introduction€¦ · favour. the exam just* becomes* one more past* paper or one more...

Introduction Exams are easy. With the correct preparation you can almost make the

exam a formality and get any grade you want. I estimate that ~85% of

your mark is determined before you even sit the exam. Everyone puts

all the emphasis on that one exam day, which they think is going to

determine their result, but the exam is nowhere near as important as

the previous 6 months.

If you have prepared well then the odds are stacked heavily in your

favour. The exam just becomes one more past paper or one more

study session. Think of all the hours of study that you have done, and

then add on the exam, which might be 90 minutes or two hours. Those

90 minutes or two hours are a tiny fraction of the total tiem you have

spent studying. In addition, when you prepare properly, even if you

have an “off-‐‑day”, you will still do well in the exam and your results

will become consistent.

Exams are simply an indicator/test of how well you have prepared.

By preparation, I mean that you need to have practised and be ready

for everything that you will encounter in an exam. We are aiming to

put you in the correct frame of mind (the most important part to work

on), get you to know your subject material inside out, enable you to

whizz through the past paper questions and improve your problem

solving skills, all of which results in confidence; you might even look

forward to the exam. If you are well prepared then there is nothing to

worry about and you will perform to your potential or beyond it.

But, there’s not one “magic” ingredient that is suddenly going to

transform you overnight. It is the combination of doing a lot of little

things correctly that will allow you to improve. This is actually good

news as the changes you have to make can be implemented easily and

often quickly.

The exam process

Even if you think you are simply not good at exams or not clever

enough, then this is all about to change. Both are myths and the truth

is that anyone can learn to improve their performance in exams. It’s

simply a process. All you have to know is what to do, how to do it and

when to do it. And once you know how, you can’t really go wrong.

When it comes to exam improvement, most people only aim to

increase their understanding of a particular subject, which is fine, but

it is only one part of the puzzle. Imagine how improved your results

would be if you could simply cut out those “silly mistakes” or gain

extra marks by improving your problem solving skills and written

answers or go into the exam feeling very confident? All of these areas,

and others, will rocket your grades before you even get round to

looking at the subject material.

We are aiming to save you marks where normally you would lose

them. Little changes here and there will save you one or two marks at

a time, and when they are all added up, the difference can be

staggering.

Most study books and websites try to help in terms of improving

subject knowledge by focusing upon already well known techniques

or slight variations of them. Beware that the “new” or “magic” study

technique doesn’t exist; there are no short cuts to improvement.

I also found it impossible to find a resource that addressed the

psychology of exams sufficiently, which is by far the most important

………..( more in the full e-‐‑book)

Self Belief Some people will view exams as the most terrifying things in the

world, which leads to feelings of anxiety that will eventually affect

their results. I have seen extreme cases of this where someone might

actually fail an exam when they could be getting an A. This then leads

to them believing that they must be rubbish, as this is what they

believe a low grade means, resulting in the vicious circle in figure 2.

Not everyone is that extreme but most people have some fear of

exams, which is probably holding them back.

Now flip the scenario 180 degrees, how much better would it be if you

were actually looking forward to an exam? Or excited? Believe it or

not, this is possible, and if you can get near to this point you will

remove all fear of exams and perform a lot better. It is a million miles

away from the usual dreading it mindset that people have.

What I am trying to say is that the two scenarios above are simply the

way different people can view exams. The two viewpoints are worlds

apart but the students are still sitting the same exam. How can two

people view the same thing so differently? It is because they have

simply made it up, or at least, exaggerated something greatly and

blown it out of proportion. For the negative minded person, in

psychology terms, they would call this a limiting belief. The student

really does believe that what they think is 100% true but there is no

real substance behind it or they have developed a really biased view.

The former United States President Thomas Jefferson sums this up

well:

"ʺNothing can stop the person with the right mental attitude from achieving

his (or her) goals. Nothing on earth can help the person with the wrong

mental attitude."ʺ

There are countless limiting beliefs about exams. Another big one is

that some people think that they are not clever enough. Of course

natural ability is a great asset but this alone can only take you so far. I

will tell you right now that if you put in the hours, adopt the correct

mindset and study effectively then you will perform better than you

thought you could. If you give it your best and improve upon your

previous grades, then you can be very proud of yourself. That’s all

anyone can ask.

A common scenario is that you probably know someone who appears

to be really confident or clever, who is always answering all the ……

(more in the full e-‐‑book)

Reframe the exam

Following on from the earlier reframing section, I believe it is vital to

address the exam directly and to reframe the exam.

Reframe 1: who cares? It’s not that important

If you feel pressure and stress, then you need to play down the

importance of the exam. As we mentioned earlier, ask yourself why

are you feeling so stressed? You have to keep telling yourself it’s not

that important. Think of the worst case scenario: you fail miserably,

worse than you have ever done before. Well, guess what? It doesn’t

matter. You will soon forget about it and do something else. You’re

still the same person, it’s not the end of the world. Let’s say you fail a

particular subject, then perhaps it’s a sign that this isn’t the correct

career option for you.

But! as you now know, if you prepare well then you won’t come even

close to failing. So either way, you can’t lose. You have to believe that

whatever situation you are in, you can’t lose. Of course the exam is

important, it’s just a little trick on the mind that can help to remove

pressure and to put things in perspective.

You have to trust and believe in your preparation. Your focus should

be on the studying and you should not be worrying about any exam,

especially when it is a long way off. Otherwise, feeling stressed all the

time will have a detrimental effect on your study. All you have to

know is that if you prepare well then there’s no problem and no need

to worry. Just let go of all the “what if” scenarios. This is where having

hobbies and outside interests helps too, as you won’t be spending all

your time thinking about an exam……(more in the full e-‐‑book)

Study Methods -‐‑ Introduction

There are only two main parts to studying: quantity and quality.

Some people do the quantity part very well by putting in hour upon

hour of study but still see no improvement, which points towards the

quality part; what they are doing isn’t working.

Quantity is important, as you simply have to put the hours in, which

comes down to motivation and discipline. Then the quality has to be

good, which we are going to mainly be looking at in the forthcoming

sections.

You already have all the answers

One of the biggest realisations that I had was that every answer you

need for an exam is straight out your books and notes. EVERYTHING.

This for me was one of those “light bulb” moments, reducing the fear

factor of exams to almost zero and simplified things greatly. If it’s in

your notes then there is no excuse and if you work hard enough you

will literally know every answer before you enter the exam. All you

have to do then is apply some exam technique, which can be learned.

How much more of a confidence booster can you get than that? It may

even change your attitude towards exams to one of anticipation rather

than dread.

Yes, I agree that some questions might not seem like they are straight

from your book but you have to trust that they are. An exam paper is

simply a “tricked up” version of your notes. They can’t just ask you

questions straight from the course textbook as everyone would get

high marks, so examiners do things to throw you off track. For

example, they may add in extra information that creates confusion

and overwhelm, they present it or word it in a different way to what

you are used to, they use examples you’ve never seen before etc.; these

methods plus others are designed to mislead you and to test if you

really understand something. This makes people feel uncomfortable.

Once you recognise all their little tricks, you may even laugh at them

rather than panic, which will be very beneficial to you.

The key to doing exam questions is to recognise the “real” question

beneath the layers of useless information.

……..( more in the full e-‐‑book)

Plateaus

The problem with studying is that at some point everyone hits a

plateau. If you keep doing the same thing repeatedly then its

effectiveness will eventually diminish. You might not get any worse

but you won’t get any better. For example, if someone goes to the gym

and their muscles become used to doing the same routine over and

over, then at some point they will stop progressing and won’t see any

further good results. The routine needs to be shaken up a bit. In study

terms, this means we need to add variety and you need to challenge

yourself. If you introduce these two elements you will improve

quickly.

You also have to keep monitoring your own progress. If you start to

feel “too comfortable” or even worse, bored, when you are studying,

that’s when it’s time to shake it up a bit.


Study Methods – How To Do It

My whole study/exam theory is derived from analysing exam

questions then looking for general themes, structures and patterns

that will prepare me as best I can to answer the questions. Most people

treat studying and the exam as independent entities, but they are very

closely connected and have to work together.

When every single exam question is broken down and analysed, it can

be concluded that you are being tested on a key or core concept, these

are after all what you have been learning in class all year. These

concepts are the common link between your notes and the exam

questions.

With this in mind, the key to answering ANY question is therefore to

identify the key concept. And if there is an “exam secret”, then that is

it. What is the real question that they are asking? If someone comes

out an exam and says they didn’t know how to do a question it’s

simply because they have not recognised the key concept that they are

being tested on.

That is how you translate your knowledge into exam answers.

At this point, different subjects will differ slightly. I am coming from a

science background but I have studied a diverse range of subjects

including English, Maths, Geography, Art, Computing, French and

Music. You may have to interchange a word here and there in the

following sections. For example, if I mention key concepts, you may

be looking at key themes, structures or techniques in languages. No

matter what the subject is you just have to start analysing and look for

what a typical exam involves. They are all really one and the same

thing. You are trying to identify fundamentally what they are testing

you on in any particular question.

The aim is to get to a point where you see a question and a keyword

or phrase immediately jumps into your head, which means we have to

study with key concepts and key words in mind…..


How to Answer Questions

I believe that a lot, if not most, mistakes are made before someone

even puts pen to paper. At school they tell you to “read the question

properly” or they say that “you haven’t answered the question”. This

is great advice, if only they told you how to do it! It’s not as simple as

it sounds.

Quite often people go off at tangents or even completely misread some

of the words. I sometimes ask students to read the question out loud

and it’s amazing how often they misread it. Misreading or not reading

closely enough are probably the biggest causes of the “silly mistake”.

Also, there are often big clues, if not answers, in the questions. You

will miss them if you are going at tornado speed.

Before you write anything

As was mentioned earlier, we need structure when answering

questions. The following section will give you this. It is crazy to start

writing any answer instantly, even if you think you know the answer.

The most important thing to realise is that slowing down will save

you marks, even if it is just for 10 seconds.

Slowing down at the right moments is one of the most important

things you can do in any exam.

Below are the steps I run through mentally before even attempting to

write an answer. You will need to practise these steps when studying,

so this is yet another use of past papers.

Don’t worry about time. The start and end of exams are likely to be

the times when you make most mistakes; the start due to nerves and

the end due to tiredness. If you are prepared then you will have

plenty of time so don’t feel the need to rush, it’s not a sprint and you

will become mentally tired quickly if you treat it as such. This

“rushing” at the start is down to exam mindset which we will discuss

later. You quite often see people holding on to the paper desperate to

turn it over in case they lose valuable seconds! Slowing down will

save you a lot of marks.

Note: you have to go slow when reading the question to eliminate

mistakes but you need to still have intensity in the exam. Once you

have the answer in your head, you can then go as fast as you like

when writing. I am not telling you to slow down and take a leisurely

stroll through the exam! It’s a cycle of slow…fast…slow…fast………..


Problem Solving

Problem solving skills are essential for exams. No matter what subject,

type of exam or question you are doing, you MUST be able to problem

solve.

In any exam, some questions you will answer immediately, others you

won’t, this is normal. A lot of people simply give up or panic and lose

far too many marks if they don’t instantly recognise the question or

know the answer. You need to be able to get some marks in these

questions.

Those who get the highest grades will be good at problem solving

and squeeze out extra marks that others will lose.

How to do it

Problem solving is just a thought process, it could be viewed as being

able to think logically and inquisitively or having the ability and skills

required to solve any “puzzle”, even if at first glance you don’t know

how to do it……..(more in the full e-‐‑book)

How to Revise

We have mentioned that you should use the same study methods etc.

as before when revising, but we need to look very closely at what you

should be doing and when. Once you know how to study, as we have

discussed in the previous sections, revision is simply a case of adding

a lot more structure to your study sessions and being aware of time

and how ready you are.

This means taking the planning one step further from the revision

timetable to ensure that you are peaking at the right time. It is very

easy to be ready too early or equally, never quite fully prepared.

The three phases

I would treat the revision period as three separate phases. The first

phase is a re-‐‑familiarisation exercise as you may not have looked at

certain topics for a while. I wouldn’t even attempt past paper

questions at this point. You must build up your subject knowledge

first. Once you feel like you have done a decent amount of revision

you will need to move on to some questions. If you remain in the

initial phase too long, you will simply plateau again. In the second

phase, the balance between study and questions should become more

50/50. You should find yourself going back and forth between

studying and questions. The final phase is about a week before the

exam. You are preparing for an exam, so you should be simulating the

conditions of an exam and almost exclusively doing past paper

questions.

How much time you spend in each phase is very individual and will

vary depending upon how soon you start to revise and how well you

have studied throughout the year. If you have 3 weeks to revise then

maybe a week per phase but be flexible and monitor your own

progress and where to direct your focus……..(more in the full e-‐‑

book)

Past Papers (again)

Past papers are going to be a big part of your revision but be careful

not to rely upon them. Some people do this as a substitute for

studying as it’s more interesting. You need to continually do both as

we will discuss in more detail below. Remember that the exam is

based upon what is in your notes and books so you cannot neglect

your subject knowledge……..(more in the full e-‐‑book)

The Exam – Mindset pt 2

In chapter 1 we discussed exam mindset and exam fears. We

mentioned that you have to be focused on what you are doing and not

thinking of the future, playing out negative scenarios in your head

where you fail. If you have worked through that chapter then

hopefully you will have made good progress with your thought

processes.

Taking this one step further as the exam approaches, you could begin

to imagine yourself getting good grades, experiencing good feelings,

the lovely feeling of being fully prepared, knowing that you are going

to do well and even enjoying the exam.

If you can go into the exam in a confident, determined frame of mind

without fear, then your performance will improve.

No Fear

You must give yourself the chance to do well. If you just give it your

best shot with a really determined attitude then your performance will

improve. It may sound crazy but you need to go in fired up feeling

that you have a point to prove. If that makes you feel slightly

aggressive then that’s fine. This mindset is the complete OPPOSITE of

what most people will be thinking and it makes a difference.

I eventually began to relish exams. My attitude was “let’s see what

they’ve got for me, I’m going to destroy their stupid exam.”

Seriously, believe that you are going to tear their exam apart. If you

have prepared well then you will. Also, tell yourself that it’s easy. It’s

not fake confidence as you’ve studied hard, you know the material

inside out, and there is nothing they can throw at you that you don’t

know or are not ready for. Is that the best they’ve got? Come on! I

want harder questions! At the same time expect the unexpected. While

you will be able to do the vast majority of the exam no problem, as

discussed earlier, there will always be a part of it that is going to be

really difficult, where you will have to think and use your problem

solving skills. Nothing should phase you……


In The Exam

Ok, so you’ve done the revision and you are mentally prepared. So, all

you have to do now is sit the dam thing. About 85% of the work is

done but you can’t ease off. This is the time you should be in the over

achieving mode trying to squeeze every last mark from the paper.

This section is the shortest as the preparation is the most important

part and by following all the methods etc. above you will have

practised everything you will face in the exam. There isn’t much more

that you need to know, you are almost there. The main thing is to

believe in what you are doing, believe that you are good enough due

to your preparation, to stay composed and to think clearly.

As was said at the beginning, the exam should almost be a formality

if you have prepared well.

Warm up

Not many people do this but it is very important. It’s just like

anything else, you do not want to go in cold as it could take you 15

minutes to get going and vital marks could already be lost.

• For a morning exam: try to read a bit, maybe just for twenty

minutes, skimming over as much as possible. You are not

trying to learn anything at this stage, but just to get the subject

and topics into your head again. This is where concise revision

notes are useful. If you feel that you can’t remember everything

or have forgotten a lot in the morning, don’t worry, this is just

nerves kicking in. You will be fine!

• For an afternoon exam: do nothing the night before, just relax.

In the morning, you have a few hours to read over your notes.

Do as much as you want but don’t tire yourself out.

Last minute nerves

Not quite in the exam yet. Everyone is nervous to varying degrees

before exams. This is normal, it shows that you care and that it is

important to you, so don’t worry if you are nervous; EVERYONE is.

Just accept the nerves and don’t fight them. They will vanish when

you start the exam. In fact, see the nerves as a good thing. As

mentioned above, this is the one time you will feel like this, and you

can use the nerves as “fuel”……..(more in the full e-‐‑book)

Appendix – summary sheets

Preparation is 85% of your exam result. The better you prepare, the

easier the exam; it won’t matter what they ask you. Everything in the

exam comes from your books and notes so you already know ALL the

answers.

Study Mindset

1. If you have recently got a grade you were disappointed with

then get angry with yourself or whoever else you want. You

need to have a little bit of aggression.

2. Start to tell yourself that you are going to destroy their stupid

exam. You’re not going to just do well or improve, but tear it to

pieces.

3. Believe that you can get any grade you want and start to tell

yourself this now. Keep telling yourself over and over.

4. Tell yourself it’s all easy. Every topic, every concept, there’s

nothing you can’t do, even if initially it seems difficult, you will

crack it in the end……(more in the full e-‐‑book)

introduction*€¦ · favour. the exam* just* becomes* one more past* paper or one more...

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introduction€¦ · favour. the exam just* becomes* one more past* paper or one more...