Preparing for an Exam
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
All in Your Head: Exam Preparation
It’s nearly Christmas and you know what that means? It means getting together with friends
and family and enjoying yourself. If you are a student, it means getting overwhelming feeling
of guilt because you aren’t studying for your exams.
On the other hand, if you are a lucky, you'll have your exams before Christmas, leaving you
time to relax. If you are unlucky and your school/college is the work of the devil, you will have
exams after Christmas. Cue feelings of constant guilt and pressure until the exam is over.
If you have mastered how not to stress yourself out, let's get down to business and start
preparing for that exam!
Step 1: Previous Exam Papers
Previous exam papers contain a wealth of information. They give you an indication as to the
type of questions that come up year in and year out. If your course is in it’s first year, previous
exam papers will not be available. Your teacher/lecturer should compile example questions
or give your some indication as to what is on the exam.
Before you go near your exam papers, go to your class notes/slides and write down the topics
that have been covered. For most 1 semester classes, there should be a maximum of 12 topics.
Depending on your course, this may be less. Once you have the previous exam papers,
transfer the questions into a spreadsheet or word document. Go through each question and
organise them under your topic headings.
Because I’m a bit of a nerd and I like saving time, I tend to use either Excel or Google Sheets
and my sheet looks like this.
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
I put the topic in the column beside it. This allows me to filter the questions by topic. It also
allow me to create a Pivot table to calculate the most asked topic in the exam like so:
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
If you want to use this template, you can click h
ere to download it.
Once you have identified the most common topics, grab your notes for these sections and
start making your notes. It is important to state at this stage that some teachers/lecturers will
hint as to what is coming up on the paper or they may tell you what is coming up. If they
have already done this, please go with their advice.
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
Step 2: Picking your Topics
Once you have identified the topics that you are going to cover, it’s time to grab your notes.
Some class notes will not be applicable. Review these notes to make sure that information for
other topics are not hidden in the notes.
Also, look out for information that may contrast with the topic. This is always good to use as it
shows that you have a well-rounded understanding of the subject. It may also urge some
critical thinking when you are crafting out your notes.
Make sure that you specify on your notes that this idea is your own. This will help you when
trying to decipher which theorist said what.
Make sure that you pay attention to further readings as most lecturers/teachers will expect
you to bring up one or more of these in your answer as a counterpoint.
Step 3: Solidifying your notes
Depending on the way that you study, your notes may be in audio form (i.e. you have
recorded yourself reading them) or in written form (i.e. you have made notes yourself). I love
written notes. I find that writing it over and over makes me understand it more. The best was
to understand a concept is to break down each topic into into separate topics and I make
cascade notes for each sub-topic. In my first draft of notes, these notes are generally
unstructured. With every rewrite, they become more compact and the information is clearly
displayed. As someone who bullet-journals on the regular, I also find that the more organised
and formatted my notes become, the clearer the ideas become in my head.
When you are structuring your notes, make sure that general sub-topics are at the start (i.e.
what is behaviour) and follow with examples and studies that have been done on this topic
(i.e. Watson, Pavlov & Hull).
If you want to see an example of my notes, please click h
ere to view.
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
Step 4: Learning the Topic
Once you have your final draft of notes done, it’s now time to learn them off. You will know a
lot of each topic by the time you get to this stage so learning the rest of the information will
not be that difficult. When it comes to learning information, I find that learning each topic,
sub-topic by sub-topic makes the process simpler. If you have constructed your notes in an
essay type fashion i.e. introduction, examples, conclusion, it will be easier to recall the
information in the correct order when you are in the exam.
When the final set of notes are completed, learn the introduction topic off first. Once you can
recite it in full, move onto the next sub-topic and learn that off. When you can recite that
then try and recite the two sub-topics off together and keep doing that until you know both
sub-topics. Continue this process until you can recite the entire topic.
I find this process helpful as once you know all your notes, you can recite them in your head
or out loud on the way to your exam, in the shower, in the middle of the pub or wherever
takes your fancy. I think that it is also a good way to calm your nerves. If you wake up in the
middle of the night in a cold sweat after a nightmare where you turn up to the exam and you
don’t know any of the answers, you can recite the topics and the information for each of
them to calm your wandering worrying mind.
Step 5: Exam Day
Another positive about using this method is that when you are in the exam and you pick your
questions that you are going to answer, you can write down the sub-topics on your rough
work page. This means that when you are writing an essay about Organisational Psychology
but also have to write an essay about Behavioural Psychology, you have your notes already
written. These notes will act as a prompt for your essay answer.
If you are taking an MCQ, you can jot down the topics and sub-topics on the back of your
question sheet and you have prompts for answers when you are running out of time or your
mind has gone blank.
Link to Original Content: https://rebeccahhammond.com/2018/12/04/student-life-exam-preparation/
This is just the way I do it, but if you have any comments or any suggestions I would love to
hear from you. Exams can be one of the most stressful times of the year, so why not help
each other through it? Leave your comments below!
Photo Credit: Jazmin Quaynor