Exams

Hi everybody today we are going to try and talk about exams. (Insert Jaws themetune)

As we all know exams are a nightmare but revising for them is even worse. The anticipation for them means for some sleepless nights and for others tears. Some people don't care and others can read something once and remember it fine. For people who aren't blessed with incredible memory or just dont give a dam there are some easy tricks to help out. These are from my experiances at uni and so won't be usefull to everyone but can be used for a levels as well.

1. Textbook vs Lessons

One important part of revising is knowing what not to learn. This may sound odd when considering revising but unless you can remember everything you read, its pointless to revise something that propably won't come up in exams. Textbooks often aren't specific to your course especially at uni therefore you need to go through the textbook to find what you need to know. Sometimes you might find that you don't need to know a page or so, check to make sure you really don't need to care then move on. (Seriously check 1st though and don't blame me if you actually need to know it). I do law and in my textbooks there are times when i can skip whole pages as its not appliable to me.
Save yourself the trouble and find out what will definatly come up in exams, at uni ask the head of the department for a list (often in handouts) or if at school ask your teacher. This means that you can start revising the stuff you need to know as opposed to the stuff you will never be asked on.

2. What you know V what you don't

By now you will have a list of stuff you need to know so look at it (useful tip for most things just having something is useless unless you use it). Find out what you know already and what you don't so that you can make sure by the end of revision that you know everything that you need to. Its pointless to revise things you already know to make you feel better about yourself, if you don't know about something then you can't ignore it (unless you don't mind failing). Review the stuff you know to make sure what you think is being said is actually whats being said. In an exam many people fail as they write an essay based on what they think is being asked. To take one example if i asked a law student an essay question (i'm not but just pretend for a sec) "What has the Treaty of Lisbon done for you" some would answer nothing others, who cares as they read the "to you" bit and think personally while the question means what has the Treaty of Lisbon done that effects you. This is a bit of a simplification but the point still stands. It is important to figure out what is being asked of you so that you can answer the real question not the Joe Bloggs version. Sounds silly but loads of people fail becuase of it. This may seem abit off topic (dangerous in an exam btw)
but if you are unsure about something many people start writing about eveything they can think of to fill the void. Simply put if your girlfriend (or boyfriend) asks you about how a new designer top looks on them they don't give a flying monkey about the weather.

4. Revisions like chocolate

As we all know everybody loves choclate (to people who dont shut up) but hate revision. But we also know that chocolate is bad for us, unfortunatly revision is good. So most people only have a bit of chocolate occasionally like once a week. The same trick can be used for revision. Done in small amounts makes it alot easier than cramming it all in at the end. Once you have completed the topic/ chapter etc read it again and write a summary of the main points. This can often be done by writing out the relevant (part 1) headings into a list. If they are explain themselves then your sorted. If they are more complicated then bullet point describe them remembering important facts like (for history) key dates, facts etc. If done in small amounts then it becomes alot easier to deal with than trying to do it all at once. Their is a saying in Japan that someone can't see the trees for the forest. Then chop down the trees and look at the forest.

5. Focus

Like most people i get distracted easily when doing revision, lets be honest its boring and we can think of lots of things we would rather be doing. The trick is 1st to remove distractions. I do all my work on the computer and the internet is so much more interesting than memorising cases that o could care less about. This means i need to get away from the internet so i go to the libary where i cant get online to do my work. Some people talk to friends to much (girls all men are looking at you) so go to a quiet or secluded place, again like the libary. Secondly humans can only focus on something for so long and if its boring its even harder. One thing is not to revise for 17 hours a day we justc ant focus that long so why bother. Get up and walk a short distance or just do something that wont distract you for too long but lets you relax a bit. This gets easier (so they say) but if done regualry (part 4) then it gets easier. Excellence isn't a one off but a state of mind.

6. Chill

Underrated but over used by some. In the upcoming time to revision people stress out. People cry, mope about how stupid they are or worse. We've all seen it or done it. The 1st thing to note is that you should have left yourself plenty of time to revise, so take a step back and find something that makes you laugh to relax. My personall fav is the easter bunny hates you on youtube but standup comedy also works well.

At the end of the day you get out what you put in so start earlier, do more (but broken down into chunks) and relax. Talking to friends can help providing the talk is work related but you need to find the way that you work best.

Final tip the 1st step is the hardest once your past that and actually start revising its alot easier.

Good luck and i hope these help

Jack