Exam Technique and Passing Exams
Achieving good grades and passing exams isn't all down just to revision, good exam technique also plays a major part and for those who aren't natural students it can really improve your grades. The first way in which you can improve your exam technique is to get hold of past exam papers.
This will help you to become familiar with the way in which the questions are worded and the types of questions that may be asked, don't rely on recent past papers though for topics in the hope that you can focus your revision, this would be a risky tactic. Practicing on past papers also allows you to recreate the exam conditions, a good idea is to undertake the practice papers whilst allowing yourself only the time you will have in the real exam. This will get you used to planning your time, making yourself stick to that time limit and thinking and writing quickly, making sure it is legible.
Another good exam technique is to think of ways in which you can retain important information, I generally have trouble remembering what I ate last week but if I hear a song on the radio from 10 years ago and I can sing every lyric, so for me to put important information into a song is a good way of remember it. Other clever ways are poems or acronyms, you can be creative as you like as long as it works for you.
Lastly a few tip for the big day. Make sure that you arrive early and have a bit of time to review your notes beforehand. Once in the exam make sure that you understand what is expected of you, there would nothing worse after all that hard work to miss out on vital marks because you answer too few or the wrong questions. As soon as as you have selected your questions make a plan and set out how much time you will spend on each sections/question and stick to it.
A good idea is to start with the easiest or the question you are most comfortable with first, this will help to calm your nerves and boost your confidence, it also may give you back a little extra time. Lastly, the final bit of exam technique to remember is to factor in some time at the end to read over your paper and make any amendments then passing exams will be no problem. Kalinga Careers
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