13 SURE-FIRE WAYS TO PREPARE FOR AN EXAM.
Motivating yourself is one of the toughest things to do at school. To make it worse, there is no immediate benefit: You have to sit there for hours going through endless notes to get the results that may not matter until months after the exam.
The fact is, that the exams do matter. The results do matter. Preparing for an exam does matter. If you really put your mind to it, and then don't do as well as you expected, at least you will know you have given it your best. Remember that everyone is on your side. If you need help someone is always around to give a helping hand.
1. PLAN AHEAD.
Before you do any work, sit down and plan what you are going to do between now and the exam. It is often a good idea to revise the areas you find most difficult first - get them out of the way and build your confidence in the subject. Creating a timetable is always useful.
2. MAKE SUMMARY NOTES.
Gather all your material for the topic area and reduce them into brief, clear notes that you understand. Then summarize those, and then again and again until you only need a few keywords to remind you of the whole topic! You can then carry around a sheet with all the keywords wherever you go. An effective way to make sure you remember certain things is to invent mnemonics, which are for example, Peter Went For His Early Morning Jog or MR E RING.
Some of us are better at remembering things than others. However, here is a trick that should help.If you learn something new, in general it will already start fading in your mind after a few hours (unless it is particularly exciting). However, if you revise it again in the next four hours, it will take about 24 hours before it starts to fade. Revise it in the 24 hour period and it will last for four days, then one and a half weeks, then one month, and so on.
By setting out your preparation schedule to make the most of this (learn something, revise it again after a few hours, revise it again in the next couple of days, and so on) you will be using the way your memory works to your advantage!.
