Examiner's Tips

Dear members !

I hope you must have gone through and understand examiner's reports & marking schemes. Those of you who are unaware with these, i am defining these;

Marking scheme :- The criteria on base of which examiner marks the exam

Examiner Report:- A report issued after exam that discusses the mistakes and things that were missed by students

Here I am sharing TIPS BY THE EXAMINER HIMSELF that are usually available for private students and only few get access to them.

                                          

EXAMINER TIPS for O Level Islamiyat 2058

These tips are to help you when revising and highlight some of the common mistakes made 

by students in their exam papers. 

General advice 

Preparing to get a good grade begins as soon as you start your course. You can prepare by: 

• finding out what you need to know. 

• keeping your notes organized so you always know where to find information you have 

studied 

• knowing how your exam papers are structured and practicing past questions. 

Your notes and preparing for the exam 

Download a copy of the Revision Checklist from Cambridge Students and read through it. Be 

really clear what topics you need to know then check that your notes are complete and make 

sense. If you need further advice, speak to your teacher who will have a full copy of the 

Syllabus. 

Try to produce an accurate set of notes when you do the work in the first place, but if you 

need to improve your notes you could: 

• ask a friend if you can copy up work which you have missed from them – but make sure 

you understand it, 

• find more information on topics you have studied, using your textbook, the library or the 

Internet. For it to be useful make sure that you fully understand it – if not ask your 

teacher, 

• buy a good revision guide if you can find one in a bookshop. 

Answering the questions in the examination 

• Read the instructions on the cover of the exam paper carefully so you know what you 

need to do and how many questions you need to answer. 

• Make sure you use your time carefully. Each paper now is of equal length. You should 

practise the amount of time it takes to answer each question, taking in account the 

number of marks available. In question 1 there are only 8marks available, so you 

shouldn’t need to spend as much time on this question as the other, which are worth 14 

marks. However, this does meant that you will have to know the question 1 topic very 

well to allow you to write an accurate and concise answer. 

• Read the questions carefully. This is very important as many students know a topic but 

lose marks because they have not read the question carefully and so have answered it 

incorrectly. When you answer questions on the paper think very carefully about what is 

being asked. Try to learn how to respond to command words like Identify, Outline, 

Describe, and Explain. It is important that you answer the question and do not fall into 

the trap of just writing down everything you know. 

• Answer the questions in order of how confident you are – leave the one you are not 

confident about until last. 

• Do not repeat the same answer in different sections. Examiners do not set questions 

which require identical answers, if you find you are repeating an answer check that you 

have read the question properly. 

• Try to answer all the questions required for the paper, in other words, you should have 

answered four questions in total – two compulsory questions and two optional questions. 

Do not try to answer all five questions as it will mean you will take away valuable time that you could spend on the other answers. Examiners do not credit you with more marks if 

you have answered all five questions and so it is only a waste of your time. 

• Examiners are not testing your spelling, however you should try to make sure that you are 

using the correct word as the examiner cannot chose for you. So in a question about the 

Caliphs, if you say Abu Bakr instead of ‘Umar, the examiner cannot assume that you 

meant to say ‘Umar. 

• Also, apart from the key words which you will learn in the Arabic as part of the syllabus, 

e.g. zakat, musnad, qiyas, keep all your language in English. Examiners do not always 

understand your mother tongue so will not know what you are trying to say if you use a 

term which is culturally significant for you. 

• Make sure you know the meaning of all the words you are using. 

• Try not to generalise too much. Although some questions may be asking you to ‘outline’ 

or ‘trace’ something, you should be as specific about the facts as possible. So in a 

question where you have to outline the main events in Ramadan, saying “The Qur’an 

should be recited frequently” is not enough to assume you know about the tarawih

prayers which are done nightly. 

• Try to understand the difference between part (a) questions which test your knowledge, 

and part (b) questions which are there to test how well you understand the knowledge 

you have learnt. 

Understanding the difference between the different parts of questions 

Part (a)

Questions require you to write full but accurate details about the topic in the question. This 

does not mean that you should try to write all the information you have learnt on your course, 

but keep to the area which has been set in the question. So a question like “Describe the 

main events of the Prophet’s migration,” means that you should give the key facts related to 

what happened when he left Makka, what happened on his journey, and briefly what 

happened when he arrived in Madina. You should not give a detailed account of his life in 

Makka, the revelations and the persecutions, and likewise you should not give a detailed 

account of his first few years in Madina. Stick to the relevant facts. 

Part (b) 

Questions try to judge if you understand what you have learnt on your course. These are 

called evaluative questions because they try to get you to explain something, give reasons for 

something, or give your opinion on something. They are not worth as many marks as part (a) 

so the answers should generally be shorter but to the point. However, shorter does not mean 

vague or general. The answers should still be relevant, cover a few different points and not 

be repetitive. 

If a question asks e.g. “Explain why this fast is important in Islam,” answers such as “Fasting 

is of great importance to the Muslims” will not gain marks as there has been no attempt to 

suggest why it is important, e.g. because is gives self-control and discipline. 

Use the glossary in the Revision Checklist to help you decide which command words are 

asking you to write about the facts and which ones are asking you to give reasons