Few people like exams, but if you think carefully about how to approach them they can be easier to handle than you might imagine.
Preparing for Exams
When students struggle with exam preparation, it’s often because they’re not clear about:
- Whether revision will make a difference
- What to revise.
- How to allocate their time.
- How to actually revise!
It can seem a good idea to plough straight into revision without finding out the answers to these questions but good planning can make the whole revision process much less stressful. It can make a real difference to how well you do!
What to revise:
Here’s a list of some of the things you might need to know to make an effective plan.
For each subject:
- Ask subject teachers to help you make a list of topics to revise.
- Find out what kinds of questions there will be in the exam. Ask your teacher how you should answer each different type.
- How long you’ll have to work on each question.
- Whether you’ll have a choice of questions.
Once you have all of this information you are a good way towards working out what topics to revise and in what depth. The next step is to look at how much time you have available.
Making the best use of your time.
There’s no one way of time planning that will suit everyone but there are some broad guidelines that many students find useful.
Don’t worry if things don’t go exactly to plan remember that no one manages their time perfectly!
One: Work out a reasonable amount of time to revise.
Two: Break it into reasonable revision sessions
Three: Leave time to relax
Four: Put in the exam dates.
Five: Fit sessions in for each subject
How detailed a plan this is will depend on your own personal preferences.
Revising:
Before you start, make sure you check you have notes on all the topics you need to revise!
If you have missing work, think how you can replace it:
- Talk to friends, can you photocopy their notes?
- Are there notes on Google drive or on the web?
- Can your teacher help?
The world’s worst method of revision is to read through notes and leave it at that. Only a few scary people remember all that information after just reading notes!
Revision is boring and you must find ways of tricking your brain into engaging with it!
You remember better when you understand
Even if your exams require you to remember a lot of facts, you are much more likely to remember the information if you understand it!
Ways to help you understand the work…
Look for the idea behind the work
Think about how things link together.
Relate what you are learning to ‘real-life’ situations.
Thinking how the solution to one problem may help you solve others.
Organise the material into an ordered structure.
Create diagrams or charts to represent a topic.
Look for similarities or differences.
Look for points for and against an argument.
Try to really understand how formulae work.
Discuss topics with a friend.
And of course ask your teacher for help
