5 Study Tips to get you Exam Ready

So... exam timetable just dropped? What do we do? As someone who has made the mistake of cramming an entire semesters worth of content into a few days study one too many times before, it is my mission to get on top of my revision early this semester, so that I am less stressed, and thoroughly prepared for exam season.

Whilst I may not always listen to my own advice, as a study skills presenter, I have really learnt, tested and taught the most effective study tips that are basically guaranteed to get you exam ready. A lot of the time people aren't taught how to revise, and are spending too long doing the wrong things. To change this, here are some tips to help you lock in to the end of this semester.

1. Understanding that Active techniques > Passive techniques

   There is a crucial difference between these two techniques. Most people only study through passive methods, and it can be explained by trying to imagine forcing the information from a page into your brain. Think about when you read cue cards or lecture slides and hope that the information sticks in your brain (however Tip 1: ditch the cue cards completely). Contrastingly, an active technique is about forcing the information from your brain onto the page instead. This is most effective with a blank canvas where you try to write everything you can remember about a topic, (through mind maps or charts), and fill in the missing gaps afterwards. This is proven to be much more effective with solidifying the information in your long term memory.

   
   

2. Review, Review, Review

   If you review a piece of information 5 times in one week, you are more likely to remember it than if you review it 10 times in one day. Consistent but spaced reviewing is one of the most effective ways to remember things, however it requires you to be diligent with starting early enough that there is time to space this review. Make sure you leave yourself enough time by starting revision early enough, and this reviewing should be in short, sharp sessions through testing yourself, or reading notes as consistently as possible.

   
   

3. Learn through practice exams

   There seems to be a general myth around students that practice exams are reserved for when you have already revised all the material and people only usually start testing themselves right before the actual exam. However, I find one of the best ways to study is to do it through practice exams, by learning the information as the question asks through an open book, open time system. This is also an example of active recall as the exam questions force you to think about whether you know the answer first, before reverting to help afterwards. It also means you end up doing a lot of practice questions, and therefore are aware of a plethora of questions you could be asked.

   
   

4. Use student made resources

   I have found occasionally that the amount of exam preparations provided by the University is often not as much as I would like to feel ready for an exam, so a good tip is to look at student made resources, such as on Studocu where students post past exam questions to give you a greater idea of what questions could come up.

   
   

5. Consider questions from another angle

A lot of the time professors are only going to be so creative in coming up with new questions for the real exam, and more often than not, they are very similar to the practice, but with a slight change in concept or wording. To prepare for this, I consider how I would answer a practice question if it was asking about a different concept, or if the wording was changed to ask me to explain something else about the same concept. This again prepares me for a diverse range of potential questions, outside of what the practice exams ask.

These skills are so useful in preparing for upcoming exams, however, of course rely on students having the dedication and organisation to implement them early enough. I myself often struggle with finding the motivation to overcome my urge to procrastinate studying, but I like to remind myself that you basically have to ' choose your hard'. Its going to be hard to start now and force myself to study, but its going to be even harder when I'm doing my exam and have no idea what I'm doing. Anyways, I wish everyone the best of luck for this exam season. We got this :)

Unidiaries SAMM