Writing exams is stressful, but you can make it easier by improving the way you study. Studying for your exams effectively and efficiently will keep you from feeling unprepared, and it will set you up for success!
Review your syllabus. Figure out when all of your exams will be and how much of your grade they are worth. Put these dates on your calendar or planner so they don’t sneak up on you! Let us look at BECE which will start on the 8th to 12th July.
- Plan review sessions beginning at least a week in advance of each exam. Ideally, you’ll do several mini-reviews well in advance, gradually increase the time in which you study, rather than trying to cram everything into one mega session the night before the test.
Pay attention in class. This seems like a no-brainer, but actually paying attention while you’re in class will help you immensely once exam time comes. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’ll just “absorb” knowledge; be an active learner. Try sitting at the front of the class, this will make it easier to focus.
- Listen carefully, because teachers often give hints like “The most important thing about this topic is…”. Or they may just place emphasis on certain words and issues. This is the real key to testing well. The more you absorb the information early on, the less studying you’ll need to do.
- Teacher explanations in class represent 73% of the whole lessons, the notes represente 27%, be focus in class and avoid distractions.
Take good notes. This is easier said than done, but learning how to take good notes will help you immensely once it comes time to study. Write down everything your teacher writes on the board or puts up in slides. Try to record as much of what the teacher says as possible, but don’t allow taking notes to distract you so much that you forget to listen.
- Review your notes daily, right after class. This will help reinforce the information you just learned.
Make studying a part of your habits. Too often, it’s easy to view studying as something that only gets done at the last minute in a huge overnight cram session. Instead, try setting aside some time every day to study. Scheduling it just like another appointment or class may help you stay motivated to continue the habit.
- Create a digital or paper timetable to help you schedule your studying “appointments.”
- Reader Poll: We asked 442 readers and 62% agreed that their preferred way to organize study time is by making paper revision timetables.
Ask about the exam format. Following the latest changes from WAEC and NaCCA on the Common Core Program, ask your teacher what format the test will be in, how it will be graded, if there are any opportunities for extra marks, and if they would be willing to talk to you about highlighting in your notes, what the most important broad subjects will be, etc.
Creating an Optimal Environment for Learning
- If you absolutely must listen to music, find instrumental Gospel music so that the words in the music don’t interfere with your studying.
- Listen to background sounds from nature in order to keep your brain active and prevent other noises to distract you. There are several free background noise generators available online.
- Listening to Mozart or classical music won’t make you smarter or keep information in your brain, but it may make your brain more receptive to receiving information.
ALSO READ: How to Create Good Study Habits for Exams
Organizing Your Learning
Focus on your work objectives. What do you intend to accomplish during this session? Setting a concrete study goal may help you. Creating study plans is also a good idea. If 3 out of 5 lessons are easy and can be finished fast, finish them first, so you can spend quality time on the difficult lessons without fretting (especially the core subjects). Also, keeping a folder for your exam reviews is a good way to keep organized.
Write yourself a study guide. Go through your notes and rewrite the most important information. Not only will this give you a more focused way to study, but it creating it is another form of studying! Just don’t spend too much time on the guide itself: you need to have time to go over it too!
Reinvent your notes in other formats. Rewriting your notes is great if you’re a kinesthetic learner. Mind mapping is the most effective way of doing this. Also, when you re-write something, you will probably think about what you are writing, what it’s about, and why you wrote it down. Most importantly, it refreshes your memory. If you took notes a month ago and just found out that those notes will be relevant in your exam, rewriting them will remind you of them when you need it for your exam.
- Don’t simply copy your notes over and over again. This tends to lean towards memorizing the exact wording of your notes instead of the actual concepts. Instead, read and think about the contents of your notes (such as think of examples), and then re-word them.
Ask yourself questions about your material. This can help you tell if you have remembered what you just studied. Don’t try to remember the exact wording from your notes in your answer to yourself; synthesizing that information into an answer is a much more useful tactic.
- It can also help to say the answers to your questions out loud, as if you were trying to explain it to someone else.
Studying Efficiently
Find the right hours. Don’t study when you’re really tired. It’s better to get a good night’s sleep after studying for a short time than to push on at two in the morning. You won’t remember much and you’re likely to see a performance drop the next day.
Start as early as possible. Don’t cram. Cramming the night before is proven to be ineffective, because you’re taking in so much information at once that it’s impossible to memorize it at all — in fact, you’ll hardly retain anything. Studying before and going over it multiple times really is the best way to learn the material. This is especially true with things like RME, Social Studies and theoretical subjects.
- Always study when you have the chance, even if it is only for 15 or 20 minutes. These short study periods add up fast!
- Study in chunks of 25 minutes using the Pomodoro Technique. After that make a break of 5 minutes; repeat the process 3x, then make a longer pause of 30-45 minutes.
Study for your learning style. If you’re a visual learner, using pictures can help. Auditory learners should record themselves saying notes and recite it afterwards. If you are a physical person, lecture to yourself (out loud) while also using your hands or moving around; this way it will be easier for you to memorize.
Adjust your study techniques to fit your subject. Subjects such as mathematics require a lot of practice with problem sets in order to become familiar with the processes required. Subjects in the humanities, such as RME, Social Studies or literature, may require more information synthesis and memorization of things such as terms or dates.
- Whatever you do, don’t just re-read the same set of notes over and over again. In order to actually learn, you need to take an active role in knowledge creation as well as information review. Try finding the “big picture” among what you’ve taken down or reorganizing your notes by theme or date.
- Asking teachers for help conveys your commitment to the material and can be helpful in the future as well as with your exams. Always remember to ask your teacher if you do not know what she is talking about or if you need more information. The teacher will probably be glad to help.
- There are often resources at schools and colleges that can help you cope with stress, answer study-related questions, give you study tips and other forms of guidance. Ask your teacher or visit your school’s website to learn how to use these resources.
- Your teacher might let you record your classes if you struggle to focus. You can review the recordings when you study for your exams.
Maintaining Your Motivation (How to Study For Exams)
Take breaks. You need some time to have fun and it is better to study when you are feeling relaxed than to exhaust yourself studying all day! Carefully structure your break and study time. Usually, 20-30 minutes of study and then a 5 minute break is the most effective method.
- If you have trouble bringing yourself to study, instead of long uninterrupted sessions, chunk your work into 20 minute periods, taking a 10-minute break at the end of every period.
- Make sure that you structure the chunks logically so that you’re not breaking up concepts across chunks, as this may make it more difficult to remember concepts in their entirety.
- If you ask for help from others, don’t joke around. Concentrate on what you are doing.
Call for help. If you’re stuck on a subject, do not be afraid to call a friend and ask for help. If your friends cannot help, ask a tutor for help.
- If you have time before your exam and find that you’re not understanding material, ask if your teacher will go over it with you.
Preparing Yourself for Test Day (How to Study For Exams)
Get plenty of rest the night before. Children in elementary school require on average 10-11 hours of sleep for optimal performance. Adolescents, on the other hand, typically require at least 10+ hours. Poor sleep has been found to accumulate (referred to as “sleep debt”); in order to make up for prolonged poor sleep habits, several weeks of daily optimal sleep may be required to return to optimal performance.
- Don’t consume caffeine or any other stimulating substance within 5-6 hours prior to sleeping. (However, if a doctor prescribed you a stimulant to take at a specific time, take it at that time regardless of when you fall asleep, and ask your doctor before changing anything.) Such substances reduce the efficiency of sleep, meaning that even with sufficient sleep time, you may not feel well rested upon waking.
