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How
to Successfully Prepare for Examinations
The
Key to success testing starts with your ability to use time wisely.
By efficiently scheduling your time, you can prepare weill in advance
for your examinations. Successful preparation for an exam starts
at the beginning of each term and continues throughout.
The
following are some helpful suggestions for successfully preparing
for you exam:
Make
a study plan:
- At
the beginning of the each term, develop a daily schedule that
will allow time for class preperation, study, review, recreation,
eating, and sleeping
- Find
a study area conducive to learning
- Study
and review differ from each other. As they are equally important,
allocate time for both in your daily schedule
- Forgetting
takes place most rapidly immediately after learning. Therefore,
review and recall are most effective soon after study
- Don't
overtax your memory or stamina. Research shows that most people
can absorb and reatin just so much knowledge at one time
- Take
thorough and effective class and study notes
Use
good review techniques:
- If
you have applied yourself during the term, preparing for exams
is onlya matter of review. Review for weekly quizzes should take
no more than 15 minutes, a mid-term hour exam 2 to 3 hours, and
a final examination 5 to 8 hours
- Your
preparation for a final should be carefully scheduled into the
two weeks prior to exam day
Prepare
for examinations:
- Plan
your review systematically and consistently. Go from main idea
to main idea using your chapter and class notes to recall the
important headings and ideas in each
- Making
summary notes is often helpful, depending on the amount of material
to be reviewed
- Ask
your professor what he/she recommends for pre-examination work
- Group
reviewing can be helpful
- Avoid
cramming
Organize
pre-exam hours:
- The
day before an exam, plan to review a maximum of three hours
- Eat
and sleep well so that you are refreshed the day of the exam
- It
may be helpful to take a last look at your summary notes, but
avoid them if it makes you nervous
Help
with testing when preparation is insufficient
The
correct option will generally, but not always, show these characteristics
on a test:
- Length.
It will be longer than the incorrext answer
- Qualification.
It will be qualifed to give it precision
- Generalization.
It will be generalized to give it wider application than the incorrect
options
- Physical
position. It will not be the first or last option
- Logical
Position. It will not be one of the extremes of a set of options
which can be put in some natural order (e.g., options which are
all numbers)
- Similarity
or oppositeness. It will be one of two similar statements, or
it will be one of two options which state the idea or fact diametrically
opposite
- Phraseology.
It will be in a sentence bearing familiar or stereotyped phraseology
- Language.
It will not contain language or technical terms which you are
not expected to know
- Grammar.
It will be a grammatically perfect extension of the question itself
- Emotive
word. It will not contain such extreme words as nonsense, foolhardy,
harebrained, etc.
- Silly
ideas. It will not be a flippant remark or a completely unreasonable
statement
Never
answer on the basis of these clues when you have any other reason
to believe that one options is most likely to be correct!
Hints
for writing essay exams:
- Try
to anticipate the questions
- Read
the questions with care
- Key
words such as the following will often dictate the structure and
content of your answer:
- explain-give
a series of statements which describe reasons, causes, significances,
etc.
- illustrate-give
concrete examples of the concept
- criticize,
evaluate-discuss merits and demerits of the concept
- interpret-write
statements explaining your analysis of the concept
- define
- list,
enumerate-describe attributes which show the kinds of
actions, which together serve to explain or define something
- discuss
- compare
and contrast
- why?-explain
causal factors behind an event
- justify-give
reasons why an act can be defined
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