Study Tips for Preparing for Examinations
Exam season is upon us, the global pandemic has changed things drastically with conventional public examinations being cancelled for the second year in a row, an unprecedented move, one that we have not seen in modern history. Regardless of this many students across the UK and around the world will still have to sit internal exams and these are the grades that are going to be used and determine the next steps in their journeys just like the conventional public examinations would have been. Exam time is typically a stressful time for students especially this year because of the disruption the pandemic has caused. These steps are designed to help make sense of and hopefully alleviate some of the worry. Exams may still be challenging but hopefully you’ll feel more prepared after reading the tips below.
- Clarity
Before revision and exam preparation can begin it’s essential that you have clarity on what is being assessed. During the global pandemic we’ve seen that there have been changes to public examinations such as Gcses and A Levels. This means that the content that has been assessed in previous years may not be assessed this year.
It’s also important to know when your examinations are for your particular subjects, so you know how long you have to prepare for each individual examination. This will be different this year depending on the particular institution as public examinations will be dependent on internal examinations run by teachers.
- Prioritise
For revision to be as effective as possible you’re going to need to prioritise both your time and the subjects that are most important to your future plans. Within subjects there may be modules that have a greater percentage weighting than other modules. You’ll need to dedicate more time to these because they are worth more to your overall grade.
As it closer to exam season, revise subjects in the order of when you have to sit the exam, for example if you have a subject that you are sitting early in exam season, and another subject that will be your last exam of exam season, make sure you prepare for the former first because you have more time to prepare for the exam that comes later. Don’t waste time revising topics that you already know, this comfort revision will take time away from you learning and revising topics that you find more difficult.
- Consistency
You won’t be able to revise everything in one go, you’ll need to consistently set time aside to work and practice. Make sure you have protected time for studying, where nothing else is booked so you can focus on your work. It’s a good idea to give yourself at least a couple of days to warm up to a revision schedule, this will give you a running start to make it easier to get into a good routine.
- Content Checklist
Similar to the first section, it’s important that you can visually see all of the different topics in your subject, you’ll need to differentiate between subjects you understand and subjects you don’t. You may want to use a traffic light system, to identify your weaker areas and hence spend more time preparing for this, with green meaning well understood, amber not so sure and red meaning not understood at all. Use practice questions or past papers to identify where topics fall within the traffic light system. You can also use teacher feedback on your work to inform the areas you should work on.
- Correct Useful Resources
You’ve managed to allocate time for studying and identified the areas that you’re weak in. Now you need the best and tailored resources to ensure you learn the content for the exam. Most examinations will have a particular examination board and examination boards will either produce their own resources or they will endorse another company that produces resources.
Resources you’ll need include but are not limited to
Past Papers/ examination Questions on particular topics
Study packs
Textbooks
Revision guides
Revision notes
- Learning Techniques
What is the best way to actually learn the content? Well that depends on the individual studying, it’s important to find methods that work for you. Some evidenced based techniques that have a proven track record include; spaced repetition this is where you go over a topic or idea in increasing intervals based on how well you understand it. For example a topic that you don’t know very well will be shown to you more frequently than one you understand.
Active recall is forcing yourself to recall information; it could be a fact or an essay plan or even a formula. It prevents the complacency of seeing something familiar and saying ‘oh yes I know that! I’m sure if that came up in an exam I would be able to answer that.’
Rote Learning is learning something through repetition, an example of this is when you read something, cover it and see if you can write it down without looking.
Answering practice and exam questions is a very useful method because you can compare your answers against a mark scheme that will simulate how well you will perform in actual examination. Once you’ve got good at answering questions it’s a good idea to compile these answers together in something like an exercise book or a computer document then you can use this as a revision resource.
You can also teach someone else to test your understanding, if you’re able to explain difficult concepts this is evidence that you understand the material, but I wouldn’t advise you doing this if you do not have a lot of time remaining until your exam as this can be very time consuming.
- Past Papers
Doing past papers under timed conditions is the best simulation you have of how you could perform in the actual examination. Make sure the past papers are actually designed for the examination you are going to sit and/or are the previous years papers. Treat the past papers like it is the real thing, make sure you have a go at past papers under timed conditions so you can get a sense of how the timings will be during the exam. Don’t be generous with the markscheme, mark it fairly and accurately, doing past papers will highlight the areas you are weak in and so inform your study. Do not worry too much if your score is not what you are hoping for, you now have the information to get closer to that score.
- Mind Maps and Cheat Sheets
Making mind maps are useful for a number of reasons they allow you to see how ideas are connected, they also allow you to identify any gaps in your knowledge and they are a great tool for planning essays.
You can also use mind maps as a revision resource in their own right and note down other important ideas in shorthand such as formulas and facts and compile all of these together to form cheat sheets and summaries. These are really useful when the bulk of your revision is completed and you’re reviewing and reminding yourself of some key ideas.
- Stay Healthy
Along with revision it’s even more important to take care of your emotional and physical health, make sure just as you have allocated protected time for study you must also have protected time for exercise, rest and sleep. This will help you better assimilate the information you are taking in. Eat good nutritious food and stay hydrated. This is not only good for your health but will make it easier to learn the topics. Don’t forget to have fun and do things you enjoy while you are preparing for your exams and try your best to keep the right perspective.
These exams are a stepping stone for the next phase of your life. They are not going to determine all you achieve in life, yes they are important in the short term but overall they are definitely not the most important thing. So therefore whatever stage you are at with your studies and revision, do the best you can with the time that you have and try not to stress about the outcome, whatever happens this is a great opportunity to learn and grow from.
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