People seem to ask the same set of questions each and every semester when preparing for an exam. So, rather than repeat myself over and over (and over again!), I thought I'd spend some time and share some insights with all of you.
First, Some Common Problems That I See:
1) Note Taking: Semester after semester, I see the same thing. People almost always take notes on what they see on the board or in our power point slides. People often DON'T take good notes on our discussions of current events, our video clips, or our actual discussions in class. This is when most of the good stuff happens and semester after semester, people miss it. Perhaps an example will help to correct this situation. One day, I began class by talking about several current events. I then ran a 3 or 4 minute video clip that was related to the current events. After this, most of the class participated in a discussion that I started. After about 20 minutes of this, I returned to my power point slides and began discussing some new concepts. At this point, most people actually opened their notebooks and began taking notes on our slides... Does anyone else see a missed opportunity here?
2) Study Habits: The rest of this page discusses study habits...
Here we go:
What Will the Exam be Like?
I will be looking to see that you can recognize problems evident in various business scenarios, use the principles we have studied, and apply the concepts we've learned in order to solve these problems. Yes, you will need to remember specific concepts from the materials that we cover, but you will also need to understand what the concepts really mean and how they relate to one another. You will need to interpret facts from the case and actively apply what you have learned - memorization alone will typically not allow you to succeed on an exam of this type.
The exam is likely to feature a number of multiple choice questions (perhaps 10-20) that are much like you have seen on quizzes. There is also likely to be a smaller number of short answer questions (perhaps 4-7), also similar to what you have seen on quizzes. Finally, there is likely to be a short case (like those we discuss at the end of each chapter) and 2-4 questions that deal with the case. In general, the multiple choice and short answer questions will be an opportunity for you to demonstrate to me what you know and remember. The essay questions will then be an opportunity for you to show my that you are able to use and apply the things that you have remembered. I will be looking for you to be able to apply the concepts from our discussions to the events in the cases with the same levels of insight that we develop during our case discussions in class. If there is no case on the exam, expect a larger number of multiple choice and short answer questions. If there are fewer multiple choice and short answer questions, expect a larger number of essay questions. For the past several years, the class average on exams for this course tends to run in the 76 to 83 range.
What Should I Study?
Everything that we have discussed in class is fair game on the exam. The questions that I ask will tend to focus on the slides and materials we have discussed during class time, but from time to time, items that are in the text that we have not specifically spent time on will appear on the exam. I generally do not ask questions that are directly related to current events articles that we have talked about, however, current events do make good examples to justify an answer you write on the exam and to help convince me that you do indeed know what you are talking about. You will be expected to know both the larger concepts and what they mean as well as the details concerning those concepts.
How Should I Study?
It happens every semester: "I don't understand how I did so poorly, I really studied hard for this exam!" Invariably, after talking with students who have said this, a common problem emerges. Students who have fallen into this category have ALL focused on just memorizing the details, memorizing the lists of steps to take to <fill in the blank>, memorizing the components of <fill in the blank>, memorizing all of the bold words in the text, etc. It is easy to see, because when I look at the exam papers, I see all sorts of little mnemonics scribbled in the margins of the paper. You know who you are: you cram from your study sheet until the professor makes you put your papers away and then as soon as you get your exam, you furiously start writing down all of these memory devices, acronyms, and other phrases before you forget them. THIS IS USUALLY A POOR TEST TAKING STRATEGY! The problem with studying in this manner is that you completely miss "the big picture" and do not comprehend what these memorized lists of things actually mean, or how they might be used to solve a business problem. About half of the points on the exams for this course will focus on demonstrating that you have learned certain facts, traits, etc. There is a certain core of knowledge that you must comprehend and remember for the exam. The remaining half of the points on the exams will generally focus on recognizing some business problem, understanding or recognizing what caused it, and knowing which concepts from class have been applied or could apply to help to correct the situation. This part of the exam involves interpreting and applying what you have learned and showing me that you can insightfully and actively use your new knowledge.
So, here is how I recommend you study for my exams.
1) Go back through the chapters we have studied. Start with your notes from class and the power point slides. For each chapter, write down one or two sentences that summarizes the point of the entire chapter. Understand what the general business problem is that organizational management is concerned with solving. Understand what principles or concepts we studied address that business problem. For example, lets start with the chapter on Strategic Information Systems. You should understand that an organization's place in its industry is determined by a number forces. It is reasonable to assume that any organization may be very strong in some areas of competition while simultaneously being weak in other areas of of competition. Porter's Competitive Forces is an analysis tool to help us understand where we are strong and where we are weak. Use other analysis tools like Porter's Value Chain Analysis to help determine why your organization is relatively weak or strong in a specific area of competition. What you have just done is to identify a problem: poor competitive positioning in the industry. Now look at various ways that information systems can be used to strengthen areas where you are weak. What Critical Response Activities can be supported with IS? What Critical Success Factors can be supported with an IS? How can using an IS to connect to our vendors give us better leverage against that vendor? (think of the Cisco case in the text...) Think about how using E-Commerce can lead to strategic advantage (think of Amazon.com vs. Barnes & Noble book stores). Recognize that anyone interacting with your company's E-Commerce web site is conducting business through your organization's Transaction Processing System (sales are simply one form of transaction, right?) and that good security and encryption are necessary in order for your customers to feel protected while using your system.
2) Re-read (because you've already read them, right??) the case studies at the beginning and at the end of the chapters (don't skip the ones that appear throughout the chapters, either!). Look at your notes from our class discussion, my notes from the class web page. Understand how the issues from the chapter affect real organizations, how they address problems, what the organization needs to do before they implement the particular technology.
3) Go back and re-read (same note as above) the current events articles that are linked on the course web page. They are excellent examples of how real organizations are using the principles that we study in class and the benefits and problems associated with those principles.
4) Throughout each chapter, there are at least 5 or 6 little cases or examples of how the materials are relevant to a specfic company. Each chapter begins with such an example. Read them! Understand how they fit within each chapter's topic. ASK QUESTIONS WHEN YOU DON'T SEE OR UNDERSTAND THE FIT!!!!
5) By now, you should have a prettly clear idea of just what "The Big Picture" is all about. Do this for each of the chapters, understand how the chapters might fit together to help address a variety of organizational problems. Understand, for example, that customers and suppliers interact through e-commerce with your TPS (which is probably also a legacy system), which in turn provides data to your MIS. These materials that span the first 4 chapters that we covered are very highly interconnected with one another (thus forming The Big Picture). When you understand the big picture, all of the details you were previously trying to memorize should suddenly "make senese" or "fall into place" with little or no effort and no longer require memorization. If you understand what you learn from performing a competitive forces analysis, you don't need to memorize the five different forces - you should be able to reason your way through them and come up with most of them just by thinking rationally about what needs to happen and why.
6) Only AFTER you understand the big picture, NOW go back and fill in all of the details, the lists, and all of those other things you were tempted to try to memorize the first time through. Notice that I did not say "THIS IS THE TIME TO TRY TO MEMORIZE THEM!" The point is that by now you shouldn't need to memorize them because they should make clear and rational sense. If you do feel this need, you haven't successfully completed steps 1-5 above!
If an exam question appears ambiguous, or you feel compelled to put the same answer for more than one question, it is likely that you are mixing up the concepts or are focusing on symptoms (such as visible signs: my stomach hurts) when I asked about causes (you have appendicitis) or that there is better evidence somewhere in the case for the question that you are answering. In general, you will not need to repeat yourself on the exam, so go back and think more clearly about the question. Using the same answer for different questions (or using different words to say the same thing or focus on the same concept) will generally cost you points.
For each question, I usually indicate the point value for that question along with a general guideline indicating the number of sentences that are needed to adequately address the question. These are rough guidelines. For example, if I ask for 1-2 sentences, please don't write 5 paragraphs. If you do, you are probably wandering off in the wrong direction in addition to wasting valuable exam time. This advice is put there to help you understand how to frame your answer and understand the depth to which I expect you to discuss the issue, it is not a strict guideline at all. Also, plan on spending less time on the first question or two and spending more time on the last question or two.
DO NOT WASTE VALUABLE EXAM TIME repeating the question in your answer! I suspect that this may be a result of your high school english teachers beating you over the head to repeat the question when addressing the answer. Everyone that does this on the exam complains that the exam was too long, or that they felt rushed at the end. For this type of an exam, this is a VERY POOR strategy. It will very likely take you 1 or 2 minutes to repeat the question in your answer for each of the questions on the exam. In an exam that has 6 questions, you just lost 10 to 12 minutes of very valuable time that could be better spent thinking more clearly and calmly about the question, or going back to re-read a section of the case. Yes, it is important to write in a manner that is clear - but during an exam time is important ... If this paragraph has described your test taking experiences, consider answering questions using bullet points that contain the important details that answer the question.
Many people lose points on the exam for failing to provide specific, concrete evidence from the case. I will often ask a question such as "What is the single largest problem that company X is facing with respect to <whatever topic>? Provide evidence from the case to support your answer." Typically, the majority of the points for this question derive from the argument and evidence you use to support your answer. Go back to the case and find specific and tangible evidence that is relevant and include this evidence in your answer to convince me that you understand what you are talking about. Naming things that are non-specific and that apply to any organization in the world generally won't receive much credit. Be specific when asked to do so!
READ THE ENTIRE QUESTION!!! This one sounds obvious, but with every exam, it is exceptionally clear to me that a handful of people simply did not read the question, or the ENTIRE question. The result is obvious, because you have told me something that is true, something that is relelvant to the case, you even used evidence to support your answer, but what you wrote does not actually answer the question, or your answer is not complete because you overlooked the second part of the question. To help prevent this from happening, important components of the question are often underlined to help draw your attention to them. Please read the questions carefully. In fact, it is probably best to read ALL of the questions of the exam first, THEN read the case. This way, you know what you are looking for as you read!
ANSWER THE ENTIRE QUESTION!!! If the question is broken down into sub-questions such as 1A, 1B, and 1C, your answer should be similarly structured! This means your answer should contain 1A, 1B, and 1C. Don't just answer it all together as one lump sum and leave me to sort it out. If the question asks you to analyze the situation with Porter's Competitive Forces model, your answer should have 5 distinct parts (because the model has five distinct parts). Each part should be clearly labelled (with which of the 5 parts you are addressing) so it is clear to me that you know what you are talking about. If the question asks you to address strengths and weaknesses, your answer should have one section labelled "Strengths" and another section labelled "Weaknesses." It may be most direct to address each with a bullet list that is clear and complete. The bottom line: when answering a multi-part question, lumping all of your arguments into a single ill-structured answer will generally work against you! Please leave the "kitchen sink" at home where it belongs.
BE SPECIFIC !!! Many of the essay type questions will ask you provide evidence from the case. Go back through the case and find good, solid, clear, undeniable evidence that supports the answer you have provided. Include that evidence with your answer. Do not provide generalities such as "it gave the mangers what they needed". Tell me what they needed and how the new IS provided it.
BE CONCISE IN YOUR ANSWER!!! Additionally, you may lose points on the exam for telling me things that are just plain incorrect - indicating that you really did not fully understand the material, or that you mixed up two different concepts. For example, a typcial question might ask you to explain a concept in 1-2 sentences. If you know what you are talking about, usually one or two well-focused bullet points will do it. Some people will actually write 2 full paragraphs to answer this question (a bad strategy to begin with). Typically, the first paragraph actually contains good and relevant materials that answer the question, so you are likely to have been awarded full points. However, if you then elect to write a second full paragraph that wanders off topic and tells me something that conflicts with your origainal answer, or indicates that you have later mixed up the concepts that you have previously explained, or is just plain wrong and not factual, you are likely to lose points from an otherwise correct answer. Be clear, be thorough (include the important details), and be concise. Answer the question and provide specific evidence that shows me you understand the concept. Then go on to the next question. Perhaps a way to help you be precise is to use bullet points to answer the questions. Be sure to include specific details from the case that support your answer, not generalities that can apply to any company in the world. Say what you mean to say, write down your conclusion first, then add supporting details (evidence). Often times, people leave me an elaborate trail of bread-crumbs (3 paragraphs of generally true but un-related details) but don't actually provide the important details that convince me that you know what you are talking about.
Consider the following question: "Is Fed-Ex's package tracking system an inwardly or outwardly focused strategic information system? Why? "
An excellent answer is: "Outwardly focused because the technology that drives the process is directly visible to the customer when a package is delivered, thus it can be easily copied."
Period. End of story. No fluff. No generalities. No guessing what you meant. No conclusions left for me to draw on my own. Next question, please!
IF YOU ARE WORKING ON A FINAL EXAM: You need to show me that you have learned something this semester. Final exams are more comprehensive in nature than a during-the-semester exam. You have greater knowledge. You have more time. Impress me with what you have learned! When the question appears to be open ended, it is because I am expecting you to integrate several of the topics that we discussed this semester. Don't leave any of these topics out. If you are discussing the competitive position of a company, you better be sure to talk about Porter's Competitive Forces analysis (and several other analysis tools we looked at during the semester). A one-paragraph answer to a question on a final exam is clearly not enough. Stop. Think. Reflect. Integrate your thoughts. Organize your thoughts. Write a complete and compelling answer. Start with your answer. Put the punchline first. Next add the statements, observations, and facts that support your punchline. Describe why something is the way it is. Justify your answer. Wrap it all up at the end. Make sure your thoughts are rational, consistent, and complete. A final with 12 questions should have about 10-15 pages of response (ballpark).
General Test Taking Hints: In case you didn't actually read what I wrote above, I'll say it again:
Read the question carefully : This is a comment often used, but what does it mean? When you read the questions, look for and underline or circle key words and phrases that indicate the structure and content of the answer expected. Look for the number of answer parts expected. If the question says three areas, write about three distinct areas. Having done so, look at your answers closely to determine whether they are indeed distinctive or just three ways of saying the same thing. Many people lose points during each exam for simply not answering the entire question.
Look for the nouns: Identify the concepts being asked about and any words or phrases that put a slant on those concepts. For example, in "key uses of computer-based business models", the approach is to identify "key uses".
Look for key verbs that determine the way you should present your knowledge: For example:
OK, I suspect some of you didn't REALLY read everything above, but just skipped to the end to find the "really important" stuff, right? OK, here's the short version:
-Read the ENTIRE question.
-Answer the ENTIRE question.
-Provide SPECIFIC evidence in your answer.
-Be CLEAR in what you write. Don't assume I'll know what you mean.
-Don't REPEAT the question in your answer.
-Don't REPEAT any previous answer you have already written.
-Be CONCISE: if the question can be answered in 1 or 2 words, do so (but you still need to be clear and specific and answer the entire question)!