Our Year 12 Applied Information Technology students were very happy to receive exam tips from former student Sarah Ciccarelli today. Sarah was the state’s top-performing student in the subject in 2017, so her advice is very highly valued by the girls and staff.

After achieving the Subject Exhibition in her WACE exam, Sarah chose to study a Bachelor of Computing (Computing Science). She started with a major in Cyber Security but has changed her specialty to Computer Science.

Sarah’s former AIT teacher, Melissa Marshall, credits Sarah’s incredible work ethic and ability to engage with ideas for her success. “She was a highly motivated and independent learner.”

In her presentation, Sarah went through the various sections of the AIT exam in detail. She also gave some more general tips that are valuable to all students sitting exams in all subjects. They include:

1. Make sure all your answers are succinct and directly address the question. Don’t waffle.
2. Be aware of the marks allocation for each question and then make sure your answers are worthy of that allocation.
3. Don’t use light-coloured pens and pencils, they are hard for the marker to read.
4. Be aware of current news stories related to your subject area and be able to link to the syllabus.
5. Use acronyms and memory tricks to help with dense content that needs to be memorised.
6. Be mindful of timing. Do a couple of passes through the exam before you begin, annotating in the margins as you go
7. Answer the questions in the order you are most comfortable with.
8. Sarah divided her study time two-thirds writing and learning notes and one-third writing practise answers.
9.  Show a clear understanding of concepts in the syllabus rather than trying to guess what is in the marker’s head.
10. If a question throws you, stop and breathe. There will be experiences and knowledge you can draw on. The examiners cannot ask a question that is not related to the syllabus.

A big thank you to Sarah for contributing to our girls’ preparation for exams. It was lovely to welcome her back to the College.