Everyone has different ways they prepare for examinations. The funny part of it is that the method a person uses to prepare for an exam and pass may be hard for another person to use to prepare and pass because we are all different and the way we learn and grab things is different.
I could remember during my 100-level days at the university that I followed some people inside the school at night to read because we were preparing for our exams. But guess what? I developed a headache the second day, which happened to be the day of the exam for the course I read overnight. I couldn't write the exam well because the fact that I stay awake overnight affects me, and since that day I have stopped going inside the school to read overnight because I realize it doesn’t work for me.
The tricks that work best for me are:
I read past examination questions.
As a university student, whenever we resume for school for a new semester or level, I gather all my course examination past questions and make sure I have the course outline for every course. Having all these past examination questions will let me know how questions are being set, and with this, I will make sure I read all the questions that are being asked in the previous examination questions.
Yes, sometimes the way questions are set is changed, and it can go from theory to German or from German to theory. So I have to prepare for both of them so they won't come as a shock to me. This is where my course outline comes in, as I study it from the beginning to the end and make sure no topic is left out. Most times, the topics that the lectures didn't teach us will come out in the exam questions, and this is where my mobile phone comes in, as I use it to search for topics that we aren't taught in class and learn them on my own. I do all this before the day of my examinations at my leisure time.
It can be data-consuming, but it has helped me a lot. Whenever I read and answer all these past examination questions, I write all my answers inside my notebook, as that helps me assimilate the things that I am reading, and that's what I do whenever I read any book, be it a novel or a notebook for examination purposes.
picture is mine
Group reading
I love group reading a lot as I get to share ideas with people and my reading partner, who has a better understanding of one course than me, gets to explain it to me. The fun fact about it is that the explanations that are given to me by my friends stick in my brain more than the ones a lecturer gave in class. Because sometimes the class is so crowded that I hardly hear what the lecturer is teaching, the best is to take my course materials or textbooks to any coursemate of mine to help me in any subject where I am finding it hard to understand a topic in the course.
I sleep for a few hours before I start reading.
Before I start reading to prepare for an exam, I make sure to sleep for some hours before I start reading because by the time I wake up, I will be energized and will be able to concentrate fully on the books I want to read.
I read late at night or early in the morning.
Afternoon reading is not my thing, and I don't fully concentrate when I read in the afternoon. The best time I love reading is late at night or early in the morning because if I read late at night, I will have had enough sleep and rest in the afternoon, and if I read early in the morning, I will have had enough sleep at night. So with this, I won't be reading with a stressed body because most times I am always stressed during the afternoon because of lectures and all.
I read to understand.
Unlike some other students who read to cram, I read to understand so that I will be able to develop my own points or give definitions of questions we are asked in the examination from my own knowledge in case I forget the ones taught by our lecturer.
In conclusion, the last trick I use is to make sure I revise the books or notebooks that I have read some minutes before the date or time of my examination, and with this, I am good to go.
Thank you for reading to the end.
