Preparing for an exam can be both stressful and time-consuming. However, there is no need to stress or cram all night. By planning well in advance, you will arrive at the exam with confidence.
Start revising early enough.
Give yourself plenty of time to review all the lessons covered in class. You will then have to start your revisions sooner or later, depending on the number of lessons to be reviewed. For example, if you need to review lessons for an entire semester, start reviewing a few weeks before the exam. On the contrary, if the exam only covers a few chapters, you might only start studying a week or even a few days before the exam .
Only you will know how much time you will need to revise and when you should start working.
If the lessons are especially difficult, start revising early. This will give you time to understand the subject in depth, practice applying the lessons, and then review everything one last time.
Get enough sleep the night before the exam. Your brain will have to assimilate everything you put into it. So start revising early enough so you don’t have to spend all night revising .
Review any notes you have taken on the subject of the exam.
This will refresh your memory of those lessons and help you remember what you have learned. It will also allow you to become aware of all the information you have written down, so that you can find it easily during your reviews. You will also need to decide if your notes will be enough for you to revise. Did you miss a class? Have you lost a page of your notes? If so, you may need to borrow those from a classmate.
Take your lessons.
If you’re not good at taking notes or if there are “gaps” in your notes, ask a friend if you can copy their course. When you revise, well-taken notes will make all the difference. They will help you understand a subject that your books do not explain well and summarize information so that it is easier for you to remember.
If you only have five pages of notes, but your friend has twenty, you’ve probably missed some important information. Compare your notes to your friend’s to see what you missed.
Ask your teacher what the exam will be about. One of the surest ways to make revision easier is to ask your teacher directly what the test will be about. Some teachers will be happy to tell you what topics are covered, so you can focus on the right parts of the course.
Your professor probably won’t tell you exactly what the exam is about, but they might give you some hints or tell you which topics they want you to review .
Review your notes. Reread your notes for the first time to understand them. Start by studying the most basic information. If you’re reviewing an art history course on Impressionism, make sure you know what the term “Impressionism” means. Who were the most famous impressionist painters of their time?
Ask yourself who, what, where, for each topic you need to know for the exam.
You can deepen your notes by doing some research on the Internet, but the best revision support will remain the information presented in class, because it is from the course that the teacher will draw his questions. In addition, the information you find on the Internet may not be the same as that presented in class.
Don’t forget to review the subjects you know well and where you excel! Although you should pay particular attention to your weak points, you should also review the subjects that you know well. Sometimes it can be easier to get a better grade by brushing up on things you know well rather than honing in on things you know little about.
Take notes as you revise. Yes, take some more notes. You can also highlight and underline your notes, but rewriting the information will make it easier to remember. Then write down the concepts that you have trouble understanding or that you don’t remember well .
Divide complex topics into several parts.
For example, if you are trying to learn the chronological order of scientific events, list everything that happened, in order of occurrence. For example, Linus Pauling discovered DNA and later was awarded the Nobel Prize. Note the time period in which each event took place and the current events related to it. This additional information should help you remember the main information more easily, as it will give you a better understanding of the context.