Exams season is right around the corner again; though syllabi and curriculum vary between exam boards, there are still tried and true basics any student should know. Exam technique and preparation can matter almost as much as how well you know your subject matter!
Exam Technique:
1. Skim Through First
Some exams, like the IB, give students reading time before you are allowed to start answering questions. Use this to your advantage, and take the time to skim the entire exam, start to finish. This helps you get an idea of the types of questions they ask, what topics come up, and helps you check for topics or concepts you’re not the most confident with. Skimming your exam also lets you plan your time more carefully! However, be mindful that some exams, like the digital SAT, don’t allow you to go back to some portions of the exam once you’ve finished them. Even if there is no specially allocated time for your exam, resist the temptation to dive right in, take a deep breath, and read carefully.
2. Read Questions Carefully
Many students lose points by misreading questions, which could be avoided by actively annotating your exam. Questions will often start with command terms such as ‘describe’ or ‘define’, which will tell you exactly what you need to do in order to answer the question correctly. Another thing you can do to help structure your answers is to check how many points are given. For example, a good rule of thumb is to answer a two-point question with three main points, to make sure you can earn those two points. However, if you’re unsure about the extra point you’re about to write down, err on the side of caution and leave it be. Remember that you can also be penalised for a wrong answer, even if the others are correct.
3. It’s Okay to Skip Questions
Starting the exam strong by answering questions you’re most confident with can help you gain the momentum to tackle harder questions later on. It’s always okay to skip or mark questions you struggle with or want to revisit later. Many students spend too much time on a difficult question, only to run out of time later on an easy question they could have scored full marks on. Factor in some time at the end to spend more time on skipped questions, and focus on earning as many points as you can on easier questions.
4. Leave Time to Check!
Going over your answers at the end of the exam could mean the difference between grade boundaries. Leave 5-10 minutes at the end of each exam to carefully read over the questions and your answers to catch any careless mistakes you may have made. Any points you can gain doing this will only benefit you!
Study Tricks:
1. Sleep!
It is well known fact that sleep before exams is imperative to good performance. Exhaustion can lead you to make mistakes or forget concepts you wouldn’t have otherwise, so do yourself a favor and know when to call it a night. Sleeping also helps move memories from your short-term storage to long-term storage, which means all the studying you’ve done is pretty much useless unless you get enough sleep.
2. Find a Practice Buddy
Practicing verbally with another person is also a tried and tested method to understand your content better and practice answering questions. They don’t have to be a fellow student; in fact, it’s better if they aren’t. Explaining concepts simply and correctly demonstrates understanding, which you’re forced to do with someone who doesn’t know the content. Hearing your own voice speak is also a more effective way to memorise information rather than reading it silently in your head!
3. Make Flashcards
For content and memorisation-heavy subjects, flashcards are your best friend. Physical ones work just as well as digital, but making them online is more convenient. Anki is a popular flashcard program favored by medical students, because its algorithm follows the spaced repetition method to leverage psychology for more efficient memorisation. If you make your cards on Quizlet, you can import them to Anki using a free extension. Anki costs money on IOS, but you can download for free on Windows. Fun fact: the action of making flashcards actually helps you memorise and understand more than trying to memorise them later. So once you’ve made your cards, you’re halfway to full memorisation!
4. Cheat Sheets
No matter whether or not cheat sheets are allowed by your exam board (they typically aren’t) making a cheat sheet for a unit or topic forces you to summarise and condense the information into a much smaller space. It also helps you review larger swathes of information at a glance for last-minute review, which is always helpful. This is not encouragement to cheat!
Bonus: Read Mark Schemes
Examiners reveal exactly what they look for through the mark scheme. They’re widely available for a lot of exam boards, and by reading them, you can put yourself into the shoes of an examiner and answer questions precisely, quicker, and with more accuracy. They can give you clues on how to better structure long-question essay answers, too. Some boards, like the IB, have examiner reports you can read as well to understand what common mistakes students have made, which tells you exactly what to avoid doing.
Good Luck!
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