Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, final exams! You are all going to have to eat the elephant at some point and how are you going to do it? Well, just like you eat anything else, one bite at a time. Here are 5 easy steps to make test taking a little easier.
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Tip 1: Write the exam yourself
Guessing what the professor is going to write is important, if there are going to be 40 questions write 50 and see if you don’t get the right answer to begin with.
Tip 2: Chunking Part One
The way the human memory works is that you lose about half of what you learn in a day. Therefore, you need to start studying a little further out. If you have about an hour long exam break that down in to 6 parts 10 minutes each. 6 days out you need to study about 30 minutes, you will lose about half of that so the next day study another 30 minutes. So now you have 4 days until the exam. Now you should double your time and with that be able to double your capacity. At this point, you should take your practice exam. On day 4 you should be studying 40 minutes, 3 days out another 40 minutes, 2 days out study for an hour and the day before another hour of review where at the end you take that practice exam once again.
Tip 3: Read the Whole Exam First
When you receive your exam read it all the way through. You need to know how long it is going to take you to finish the exam and you need that answer up front.
Tip 4: Answer The Things You Know First
After reading through the exam, find the question you know the answer to and answer those questions first. There is no reason to not get the points you know you can before tackling the harder to solve problems.
Tip 5: Look for Answers within the Exam
While reading through, pay attention for answers to one question within another question. Instructors often put answer to one question in another question; you might end up finding answers that you might not have known.
