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Exam Prep

Making prep efficient

—->By now we all know the importance of exams especially when the end of the year grows nearer. Its important to prepare for these exams so I’ve collected from my own experience some helpful tips and such. I have split it up into topics including: Preparation, motivation, class notes, techniques and execution.

Preparation

—->Preparing for revision for exams is really an important factor. Its the first hurdle to setting out a plan for your revision. It gives a solid foundation you need for something as big as end of year exams. Things to consider are:

Timescale, you need to know when your exams start and when they end. What comes first and what comes last. This should give you an idea of how to set out a rough revision timetable.

Lists, make a list of all the topics you have to study. Highlight or make extra emphasis on the topics you struggle most with. These you’ll want to do first and revisit often to ensure you have it down in time for the real exam.

Create an environment you can focus in. Try different rooms in your house to find the area you feel the most productive in, the best place will have little distraction. If you are stuck at a desk keep out of sight anything that could distract you from your study. Keep it clean and minimalistic for the best focus.

Motivation

—->Studying can be difficult when faced with procrastination, especially after a long day of school when you just want to sleep. Alas here are some tips to defeat procrastination when it comes to studying and maximise productivity.

Do non-essential tasks first before your homework, this means that you will work through your study session first then do your essential tasks. Overall your more likely to finish the study session if you do it before your homework.

Set yourself a timescale. It’s good to know when you are going to start and when you are going to stop to maintain that balance between study and relaxation.

Content, don’t focus on perfectionism. Its not the perfect calligraphy that matters its the content you need to remember. The last thing you want is your fear of failure to hinder revision.

Class Notes

—->It all starts with a strong foundation of what you have learned in class. This doesn’t just apply to exams. If you create a note-taking system that outlines concepts easily then it helps make revision much simpler.

When taking notes try to put the information down in your own words, use abbreviations to make note taking easier and remember to write them down for future reference. The aim is to make them brief and easy to understand

Develop a note taking system that works for you. Maybe start with a well known system such as the cornell method and develop that into something you can use to make your notes more efficient.

Review. Review. Review. Its important to go over your notes to keep them in your memory and disrupt the forgetting curve (As described in Study Tips). The best time to look over notes and make corrections is the next evening.

Techniques

—->For revising techniques are a big part to play in the overall results of the exams. The best techniques engage the mine and are active ways (flashcards and self testing) of studying that are much more efficient to passive methods (Rereading and highlighting).

Flashcards, these have been mentioned in a previous post but they really cannot be underestimated for their usefulness. They can be used for remembering quotes to key concepts.

Use diagrams for subjects that need them. If you are a visual learner its a good way of including content and learning it. Subjects suitable for this are biology and the sciences.

Use a Pomodoro timer to spilt your workload and take productive breaks. Its split up into 4 25 minute sessions split by 2 short breaks and 1 long break at the end. By splitting up the workload and frequently changing topics it keeps you productive and helps with retention

Execution

—->Now its up to you, the execution of the exam is ultimately your goal. Its stressful and definitely an anxiety prone ordeal but here are some tips for dealing with the nerves.

Get up early, you want your brain in order for early exams. The best way to do this is get up early and keep to your morning routine.

music, before your exam do something that will relax and calm you. You want to keep yourself as calm as possible before your exam.

Remember that breaks are okay. That if you need to have a break from studying and relax to avoid burnout do it. There is nothing more important than your mental health.

---> Please leave a comment below or find me on studying amino at Strangeguts

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Study Tips

—->Its getting to that busy time of year of exams and usually a whole lot of stress. During this time my studying comes into full effect and I try to do it as often as possible. Using the right study tips that are proven to be the most effective is the key to good exam results.

The Bad 

--->Although some of these techniques feel productive they really have no effect on your test scores. Avoiding them or changing them so they become effective is the key to a better studying .These techniques were found to be ineffective according to a 2013 Dunlosky study. These are all passive methods of studying.

Highlighting. Its the study technique many students run too but it has little to no effect on exam results at all. Its a waste of time and can actually hinder your progress. Its you reading the text and drawing your attention to individual facts. It hinders your ability to make connections and overall is a waste of time and classed as a ‘low utility’ study technique.

Rereading, this is almost as useless as highlighting. As its not actively retrieving it from your brain, its not utilising the information on a page into something to help you remember it. It feels like you know the information because you’ve just read it but its not stored in your long term memory. It’s another one of those ‘low utility’ study methods.

Summarising/writing, this is ineffective unless you know how to do it correctly. It feels like your doing something but again has very little effect when you are just copying from a text. There are keys to a good summary that can help retain the information but these are often not taught in lower education.

The Good

—-> These are the most successful study tips. They may not work for all but were found most successful for studying. These two were:

Active Recall

actively stimulating the brain during studying. Its much more efficient than passive techniques (highlighting, rereading, summarising). It works on the principle that the harder you have to think about something the easier it is to recall from long term memory.

Forgetting Curve

Which is understanding that over a certain period of time you forget things so coming back to the same concepts over a period of time helps to ingrain it in your long-term memory. It explains why learning is hard but also offers a solution. Here is an example of a forgetting curve, as time passes more information is forgotten. Interrupting this cycle is critical to remembering things long term. Keep going over key concepts to remember them.

—-> It’s all well and good learning about these terms but what revision techniques can you use that incorporates these effective study methods.

 Flashcards. Creating flashcards is definitely handy for self testing and active recall. You can use it for things like equations and general vocabulary all the way to key concepts. There are plenty of apps out there but Quizlet and Anki.

Questions. Create sets of questions for each subjects and answer them regularly, the more questions the better. Help disrupt the forgetting curve. This can be done on a word document or on paper.

Making effective notes. Choose a topic and study it for a set time, then close the textbook and write down everything that you can remember from it. Correct anything you missed out in a different colour. This is much more effective for retention than making standard notes. Remember to focus on content.

Creating foldable glossaries. Put the key terms on  one side and fold the paper vertically in half, write down the definition and test yourself. Speaking the definition out loud can help for retention. Again you can do this on word or on paper.

Practice Questions. Theres nothing better for exams than exam questions do as many as you can and check them to the mark scheme for practice. This technique definitely applies to heavy content based subjects and Mathematics.

—->These tips might not work for all but its definitely important for effective studying to understand the difference between active and passive studying.  If your interested and want to learn about Dunlosky’s study here