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At times, examinations like to spring ‘surprise questions’ that students are unfamiliar with and have no idea how to even start doing the question. There are some guidelines on how to narrow down your scope and try to inch your way nearer to gaining some insight on how to solve the question.

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How can you apply this tip?

Firstly, consider the words that offer clues on the topic(s) tested. Knowing the topic(s) tested in the question will greatly narrow down the kind of methods to be carried out.

Secondly, look out for words that prompt you to carry out certain steps that could give you more information on the question. For example, a question with the word ‘average’, gives a hint to the student to find the total.

More often than not, with one or two additional information found for the question, it is likely for you to gain at least one mark. If you are able to link these additional information to the question, they might eventually be able to solve for the answer.

The bottom line is to keep trying till you get to some information or get nearer to the answer. This gives a more hopeful scenario to you and your brain to exercise more ability to link a pool of given information and derived information to get to the answer.