Oops, hope this does not sound patronising, but, since you have not done exams for a long time, can I offer a word on exam technique. I know that a common complaint of the IFE examiners is that candidates do not give the answer to the question asked. Sounds an obvious point I know, but I find exactly the same problem when I mark one module of the FPA FSM Diploma course, and also mark a couple of exams we set on the courses we do on fire risk assessment and fire safety induction for new recruits in building control and fire safety in the fire service. I think there are two reasons people do this. One is that in the pressure of the moment people dive off and answer the question before they have fully digested it. The solution to that is to read the question once for sense, a second time to underline the key points and maybe bullet point some notes and a third time to see that your proposed answer does exactly address the question asked. The other reason people do it is because they dont know the answer to the question and so they give information on something slightly at a tangent in the forlorn hope that the examiner will not notice the irrelevance. Its a waste of time, because people then get no marks for long chunks of stuff. Better to spend the time polishing the answer to a better question. For example, a question might ask about the levels of protection defined in the BS on fire detection and instead people will give an answer all about the principles of operation of different detector types. Hope these thoughts help.
