Exam Preparation...

1. Skills You Need To Plan, Prepare and Win Exams.

An effective approach to examination technique enables students to enter the examination room with a clear idea of the skills they wish to demonstrate, with a realistic expectation of what the questions will be like, and with the intention of using the questions to demonstrate as much knowledge as possible. This active approach to examination technique enables students to be in control of the situation. However, some students approach examinations with a fatalistic attitude, rather like helpless victims facing torment. They respond passively to the questions and then hope for the best. The first approach is more likely to succeed.

2. Strategies To Tackle Examination :-

1. Make A Mental Plan, Use Mnemonics & Spider Diagrams

Students could plan to jot down, some of your mnemonics or spider diagrams before you start answering any question. In that way, you can refer back to your plan when writing your answer, without fear of forgetting what you were going to write next.

2. Express Your Knowledge & Learn To Link Concepts

It can be quite frustrating to do a lot of revision and then find that you are not asked questions that reflect what you have learned. However it sometimes happens that examination questions give you the opportunity to express your knowledge. For example, if you have learned a lot about the psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches for unit 1 (Introduction To Psychology) but a ten-mark question asks you to evaluate the biological approach you can still use base of other supporting approaches to criticise or contrast the idea of biological approach.

3. Prepare A Skeleton Plan Before You Write Long Answer

For long answers, it is useful to jot down a skeleton plan of the answer before you start. That way you can empty your head of detail in one go so you don't have to think of things as you go along. The plan should be in very brief note form and should list only main points you want to include in your answer. This will also help you to order the points logically and spot gaps if any.

4. Learn To Cope With Exam Stress

In examinations, people tend to be fairly highly aroused, and this often has positive effects. They think more clearly and quickly, and write more fluently. If you feel a little anxious before an examination, do not worry about it. Remember, it may improve your performance. However, a few people become so anxious about examinations that their high arousal level leads to a worsening of performance. It is quite important for such people to find ways of coping with their anxiety.

However, one way is to try to control the way you think about the exams. If you find yourself thinking or saying things, which reflect negative thoughts, you should try to stop yourself as it is no good saying to yourself (or to others) 'I am no good at exams.' That can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you really believe you are no good at exams, you may not bother to revise properly, because you assume it will not lead to success, Because of this, you may perform poorly.

Someone who is overanxious about exams should try to think of some positive thoughts, such as 'I have done enough revision for my exam' and exams never hurt anyone'. Of course, it is essential that you really have done enough revision and prepared well for the examinations. A useful plan is to think through or visualize what will happen during the examination so as to gain control over the situation.

Writing Practice & Revision - Must Before Exams

Students must read throughly their study notes several times to possess an adequate grasp on theories, principles and applications of a subject. Practice in writing essays is essential, especially for students who have not written essays for a considerable time. Examiners recognize that essays written under hurried circumstances and stress need not be grammatically perfect, but they do demand certain minimum standards and will penalize students whose written presentation is not up to a scratch. Accordingly, the students should avoid using vague, meaningless statements, should try to spell correctly, and seek to cultivate a direct and forthright style using short clear sentences. Analysis helps in prediction and if you're too lucky predictions can hit jackpot. So keep analyzing past exams' question papers.

Analysis Of Past Exams Question Papers Helps

Analysis of past examination papers provides a valuable insight into how the examiners feel about the subject. Often, the same questions reappear year after year, albeit written slightly differently. While it is obviously useful to predict questions, students should always remember that no question could ever be guaranteed to come up. Also, syllabuses and examiners change, each examiner has personal preferences regarding the content and style of questions that need to be asked.

 Time Management Is Crucial While Writing Exam

The first few minutes of the time allocated to each answer should be used for jotting down the main points of the answer in an essay plan. Thereafter the following rules should be observed:

1. The time allowed for each answer (a three-hour paper demanding five answers permits 36 minutes per question) must be adhered to rigidly. As soon as period is up the student should move on to the next question.
2. Students should leave a space at the end of the question in order to be able to come back to the question if they have any spare time at the end of he examination.
3. Easy questions should be answered first. This increases the student's confidence, assists concentration and establishes rhythm for tackling the rest of the paper. However, students should not spend too much time on easy questions and objective type questions. Time is crucial and answers should be accurate to avoid negative marking. Each answer needs to be of approximately equal length.
4. It is well established fact that the bulk of a candidate's marks obtained on a specific question are achieved in the first 10 or 15 minutes of writing; extra marks then become progressively harder to obtain. By spending too long on a question the student only gets a fraction of the marks available for the first couple of paragraphs of the next answer.

How To Study ? Tips To Prepare For Exams

Each student is different. You may find some study techniques effective which other people find unhelpful. An important part of learning to study is to try out different techniques, adapt them and so find out what works best for you. The key guidelines can be summarized as follows:

1. Build up a set of clear condensed revision notes, right from the start.
2. Practice expressing psychological ideas.
3. Use memory aids.
4. Self-test regularly.
5. Plan your revision ahead.
6. Know what to expect on exam day.