WHAT DO YOU
DO TO PREPARE FOR YOUR EXAMS
FROM the last item, you learned that that your
study time could be divided into homework time and study time.
But you do not have to study after completing homework.
You might want to study before doing homework
because study might require that you are fresh.
It is true that some subjects are hard to study
when you have worn out your brain on other things.
The best way to study for your exams is to go over
all your past assignment and test papers.
Teachers or lecturers who set the exams usually
draw their exam questions from past questions given in tests and assignments.
Some even give hints about how much of which units would be set in the exams.
(That is common at the university level. And no,
that is not cheating. Some lecturers at university give hints because they do
not want struggling students to fail.)
In going through past assignments and test papers,
redo the questions asked and pay attention to the ones that you got wrong and
try to understand how you got them wrong.
Redoing the questions in Maths would mean you
rewrite the problems in another exercise book and solve them again. It is only
when you can solve a problem again, without looking at a solution, that you would
know that you understand the problem.
Besides redoing past test and assignment questions,
go over your notebooks or lecture notes and summarise points.
Summarising points is a very good way of revising.
In Science, it could mean stating briefly the
reactants and products of the processes of photosynthesis and respiration.
If you can correctly write the word equation of the
two, you can write mini-essays on the two processes without difficulties.
Use a separate notebook to summarise topics for one
subject. List the main details as you go through your notebook, page by page.
When you summarise, you are bringing out the main
points and you will remember better.
Yes, that would require you to write a bit more
too. But the method has worked for millions of successful students who use
that.
At times, you may have to memorise definitions or
laws. Write those in the summary book and on small slips of papers/cards that
you can easily flip over when you are eating, riding in the bus or waiting for
a game to start.
Some concepts in certain subjects (such as Maths,
Science and Business) are better remembered in the form of equations and
formulas.
Make sure you learn them and memorise them. For
those at high school and primary school, memorising the times tables would help
you in Maths. (That is a fact!)
In some cases, use diagrams, flow charts or photos
to summarise concepts.
The water and nutrient cycles in Science and climograph
in Social Science are best remembered if you recreate them in the form of
diagrams or graphs.
Try not to study beyond midnight. It is not
necessary if you start early in the night. More on this in the next item.
Next item: My study preparation for exams
No comments:
Post a Comment