The Step by Step Guide To Exam Success
The Step by Step Guide To Exam Success
The Step by Step Guide To Exam Success
Contents
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Introduction Preparing for Exams Sitting Exams Procrastination Concentration Relaxation Disabling Thoughts Exam Panic Further Advice
Student Counselling Service and Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, University of Edinburgh.
Introduction
This brief guide is intended to give you some ideas about how you can get the marks you want in your exams with the minimum of stress and panic! Few people like exams, but if you think carefully about how to approach them they can be easier to handle than you might imagine. If you still feel stuck once youve read this guide, then have a look at the section on Further Sources of Advice. You might be wondering why weve felt the need to write this guide when many of the students studying at Edinburgh have been very successful in exams in order to get here. Part of the reason is that studying at university can be quite different from many peoples prior experiences. You may have more responsibility for your learning, a greater volume of work, or different kinds of exams. So, although its possible to draw on your past experiences, many students find they need to adapt their learning. Even for students who are already doing well at university theres often room to improve.
It can be really tempting to plough straight into revision without finding out the answers to these questions - especially if you are a bit worried about facing up to any study problems - but good planning can make the whole revision process much less stressful. Also, the more you practice planning and organising your revision the better you will get at it.
(You can usually find these things out from past papers on the library web site, but do check that the format of the paper hasnt been changed). What clues there are in your course materials, like lecture outlines, learning outcomes or exam guidance. Whether there are any differences between whats expected in a good exam answer here, as compared with your prior learning experiences.
Once you have all of this information you are a good way towards working out what topics to revise and in what depth. The next step is to look at how much time you have available.
This can help you to work out the total amount of time you can realistically give to the revision for each exam. If you are less experienced at University exams this may involve a bit of guesswork. Once you have an idea of the time available, you can put this together with what you have learned from your exam papers and course information to work our a revision plan. How detailed a plan this is will depend on your own personal preferences. What is important is that you ask yourself whether what you plan to do is realistic; for example, if it takes you 2 hours to work through the notes from each lecture and you have 60 lectures to cover, but only 50 hours to revise for the exam then you need to think again. As you are making your plan, remember to block out some time to work with past papers. This is one of the things that people often miss out, yet it is something that can really make a big difference to your marks, even if you dont spend very long doing it. How you might use past papers is discussed below.
Many students approach their revision by condensing their notes down. This might involve summarising your notes from your classes and readings onto index cards. Alternatively, you might create a list of headings and bullet points. If you have trouble summarising your notes within the time you have set aside, you might find it helpful to decide that each set of lecture notes will be condensed onto, say, no more than 1 page or a small number of cards. Some students also find it very helpful to do mind maps or spider diagrams. These involve: Writing your study topic in the middle of a page. Drawing branches and twigs out from the centre for key themes. You can have words, pictures, diagrams whatever seems to help.
Exercise more
Concentration
Try saying STOP to myself
If the facts you need do not seem to be sticking, even when you think you understand the topic, then you might find it helpful to develop a mnemonic, or trick, to help you remember. One of the best known mnemonics is this one for learning the colours of the rainbow Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet If you get a chance to talk to more experienced students in your subject area they may be able to tell you about memory tricks or strategies that have worked for them.
Test yourself as you are going along. (This may involve no more than putting aside your notes for a few minutes and scribbling down what you can remember from them). Bring together all of the past exam questions on one topic into a question bank. This can give you a sense of what to cover and how much depth to go into. Sketch out rough answers to exam questions. Write full exam answers. This may help to build up your confidence for the exam. (Practising examples is particularly important for exams that involve calculations). Write some practice answers under exam conditions. If youre lucky, some kind member of staff might read over some of your answers to help you see if you are on the right track. You may also surprise yourself by discovering that you can write less in the time than you thought, so you might not need to learn as much material as you had first imagined.
Final preparation
As the exams come closer, there are some things that you can do to help you arrive at the exam in a fit state to do yourself justice. Theres more about relaxation later in this booklet, but for now here are some suggestions about what you might want to do as the exams get nearer: Double check the exam times and locations; you dont want to be panicking about this on the day. Check what materials you are allowed to take into the exam and what will be provided for you; for example, if you have to use a particular kind of calculator, it might be a good idea to practice with it. If possible write yourself a time plan for each exam paper in advance. Try to resist the temptation to over work. If you do too much you will be worn out and wont work efficiently. Think about what routine would help you relax before the exam. Think through how you might avoid any additional stresses. Can you prevent, or put off, any difficult situations that may arise? Keep doing things that you enjoy and that relax you; for example, sport, meeting friends, going to the cinema. Try to keep to a sensible diet and sleep patterns.
Sitting Exams
A surprisingly high number of students lose marks through poor exam technique, rather than what they know. Do you think any of these suggestions might improve your performance? Starting off the exam by taking some time to settle down and look through the paper carefully. 6
Starting with the easiest question to settle you down, or getting the hardest question out of the way first. Taking care to read questions right through before you choose; perhaps the second part of the question asks for something you dont know about and youd be better to make another choice. Being very careful to fully answer the question asked. While you may be able to tailor what you know to answer a given question, its important to resist the temptation to answer the question you hoped would be asked, or to write down everything you know thats vaguely related to the question. Writing a brief plan for longer answers, so that you stay on track. Underlining key words in the questions. Taking care to answer the right number of questions and to share out your time effectively between them, according to the number of marks they are worth. Remember that its almost always easier to get the first 50% of the marks for each question than to get the next 50%. This means its usually a bad idea to neglect one question in the hope that your marks on other questions will be so high that they pull your grade up. Trying to leave some time at the end of the exam so that you can check your answers over. A little time spent checking can sometime save you quite a lot of marks.
Troubleshooting
If you have had problems with exams, its important to bear in mind that many students struggle at some point but most do just fine in the end. Often simply refining you exam preparation strategies can do wonders for your marks. And remember that you dont need to sort everything out on your own, you can ask for help. One thing you need to do, if something has gone wrong in an exam, is to work out exactly what the problems was. If possible, ask a member of staff in your subject area to tell you what were the main faults with your paper (they probably will not be able to give you the script back). It could be that you made an easily corrected mistake, like not answering the question asked. But unless you know what the problem was, it can be hard to sort it out. If you have exams coming up soon and you feel you havent revised well then try not to panic. Even if you only have a few days left you can still do a lot to improve your chances. The important thing is to be really focused as you will not have time to do everything. Have a good look at your past papers and try to focus on a few key things that seem most likely to come up.
Procrastination
Procrastination is a problem for most people from time to time. But if you find youre putting things off a lot and that its really affecting your life, then its time to take action. The Student Counselling Service and the Study Development Adviser run regular 7
workshops on procrastination. Look for information on the Student Portal and TLA or SCS web sites. For additional material on procrastination you can pick up information from the SCS or download the handouts from the TLA Centre web pages (see further information below).
Are there any benefits to procrastination? (Or why students keep doing it).
It can give a sense of urgency which lends impetus to work. It involves working intensely which can give a sense of accomplishment. It covers your tracks in case you do poorly in an exam, essay or piece of work you can tell yourself you didnt work for it so any failure is not down to your own inability. Last minute working can be a Herculean task which can temporarily boost your self esteem or prove something to yourself.
Set small goals, have regular breaks. Put some limits on the task, decide its only going to take a certain amount of time, or youre only going to cover some of the material. Create more structure in your day by planning in other activities, like exercise or realistic amounts of part-time work. Give yourself treats as you go along. Just do something, even if its a small step forward and youre not sure its right. If you get stuck, rather than stopping work, try a different strategy e.g. mindmapping. If uncertainty about what is wanted for an academic task is stopping you, you might want to start by looking for clues about whats expected. Quite often procrastination is connected to anxieties about the quality of the work. Its worth remembering it is better to produce something rather than nothing!
With thanks to: Cambridge Counselling Service Eileen Tracey Student Guide to Exam Success.
Concentration
Many students worry that their concentration may not be good enough. Although its common for our minds to wander from time to time, if you feel you lose concentration a lot when youre revising then some of the suggestions in this section may help.
Many students in this country think that good work is uninterrupted hard work and that they should not disconnect their eyes from the page! However regular breaks are essential.
Active learning
Earlier in this guide, we mentioned the importance of active learning. If you are having trouble with concentration, you might want to think about whether you could focus more on understanding and organising what you are learning and less on rote memorisation.
With thanks to: University of Cambridge Counselling Service Eileen Tracy Student Guide to Exam Success
Relaxation
Many people feel stressed about exams, so if youre feeling a bit anxious thats absolutely normal. In fact stress can help you to perform better. Planning your revision carefully and finding effective learning strategies may help you to feel calmer, but there are also some more holistic approaches, which may help you. Allowing yourself some time each day to relax or exercise will improve your wellbeing and performance. 10
Centering
If even the thought of sitting down to work makes you anxious, try this relaxation while sitting in your work chair before starting. Centering is a way of giving yourself some of the benefits of relaxation when you dont have the time or opportunity to lie down for a full relaxation session. Once you become familiar with it, you can take a few minutes at a convenient point in the day to reduce the build-up of stress and tension and restore your energy. It can be of value before you go into a situation which you anticipate will be stressful, e.g. a meeting. You can also adapt it for situations where you have to sit and wait, e.g. on a bus or train. Sit with your feet flat on the floor, legs uncrossed, your arms comfortably supported on your lap. Let your shoulders drop and move apart and check that your lumbar spine is long. Allow yourself to receive the support of the chair and the floor. Let your eyes close. Listen to the sounds you can hear outside the room, and to sounds inside the room. Then take your attention inside yourself. Notice the thoughts passing through your mind. Notice how you are feeling. Go through your body from your feet right up to your head observing the sensations in the different parts - feet, legs, pelvis, chest, back, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, head, face. Notice sensations of warmth, coldness, lightness, heaviness, stillness, restlessness, any places where you feel pain or discomfort. Observe your breath moving in and out. Without any forcing, take a deeper breath so that your stomach fills like a balloon. Exhale slowly and completely. Repeat a couple of times, and then return to normal breathing. Again listen to the sounds you can hear in the room and sounds from outside the room. Start to gently move finger and toes, do any other moving and stretching that feels good and when you feel ready, open your eyes.
Its all too late, theres nothing I can do about it now. I can always do the resits.
And we may also experience the following mental changes: We cant concentrate. Our thoughts are blocked or racing. 12
The effect is that we can no longer work and the longer we sit looking at the paper the worse we feel.
Avoiding panic
Ideally, we should explore ideas for avoiding and dealing with exam panic before we get into a possibly tense situation and build these ideas into our daily life-style. In the long term, the best way of avoiding exam panic is to start preparing weeks ahead, with a helpful work routine, good revision strategies and reliable practical arrangements. However, despite our good intentions, we often dont prepare well and enter exams feeling unhelpfully stressed and in a panic. The following notes may help you to cope with such feelings if they occur.
Stage 1
If you think panic is starting, allow yourself up to 5 minutes to deal with it. You probably feel tense, so concentrate on trying to relax some muscles, and use breathing to calm down. (See Stop: An Emergency quick relaxation technique.) This may be all you need to solve your problem if you are feeling a generalised tension, but if this is insufficient, go on to Stage 2, and if necessary to Stage 3.
Stage 2
Try to define the immediate trigger of anxiety. Is there a different way of approaching the problem? If you are completely stuck, it might be worthwhile attempting a new question, or a different stage of the problem question. Try not to think about the actual panic, once you have acknowledged that it is there.
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Stage 3
If panic persist or returns when you start thinking about its trigger, try again to relax your muscles and breathing, and try to clear your mind of the problem either by blanking it or by imagining something pleasant for a minute or two. Once your mind is relaxed, bring it back to the immediate problem and just aim to do enough to get past the problem point, so that you are then free to get on with other parts.
You will find that, in spite of your feelings, the tension will lessen.
Academic Staff
Members of academic staff are an important source of advice in relation to exams. If you are not sure who to ask about a particular concern, then your Course Organiser or Director of Studies may be a good place to start. Its particularly important to tell your Director of Studies if there is anything going in your life which may adversely affect your exam performance. Ideally you should tell them about this before your exams take place. 14
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/advice/ Bristo Square, (0131) 650 9225, potterrow.advice@eusa.ed.ac.uk Kings Buildings, (0131) 650 5822, kb.advice@eusa.ed.ac.uk Holyrood, (0131) 651 6060, holyrood.advice@eusa.ed.ac.uk Run by the Students Association, the Advice Places provide independent confidential help with a wide range of issues that might affect your revision, such as money worries, accommodation problems or academic concerns.
0131 650 6828 (voice) 0131 650 9371 (text) http://www.disability-office.ed.ac.uk/ Disability.Office@ed.ac.uk If you think that a disability might be affecting your exam performance, the Disability Office is an important point of contact.
0131 650 2585 (general enquiries) http://www.sport.ed.ac.uk/ Exercise can help you relax and improve your concentration. Just go along or if you would like a personal fitness consultation contact June.Adamson@ed.ac.uk there.
Nightline
0131 557 4444 This service, run by students, offers confidential emotional support from 6pm to 8am.
0131 650 4170 http://www.student-counselling.ed.ac.uk/. The service offers termly stress and relaxation workshops as well as individual help. Early referral is advised. Anyone seeking an urgent appointment should go to their GP.
0131 651 4089 http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk (look under information for students) studyadvice@ed.ac.uk If you think you would benefit from some additional advice about effective learning, beyond what is given in your subject area, you could make use of the resource materials, workshops and individual advice provided by Velda McCune, the Study Development Adviser in the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment. 15
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