One of the best ways to prepare students for examinations is to get them to design their own questions using the established format of past exam papers. This helps familiarise them with the demands of the syllabus way which is more focused on the final examination. It is particularly good practice to encourage students to produce the most challenging questions they can imagine (within reason!) so that they are continually stretching themselves to develop their knowledge and understanding of every aspect of the syllabus as appropriate.<\/p>\n
In the International Baccalaureate syllabus for history, there are only five command terms that can be used (“Compare and Contrast”, “Evaluate”, “Analyse”, “Examine”, “To what extent”). This means that in a subject area like rise and rule of dictators, it is quite straightforward to generate random questions \u2013 especially given the fact that the factors to be covered (e.g. social, political, economic) are generic too. On this basis I worked with my students to develop several questions, then generated an online tool which automates the process<\/a> entirely. I have used it on several occasions since to generate a random question for a timed essay exercise and students then used it during revision season to help them prepare more effectively for the examination.<\/p>\n