What should be the length of an answer in psychology papers?

[darkmoon]

Seniors please guide me.Im confused!!some seniorz say it shud be 5 to 6 pages n otherz 7 to 8pages.But if one writes 8 pages per anwer then he faces time mangmnt problm?what to do?
And my frnds in 2012 wrote 18 pages in 1st ques of psycho paper 1 over nervous system nd rest of three ques were restricted withn 6 to 8 pages. Does such variety of length in ques irritate an examiner?
Seniorz please let me what to do of length?

[JS1325]

Originally Posted by darkmoon

Seniors please guide me.Im confused!!some seniorz say it shud be 5 to 6 pages n otherz 7 to 8pages.But if one writes 8 pages per anwer then he faces time mangmnt problm?what to do?
And my frnds in 2012 wrote 18 pages in 1st ques of psycho paper 1 over nervous system nd rest of three ques were restricted withn 6 to 8 pages. Does such variety of length in ques irritate an examiner?
Seniorz please let me what to do of length?

Q: How did Pakistan come into being?

Ans: By the struggle of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and millions of Muslims of subcontinet

Ans: Pakistan came into being by the sruggles of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and millions of Muslims of subcontinet

Ans: It was the sheer dedication of Jinnah, muslim leaders of subcontinet and a cognizance of nationalistic charcter of Muslims of India which resulted in the formation of Pakistan

Ans: It all goes back to early ninteenth century when Muslims of suncontinet ............ Congress was formed...... 1905 ... 1906... .........................Lucknow Pact ............ ...3 June 1945.. ........14 Aug 1947


All of the above answers are correct but vary in length, quality and scope. What you need to understand is that this is competitive exam and examiner expects quality, quantity and relevance in your answer. I don't mean any offence to you and all others who have the similar query but what is the point of FPSC's recommedning to us so many books if we are still stuck with "how many pages"?

The question you have put forth can not be answered by anyone but only by you IN THE EXAMINATION HALL. Only at that point in time you will know the answer to "how many pages". Consider a situation where you are left with ten minutes and a whole 20 marks question to answer (and this happens, so don't freak out). Your mind will be working faster than a super computer. With only ten minutes left on the clock, you will think of how many pages should you write, should you focus on quality or quantity, how many graphs or pictures should you draw, out of the 10 quotations you learnt, how many and which ones should you quote, and where to place them in the answer?

So the question is not how many pages but how to make sure that you have answered the question in best possible way with ten minutes left. This is where nerves come into play. Think of it like your brain travelling wrong way at lightening fast speed on a highway full of incoming traffic. This traffic is the irrelevant thoughts and distractions in the final minutes of exam. Somewhere hidden in this incoming traffic are the points you are looking for, to incorporate them in your answer. So what matters now is the speed, precision and processing speed of your brain. So the question: How can I achieve this seemingly impossible feat? Answer: Very simple

It has to do with your preparation and nothing else. To elucidate a bit more, give a thorough reading to atleast a couple of books for each subject, grasp the concepts in detail, don't think of consulting internet or other resources as a burden, develop a thorough understanding of each and every article, allocate some time to writing practice and have viable revision plans. Analyse the past papers yourself to see the repeated questions. Don't just rely on study plans posted by other respected members. Rather than trying to reap benefits from their hardwork, adapt to research and analysis on your own as there are no shorcuts to success.

Now you may ask what do the nerves have to do with an 8 month study plan? Think of a guy, who has crammed dogar sons' 20 questions or consulted a single mediocre book , in the above situation. His brain has very little to choose from becuase he just consulted one book. Add to this the time constraints in exam. Result: He will end up occupied by superflouous thoughts, unable to produce quality material.

Let me reiterate: There is no shortcut to success. Only going through these arduous steps will give you the confidence needed in the examination hall which is vital in deciding at the spot what should you write, what to inculde in answer from your knowledge base and what to discard.

Don't be spooked by people who tell you that they wrote 20 pages for one question. The writing speed, font, quality of written matrerial, structure and organization of the answer, all this varies from person to person. You should not be bothered by people telling you that they wrote this many pages.

From what I have experienced after an attempt in 2012, the quality of an answer is, and I believe should be, directly proportional to the time you allocate to that question.

I used to start steadily, cautiously transferring carefully chosen thoughts on paper, making lots of diagrams, makimg sure that the answer is well organized, trying my best to produce appealing hand-writing and writing upto 14-15 paged answer to 1st question, and this used to consume around an hour.

In 2nd question I had to let go of the hand-writing thing, writing more fast but still maintaining the quality and length, writing around 10-12 pages. It used to take around 40 minutes, leaving me with 50 min.

In 3rd question, thinking process was overpowered by the urgency, so the quality used to drop but still I used to manage around 8-10 pages in around 30 min, written in mediocre hand writing.

I used to have aroud 15-20 min for last question. So I had to write really fast, resulting in poor handwriting, with a maximum of 6 pages. Quality too used to drop significantly as I had less time to think and focused more on writing whatever came to my mind pertaining to the topic.

The purpose of narrating my approach is not to guide you how to plan your paper but to give you a hint of the dynamics of a CSS exam. It is not about pages but about nerves, time, and a complex trade-off between quality, quantity, handwriting and presentation etc. The best way to tackle this and to be prepared mentally is to brodaen your knowledge base extensively by going through quality books and resources. Only this will instill in you the confidence needed to breakthrough CSS.

May ALLAH bless us all with what we yearn for.

[darkmoon]

Yup sir got you.Actually i had heard different suggestions regarding the answer and thats y merged in a confusing situation.
So,sir you mean good presentation,quality matter and average length matters in exam.
Thanks a lot sir,now i got rid of confusions resided in my mind.