The Key to exam success.
Preparation is key to true success. Having a hollistic knowledge of your subjects, and sound experience going through all of the past papers available to you will make more of a difference than any amount of skim-reading.
Students tend to fall in to two distinct categories of 'revisers'; the reader and the examiner. Whilst reading does develop short term memory and certain facts are retained, it has been proven year after year with greater scientific and psychological research, that practicing exam style questions results in better grades. Completing exam style questions develops a superior motor memory to reading. Information can be retained for up to 800% longer than someone who just reads through textbooks.
One of the reasons readers exist is because of their fear of the worst - getting questions wrong. Once you can overcome this, and acknowledge that you can only improve from recognising your mistakes, the progress you can make is exponential. I urge all students to evolve from readers to examiners. Take your doubt and overcome it with success and the satisfaction that you will get better each time you do another question.
- Adam Kazmi
I certainly agree that practicing exam questions is really helpful. Certainly it is necessary to engage in pro-active learning, rather than simply reading through the material. This can include testing yourself on formulae, in Maths, and reproducing the theory. It obviously is very helpful to have a good understanding of the subject (a personal tutor may help), so time invested in understanding the theory before attempting exam questions may help. However, often understanding develops through doing exam questions.
Report this comment