If you’re a serious student, you can attest that exam preparation or period is indeed a stressful time that requires you to work harder to achieve good grades. Every student is expected to study and pass every course with flying colours. Get this; the secret of examination success lies in knowing the right preparation tips – this makes every student get ready for the exams and write without fear. Know yourself; while solo reading works for others, group reading may be what works for you. Below are a few practical tips you need to adopt for your coming exams.
Prepare your study space
Where do you study often? Your ability to comprehend what you read lies significantly on where you learn and how you arrange your space. Ensure you dedicate enough space for your reading activity – it must be large enough to contain all your reading materials without causing you discomfort. Arrange your study space to make sure it’s free from all sort of distractions. Think about an ideal space for you – spacious, free of distractions.
Set your study goals
You might end up achieving nothing if you want to read everything. The human brain has its capacity, and when you get saturated, you’ll notice that you end up spending much time without assimilating more. Before your exams, set achievable reading targets. You’ll appreciate the need for establishing study goals when you see others struggling to read the night before exams. It can be confusing to realise just a day before the exam you have more than enough to cover. The goal setting doesn’t just get you prepared before time; it helps you eliminate the scary feelings that come with sitting for examinations and gives you confidence that often results in a flow of ideas. To further explore the benefits of setting a goal, check out these exam preparation tips for exams in law students.
Check out on previous exam questions
One of the smartest and efficient ways to get ready for upcoming examinations is to source past versions of such examinations to see how it looks. Check if you can answer a handful number of questions. With this trick, you can get a hand on the style of questions to begin your research and targeted studies. So, it’s important to check out past questions as a kind of pretest before diving into your reading. Doing that will help you to gauge your level of coverage as well as know the aspects of the course you should study more deeply. When you feel you’ve read enough, test yourself again as kind of posttest to evaluate the level of your preparation. Make sure to cover question papers from a wide range of period, not too wide though to avoid superficial reading.
Another way to test yourself besides attempting past questions is to try to explain what you’ve learned to colleagues, which means making a study group to share your ideas will be a great way to help you prepare. Read this article on how you can score an ‘A’ with less than 10 minutes explanation from a colleague.
Go on breaks at intervals
Do you know that the human brain has its saturation point? That’s why you need to go on breaks at intervals. While you may believe that it’s right to study for an extended period, it can go wrong at times. Let’s look at this possible scenario; even the world’s best athlete can’t run for 24 hours at a stretch. Bringing it down to your academic life; you need to craft a routine that works for you. You can choose to read during the day and rest at night or vice versa. Also, while reading, create some break time to stretch, decompress your stress and refresh your brain. A study shows that allowing your mind to rest for sometimes during intense study aids comprehension and will enable you to study for a considerably long period.
You may also try listening to music too if that works for you. Some read better with music and others without music. If you’d like to know whether playing cool music will help you while reading, then check out this article. It provides useful tips on how listening to music while studying can boost your productivity.
Test yourself and plan your examination day
Here’s the truth; getting into the exam venue can make you forget most of the things you’ve read. If you can assume an exam condition, take off all reading materials and test your ability so far, you’ll not find the examination hall intimidating. Prepare yourself mentally and check yourself with possible questions. Always hone your focus on answering all the questions. However, in the end, if you couldn’t achieve that, don’t call it a quit. Go back to work, prepare more and test yourself, you’ll most probably get better. Ensure you get all your writing materials needed for your exams ready, and don’t leave everything until the examination day.
Finally, while it’s true that there are many strategies to prepare for exams, depending on the candidate, it’s important to reiterate once more that you don’t prepare for an exam a day before the paper. What’s practical is to get your mind ready long before the date – set goals, make a schedule, read broadly and deeply, rest, read again and test yourself – how much you put in preparation always determine the results of your exams. Good luck!
Also, check out this useful article on how to boost your exam performance or the one on strategies to improve your learning styles.