Exam Skills
September 9th, 2007 by scottmcdonald
When should you start revising for your exams?
Exam preparation starts the night before the exam, right? WRONG !
It should start at the beginning of semester – and this is something most students learn the hard way. Of course all students learn differently, but some revision strategies are better than others.
What strategies can you use to help you revise?
There are three very basic revision strategies:
- Setting goals
- Studying in small bites
- Assessing your progress
1. Setting Your Goals
First the student would set their revision goals for that revision session by deciding which part of the subject they want to revise. For example, they might decide to revise the first three weeks of the semester or they might decide to break their revision into specific topic areas and so on. Or they might decide to revise twenty key words. Then the student decides to spend the next twenty minutes trying to memorize the key words.
2. Studying In Small Bites and Assessing Your Progress
After twenty minutes or longer, if you feel you can concentrate for longer, you should stop and review your progress and decide whether or not to continue with the same task or to change to something else. The aim is to monitor and be in control of your own learning.
Give yourself a short break where you get some fresh air or have a drink of coffee but be disciplined about returning to your study in a short time. Don’t let others stop you from returning.
Go back to your desk and decide on your next goal and repeat the process.
At the end of your study session you need to decide what you feel confident about and what you feel you need to spend more time on in your next revision period which might occur the next day.
Other SLU Resources
The SLU has further information below on Exam Skills.
- Open Book Exams (pdf)
- Past Papers (pdf)
- Multiple Choice Tests (pdf)
Other Useful Websites
Some other Exam Skills websites have been bookmarked for you on del.icio.us
If you have any queries about exam techniques, or on how this resource could be improved, feel free to leave a comment/ reply below!
Posted in Uncategorized, exams | No Comments »
