If you haven't been in the learning environment for some time you may find the prospect of being tested or assessed a daunting one. That's not too surprising. Either you or your company may have paid a significant amount of money for your IOSH Managing Safely training and you may see failure as not being an option.
There is no reason, so long as the course is delivered competently and you manage to stay conscious throughout its delivery, that you should not be able to pass the assessment but knowing what you're up against can certainly help.
So, what are you up against? The 'multiformat' paper consists 22 questions, which are a mix of multiple choice and questions requiring a listed answer. The pass mark is 50 points.
You are given a hour to complete the paper, which is plenty of time. I had someone on one of my courses who finished in 10 minutes. My first thought was that he had drawn a blank and had given up. He scored 95%. That's not to say that you should finish in 10 minutes, merely that there is plenty of time for most people.
The majority of the multiple choice questions consist of 6 optional answers, 3 of which will be correct. There is 1 point available for each correct answer. Take care. There is negative marking for these questions. That means if you annotate 3 answers and 1 is wrong, you will get 2 points for the correct answers, minus 1 point for the wrong answer = 1 point scored.
There is an exception to the 6 optional answers and that is, on many papers the first question is multiple choice with 3 optional answers, 1 of which is correct.
Questions may be based on any part of the course content but there is some information in the course material that lends itself to list answers. Reasons, benefits, steps to this that or the other and hierarchies are examples where lists are used to deliver information. It stands to reason then, that you may need to recite some of these for questions requiring a listed answer.
Some 'list' questions ask you to list the first 3 of this, the last 3 of that or just 3 (any 3) of the other. These answers are worth a total of 6 points, 2 for each item listed and there is no negative marking for wrong answers. Other questions may ask you to list 6 of something, in this case there's only 1 point for each item. A bit mean perhaps but life's hard isn't it?
Don't be mistaken here. I'm not trying to give you the answers, I'm just pointing out the facts.
Apart from the composition of the IOSH Managing Safely assessment paper there are a couple of other things that you might want to try to help with those exam nerves:
1. Don't Panic
It's just a paper. If you fail the earth will not open up and swallow you whole. Life will go on pretty well unchanged. You will not be the first person that has ever failed. You will be allowed to retake the assessment.
2. Revise
IOSH set this course at Level 2. That's the same as a GCSE or, if you're as old as me, an 'O' Level. It's true that if you fail to prepare you should be prepared to fail.
There are lots of tools to aid learning such as mnemonics, setting words to song or poems, mental journeys where you place items in places in your mind in a memorable, often funny way or creating mental pictures. These don't work for everyone, you need to find what works for you.
3. Prepare yourself
Make sure that you get plenty of sleep the night before, you need to be alert. Taking a little exercise can help to oxygenate the brain and is believed to aid recall and analysis.
4. Be clear about what is being asked
Read the questions carefully. That's pretty obvious right? Yet on every course there is at least one person that gives a word perfect answer, just not to the question that's being asked. Keep in mind that the reason for doing something is not necessarily the same as the benefits of doing it.
5 Don't get hung up
Firstly read the whole paper, I'm sure that you'll spot a few easy ones in there, then go back to the beginning and start with the questions that you can answer immediately, with little thought. Once you've got to the end go back to the beginning and now answer those questions that take a little bit of thinking about. If you come up against a question that means nothing to you, move on, do not dwell.
Now go back and dig deep. You've probably got plenty of time left so use it if you need it. If you're not getting anywhere take a mental brake. Look out of the window or read the posters on the wall. Just don't think about the paper for 5 minutes.
So, there are still some questions that you can't answer. No worries. Try logic. People often say that health and safety is merely the application of common sense. Take a SWAG (Smart Wild Ass Guess). You might claw a few points out of it at least.
Don't panic about what you don't know. Remember you only need 50 points to pass and worry never made anything better.
6 Don't feel preasured
On just about everyone of my course someone has left the table after 15 minutes or so, after which time you may have only answered a couple of questions. You have no way of knowing how others have done. Perhaps others leave early because they're genius. Well, we can't all be so smart. Perhaps they leave early because they were over come by the situation or they just hadn't prepared so well as you and so don't know the answers.
If everything goes wrong you have the right to re-assessment within 20 days but ask your training provider, if you fail will they re-teach for free? If the answer is no, try calling Lynwood. They will re-teach and re-assess anyone who fails their IOSH Managing Safely course as many times as is needed to secure a pass at no extra charge.
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