Preparing For Exams: Three Crucial Steps

Exams, whether mocks are propers, can often be very daunting. But by identifying your weaknesses, setting goals, and planning ahead, you can properly prepare for that all important day! Nerves are natural most people obsess over counting down the days, so much so that they lose track of what`s important - focusing on your studies and doing the best you can to prepare.

That`s certainly easier said than done. Preparation can be difficult. It`s hard to know where to start and creating a plan can sometimes seem like an idle task when your time could be used revising instead! But I assure you that - as with most things in life - if you take a few minutes to step back, reflect, and plan ahead, everything is so much easier. So, here are my Three Crucial Steps for preparing for exams.

1. Know Your Weaknesses

Unless you`re some kind of superhuman - in which case I would question you reading this - it`s highly likely that you have at least one area of weakness that may pop up during your impending exam. It can be hard to identify these weaknesses. Some hide away within sub-topics, others might be so obvious that we can`t see them at all. One key weakness that is common in many excellent Maths and Science students is their inability to tackle `wordy` questions and extract large chunks of information. This is just an example, but it gives you an idea of what to look out for. The best way to identify weakness is to form a RAG rating list of all the topics that could occur on your test. This is where you take all the possible topics, list them out and then assign each one a colour based on how confident you feel about them from past exam questions, or even from what you learnt in class. The three colours are: Red (meaning, Eeeek I really can`t do this), Amber (I might be able to do this but I`d be a bit unsure about it), and Green (ah that`s a walk in the park!). This technique may be simple, but it is also highly affective! Give it a go. Make a list of all your topics, assign them a colour, and pick out those that are Red or Amber - these are the ones you need to work on.

2. Set Goals

So now you know your weaknesses... what are you going to do about them? This might seem like a really silly thing to ask, but without thinking of ways to improve, it`s unlikely you`ll make any progress at all. What`s your strategy? Think about what your weakness is, and how best to improve upon it. For example, if my weakness is algebraic equations, then it would be pretty foolish to spend all of my time on Geometry questions! When it comes to maths in particular, practice really does make perfect. So set your goals. Pick your weakness and say "I`m going to do 10 questions on this particular topic" and by the end of doing those questions you should begin to see an improvement. This goal, of course, doesn`t have to be practicing questions, it could in fact be re-reading your class notes, or asking your teacher or friend to go over something with you. But whatever the goal, it needs to be attainable. It`s no good saying "I need to get better at running, so I`m going to run to the moon!". Although it might be fun, running to the moon is a rather impossible task - first of all it`s an awful long way to go, and secondly there are many barriers and laws of physics that would prevent you from achieving such a goal. So, don`t overkill it - set a goal which is relevant, achievable in the time you have available, and effective otherwise there`s no point in setting a goal at all.

3. Plan Ahead

Now that you know your weakness, and have set your goals (how you`re going to improve upon your weaknesses), it all comes down to planning! For many people, this concept can seem vague, even pointless. But planning is very simple, it`s taking what you want to achieve, identifying how much time you have to achieve it in (i.e. how long until your exam), and assigning time in your day or week to achieve those goals. A very simple way to do it would be to create a weekly timetable - draw out seven columns (one for each day), and split the day up into several different periods. For example, Morning, Afternoon, Tea-time and Evening or, perhaps hourly, as in 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, and so on. Once you`ve created your timetable, now it`s time to fill it up with when you`re in school or work, extra-curricular activities, and any other commitments that you might have. After that, identify the gaps in your timetable. These are the ideal opportunities to take some time to achieve your goals. Whether that`s spending an hour or so on learning the elements for your Chemistry test, or practicing questions on Mitosis for Biology, set aside some time to make your goals possible. It is, however, also important that you take some down-time to relax and unwind too! Our brains are a little like an iPhone - they might be able to run for six hours straight, but at some point their battery always dies and needs a recharge. It`s really important we take that time to recharge, or otherwise we won`t be able to function properly, and if that`s the case we`ll never be able to achieve our goals. So, take time to plan out your day, but make sure to take some time for your self too.