Students should prepare themselves psychologically for the examination room. General Paper (GP) is often the first paper sat and some people may experience ‘exam nerves.’ Remember that 10 minutes of the time devoted to Paper 1 is intended for reading and considering all the topics on offer – all 12 of them…

This should be done as calmly as possible. Choosing the right one FOR YOU is evidently of the utmost importance here - nothing worse than spending 20 minutes on an essay plan then realising that you can’t do it after all and changing to another… This is not only time-wasting –it is also demoralising and can have a negative effect on your performance.

So, on what will your choice depend? Sometimes you may be really lucky e.g. you may know all there is to know about the pros and cons of the death penalty and, if this question came up as it did a few years ago [1997], you would obviously go for it. However such good luck is quite rare!

You may be tempted by a topic related to one of your main subjects [Eco, Geo, IT, HE, etc.] If so, you must ensure that your GP essay takes a broader approach, avoiding too many technical terms. It should be intelligible to a lay-person [i.e. someone with no specialised knowledge of the subject concerned] and should not have the dry style or the catalogue approach of your notes.

If you choose a question with a ‘moral’ content, such as euthanasia, marriage and divorce, treatment of old people, etc, resist the temptation to preach even if you have strong personal feelings on the subject. A GP essay should be a balanced, reasoned argument, not an emotional outburst.

Finally be careful about the apparently easy topics such as ‘The importance of customs and traditions in your country’. Don’t get the idea that a description of Christmas or Divali or a family wedding will suffice! Such questions demand a certain capacity for analysis as well an ability to describe, colourfully and convincingly, these aspects of Mauritian life. It is all too easy to give a mediocre answer , which will give mediocre grades! (More next week)