How To Prepare For An Exam

I am a very anxious test-taker. I dealt with my anxiety by getting to class early on the day of a test and frantically scanning my notes to pack in as many last-minute bits of information as possible. I thought I was improving my chances of success. In reality, I was stressing myself out and making things worse.

I was usually a sleep-deprived as well, heaping another unnecessary burden on my maxed-out brain. So, as for this post I will share with you the tips I attain to learn faster and prepared for exam.

The First Thing to Do Is to Manage Your Stress

Of course you are nervous: You feel motivated to do your best yet worried about the uncertainty inherent in testing. (What questions will be on the test? Will I know the answers?)

The stress is even greater with past experiences of disappointment related to testing. Stress makes us feel threatened, and the body responds by increasing heart rate, generating sweat, and pumping stress hormones through the bloodstream. Unfortunately, those worries steal valuable brain energy and make it difficult for you to function at top capacity. Instead of worrying about your stress response, take action.

Here are some ways to manage test-day stress:

1. Breathe Deeply to Reduce Your Stress Response

This advice is simple but absolutely true. You may not be able to prevent the stress reaction, but you can have an impact on how long it lasts and how intense it becomes. Your body is simply unable to sustain that intense fight-or-flight reaction forever. And you can hasten its decline by taking charge of the things you can control, like the rate of your breathing.

2. Have a Stress-Reduction Plan for the Moments Before the Test Is Passed Out

Figure out what helps reduce your stress response, and take action. Are you a social person who relaxes by talking to others? If so, engage in conversation with another student. Or do you need to focus inward in order to calm yourself down? Does music help you relax? Recent research suggests that highly test-anxious students relax and perform better when they write out their test-related worries for 10 minutes before the exam. Try some of these suggestions, and find out what works best for you.

3. Identify Factors That Influence Your Ability to Stay Focused During the Exam, and Ask About Possible Accommodations

For minor requests, ask your professor. For example, if you are easily distracted by noise, ask your professor if you can use earplugs (not earbuds) during the exam. If it is noisy in the hallway, ask if the professor could close the door. If you think you may have a disability that warrants more significant accommodations, make an appointment with the disabilities services department on campus well in advance of any exams. Typically, professors are unable to make significant accommodations without this kind of expertise involved.

The Second Thing to Do Is Be Strategic in Completing the Exam

Try some of these tips to give your brain the best chance to perform.

1. Start by Skimming

Skim the exam from start to finish before starting to answer questions. Why? On a practical level, skimming lets you take stock of what is coming. It reminds you of how many items are on the exam. It allows you to check whether the exam is printed on both sides of the page, so you don’t accidentally fail to answer any of the questions.

But skimming is also an overlooked strategy for warming up your brain. As you quickly read each question, you are exposing yourself to a treasure-trove of cues that will spark activation of your neural networks. This may not happen immediately, and you may not be fully aware of it happening. But, when it helps, you will be happy you gave it a chance!

2. Write on the Exam (if permitted)

Your brain is very busy while you are taking an exam, so anything you can do to ease the cognitive strain can make a big difference. Circle important words (e.g., not, all, except for). Cross out answers you know are incorrect. Jot down notes, charts, figures—anything that comes to mind that could help you answer the question.

3. If You Are Uncertain, Mark the Question, Move On, and Return to It Later

As you work on other questions, the cues you encounter may begin to jostle connections and activate a pathway to the answer. When I was taking the statistics portion of my comprehensive exams in graduate school, I kept going back to the same question again and again. I just didn’t know the answer.

But eventually, after working on other parts of the test, the answer just popped into my head like a gift from the universe. I can’t tell you how it happened, but obviously my work on the test shook up my neural networks and spread the activation to enough spots that allowed me to construct the memory.

Sometimes you have to give your brain time to activate the proper networks. Remember, each memory may consist of thousands of connections, and any of these could serve as a lifeline to the information you need.

4. A Special Tip for Multiple-Choice Questions: Cover the Answer Choices, and Read Only the Stem of the Question First

Basically, treat a multiple-choice question like an open-ended question first, and try to recall the answer. Think of it as a strategy to warm up the relevant neural networks. Next, uncover the answer choices and make a decision.

Why do this?

Sometimes it’s easy to over analyze the answer choices, which can lead to confusion. Answer choices often contain a variety of cues that can lead you down the wrong neural pathways. Focus on the stem first, trigger those associations, and then consider the answer choices.

5. Don’t Assume Your First Hunch Is Always Correct

Many of us have received the well-intentioned but misguided advice to trust our instincts and not change our initial answers. Let go of what you think you know! To the contrary, research indicates that students more often change from an incorrect to a correct answer than vice versa. If you really don’t know the answer, randomly making changes is not going to help improve your score. But if you are struck by compelling reasons that suggest your initial answer is incorrect, trust your reasoning.

6. A Special Tip for Essay Questions: Brainstorm and Outline First

You probably get more nervous about essay questions than multiple-choice ones, but don’t let this fear freeze your brain. In the margins or on the back (if writing on the exam is permissible), sketch out any ideas that come to mind in response to the essay question. Try to organize these thoughts into some structure. 

This helps activate the relevant brain cell networks, basically warming up the brain. If the answer isn’t coming to you, move on to other questions and come back to it later. Sometimes the act of answering other questions will remind you of other bits of relevant information. As that happens, write those ideas alongside the others.

When you are ready to answer the essay question, make sure you provide the information that is requested. 

For example, compare/contrast questions require you not only to define concepts but also to show how they are similar to and different from one another. Application questions require that you not only provide definitions but also show how terms or concepts relate to a given example.

7. Don’t Rush Through the Exam Just to “Get It Over With”

We all look forward to unpleasant experiences coming to an end. My dentist is a terrific person, but dental work is unpleasant, and I want appointments to be over as quickly as possible. 

It’s only natural that you would feel the same way about exams. However, unlike being at the dentist, you decide how quickly to work on a test; within the overall testing-time framework, you decide when the ordeal is over.

The anticipation is enticing: You look forward to the feeling of relief. In class, I often hear audible sighs as students walk out the door after taking a test. This desire for relief can lead you to work faster than you should, increasing your odds of misreading questions or making other careless mistakes. So take all the time you are given to show all of what you know on an exam.

Hints;

1. Don’t look back at the text until you have pulled out of your memory as much information as you can.

2. Reflect on your typical pre-exam experience. What changes could you make to improve your brain’s ability to do its best for you? Identify at least one strategy you could incorporate when you take your next exam.

3. Evaluate the strategies you typically follow while taking exams, and plan out the changes you could make to improve your performance on the next one.

4. The next time you take an exam, introduce a “mindful moment” whenever you feel overwhelmed. Try the S.T.O.P. method: Stop (simply take a brief moment to pause).

Take a deep breath. Without passing judgment, Observe what’s going on in your mind and body (Is your heart rate elevated? Are anxious thoughts interfering with your reasoning?). Finally, Proceed (check the time, note how many more items you have to complete, and decide which test-taking strategies to use next). Remind yourself of this strategy by writing “STOP” at the top of your exam.

That's all.

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