Are you ready to tackle… Exams?
Or are you still googling on how to study for exams, how to study effectively for exams and exam tips and tricks? Here, we will try to make your life a little easier by outlining 5 study and exam tips.
1. Know your Foe!
Exams are your opponent. Learn to combat your enemy well hence find out what your enemy is capable of. The following will give a good measure in preparing for the paper.
- Find the type of questions that may come in the exam. Study previous year’s test papers to give you an idea.
- Be sure of the number of hours that it would take for you to complete the test. You might know all the answers, but are you able to answer all the questions in time? You can mimic the process by doing a few sample papers and seeing how much you can answer during that time frame.
- The percentage of the overall marks that goes towards your overall score.
It might be futile to allocate a week each for two tests when one might contribute 20% to the overall score of your course and the other only 5%! - Anticipate how difficult the subject is and how much time was taken to study for a similar exam in the past. For example, depending on individual abilities, a student might take a week to study for a math paper while another might take 3 weeks. So know your own ability.
- Study Materials. Ensure that you have all the study materials, guides, handouts, and resources that you require for exam preparation.
2. Make Your Study Community!
Try to study in groups. We would advise this even to introverts who prefer to slog it on their own. Studying in a group lets you discuss problems quickly rather than trying to find answers on your own which may be time-consuming. The time frame may not be enough in which case you need to cover the entire curriculum, hence finding a study group can speed up the process. One way to do so is by getting in touch with all the students in your batch. And you can do that through signing up on Alumni Alliances! Alumni Alliances is an exclusive Alumni community that has Alumni and students only from your alma mater. Hence, you can interact with not only students of your batch but Alumni who were enrolled in your course earlier. They can provide tricks and tips on how to tackle the test effectively. All you have to do is to click on the interest “Network and Connect” and publish a post with your requirement. That’s all that you have to do and students studying for that particular exam can get in touch with you immediately.
3. Still Wanna Go Solo?
If you are still skeptical about studying in groups. Then you could always reach out to mentors or lecturers. We are sure lecturers would be the way to go but with so many students in your batch, needing special attention and lecturers having their own schedule of classes, how do you get help in such a short time? They are many forums that provide mentorship but to get mentorship from someone from your alma mater is like looking for a pin in a haystack. Except with Alumni Alliances! It is super easy to find a mentor or multiple mentors through Alumni Alliances who can help you. Only one post titled “Connect with Mentors” that requires minimal information can be published on Alumni Alliances and you are good to go!
4. Don’t Miss Out on Snooze and Hydration
The excessive black coffees, anxiety, irregular study hours would take a toll on your mental as well as physical health. Taking a good amount of rest and sleep will help one to rejuvenate. This will let you study more effectively. Lack of sleep can slow down metabolism. For example, a person taking regular sleep might study and grasp concepts well within an hour while the other might take two hours to study the same number of concepts if they do not have the required amount of rest.
During this time, coffee is the go-to beverage but we also advise on plain old water! Dehydration may cause waning attention span and focus is key to doing well in exams. Hence, not only drink water during your study period but also carry a bottle in the exam hall.
5. The Battle
When in the ultimate battle arena consider the three major ways to answer all the questions effectively.
- Reading Time. Try to jot down as many ideas with a pencil during the reading time on your question paper to help you while writing the answers. Also, see if you have the full question paper to ensure that none of the pages are missing.
- Break down the Questions to understand them better. You might be asked to provide an expanded solution to a problem but end up simplifying it. (The many complications of math!!!) That is why it is crucial to understand what is required of you. You can break down the question into parts to fully understand before answering.
- Review. Always, review your answers at the end of the exam. It is essential to ensure that you eliminate any silly errors or mistakes.
- Never Discuss Afterwards. Another very important step is to not discuss the paper once you leave the exam room. You might have other exams to prepare for and harping on a mistake that you did in the present exam will just add to the stress. Leave it all once you step out.
Once the exam fever is over, catch up with your buddies through Alumni Alliancesand you can plan a break as well. You can also help a fellow junior about tackling such exams through publishing a post called “Connect with Mentees” in which you can mentor someone who requires help or coaching during exams.
These are our 5 antidotes for curing your exam fever. Do you want to add on? Please share your tips with us through the comments sections below. Also, do stay tuned to Alumni Insider for more cool articles like this. And, if you haven’t signed up already, then get on board Alumni Alliances to connect with many friends, mentors, and pals who can be in your study group from your Alma mater.
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Gif Courtesy: Housemaster
