so, students will have a fair idea of the problems they will face in examinations. They can work on rectifying those problems.
Students may run into a few common difficulties in examinations. It is easy to overshoot the prescribed word limits for answers. It will be awkward, for example, if 380 words are written as against the word limit of 250 words. Examiners are unlikely to be harsh if the answer exceeds the word limit by a tolerable margin. But during their answer practice sessions, students need to practise writing answers of varying length ranging from 250 words, 150 words, 50 words and 30 words. They will then have a rough idea of how long an answer is becoming.
Adopting a Simple Writing Style
Normally, we tend to use wordy expressions and sentence forms. By learning about such wordy expressions and ways of trimming them, students can write better. Conscious and regular practice can help in removing this weakness. A few simple rules are:
l Use active voice instead of passive voice.
l Express ideas directly instead of using indirect or roundabout expressions.
l Wherever possible, replace clauses with phrases and phrases with single words.
l Learn to express your thoughts in short sentences with simple construction.
l Avoid writing convoluted or awkward sentences.
l Avoid use of adjectives and jargon.
l Cut out repetitive words, expressions and ideas.
l Restrict use of words which modify other words and phrases.
l Write sentences using mainly subject-verb form severely restricting use of modifiers and adjuncts.
l Express only one idea (as far as possible) in a sentence
These rules can be easily followed while practising answer writing. As mentioned earlier, the first drafts of answers have to be rewritten using the above listed rules. In this way, students can critically scrutinize their answers. Such scrutiny should also cover the material content and logical structure of the answer.
Self-evidently, aforementioned procedures are for use during the preparatory stages, and not in the examination. There will be no time for such revisions. Students have to quickly determine the focus of the question, mentally recall and group ideas, and start writing. At the most, they can jot down main points very briefly and note their possible sequence. Their best bet would be to write down those points in simple grammatical sentences, and especially avoiding glaring errors. There will be no time for mulling over things and polishing language.
Students should not get bogged down in the examination. Questions have to be answered within time. Too much time cannot be spent on a few questions at the cost of others. Extra marks gained on the former will be far fewer than marks lost on the latter. There is a famous saying that the best is the enemy of good. This has a special relevance in the context of writing answers in examinations.
Incidentally, model answers to previous examination papers are written in a situation different fromwhat students face in examination halls.Model answerwriters face no element of surprise;they think leisurely over the question; and they carefully attend to the content, structure and language of answers. These are examples, and actual answers written in examinations cannot match their standard. Students should not worry if their answers in mock test and actual examinations seem inferior to model answers. Essentially, by studying and practising according in the manner we previously outlined, students will do well for it creates a process of self improvement.