Exams stress you out. You can’t help it, you’re afraid you’ll miss a question, forget a concept or study the wrong subject. To help you maximize your exam preparation, here are effective strategies just for you.
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| How Do I Prepare for Exam Day? | How Do You Manage your Time During an Exam? | Frequently Asked Questions |
What Are the Best Ways to Prepare for Exams?
- Find out about the subject matter, types of exams, each type of questions (multiple-choice questions, etc.) and evaluation criteria;
- Spread your study periods over several days;
- Organize your schedule to include study time;
- Use and vary study techniques;
- Prepare yourself the night before (prepare your material, plan to sleep early, relax).
How Should I Study for an Exam?
Start studying early;
Use your agenda efficiently;
Take breaks;
Create a study corner;
Prepare your material;
Ask questions;
Vary your review methods;
Practise;
Relax;
Look for solutions.
How Do I Prepare for Exam Day?
Start Studying Early
The earlier you study, the less stress you’ll have. And the earlier you learn the material, the better prepared you are. Set your study schedule at least one week before your exam.
Use Your Agenda Efficiently
Your agenda isn’t just a calendar. Used properly, it’s a very useful tool for you. To help you with your revision, write in the margin or on a sticky note the important events of the following week (e.g.: a forthcoming exam, an assignment to hand in, etc.).
Before an upcoming exam, use your agenda to break down your review into study blocks and then divide them into your weekday evenings.
Take Breaks
During your study sessions, remember to take a short break after 30 minutes or so. Eat a snack, watch a video, have a quick chat with someone. The aim is to clear your mind between two short study sessions.
Create a Study Corner
Whether you’re doing your homework or preparing for an exam, it’s essential to find a quiet, distraction-free place to study.
Prepare your material
The day before the exam, make sure you put everything you need for your exam in your school bag. That way, you won’t have to run around in the morning looking for missing material, and you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy a good breakfast.
Ask questions
If you realize that you don’t understand a concept in the exam, ask your teacher, ask a classmate to explain it to you, consult our blog, but above all, don’t wait until the day before the exam to find out.
There are lots of resources available to help you better understand the material. Don’t hesitate to consult them to help you master the subject before exam day.
Vary your review methods
To maximize your review time, use a variety of study techniques.
- Memorizing: Read, reread and reread the contents of your course notes.
- Checklist: Write down all the material on a sheet of paper and then memorize your notes.
- Knowledge charts: Build a chart with 3 columns: the first, on the concepts in the exam that you don’t know; the second, on the concepts you know a little about; and the third, on the concepts you do know.
- Question-and-answer cards: On small cards, write questions about the subject under examination (e.g.: What are the three main warm colours?) and on the back of the card, write the answer (e.g.: yellow, red and orange).
- Mini-teacher: With the person of your choice, explain the concepts you need to review for your exam. If you have a good understanding of the subject, you’ll find it easy to explain. On the other hand, if you’re having trouble, you’ll need to review the subject more thoroughly.
- Concept networks or nebula: Reorganize your course notes using a concept network. You place the central concept to be reviewed at the centre of a circle (e.g., colours), and link the concept to other information about it (e.g., warm colours, cold colours, possible mixtures, painting techniques).
Practise
Redo old exercises, ask your teacher for practice questions, use training programs, practise with a previous exam or online resources. You can even go further by timing yourself.
Relax
It’s true, every minute of studying counts, but once it’s the night before the exam, you can’t work miracles. Instead of studying until the early hours of the morning, have a good meal, sleep early, have fun, move around, etc. Being in good shape for your exam is also an important part of your preparation.
Look for Solutions
If this exam is causing you a lot of stress, your brain may be imagining several disaster scenarios. If this happens to you, take the time to think of solutions. How can you foresee this possible unexpected event? How can you anticipate a situation? You have all the solutions within you, so have faith.
How Do You Manage your Time During an Exam?
You’ve studied hard, you’ve practised, you’ve followed a study plan and you’ve even gone to bed at a reasonable hour. It would be a shame if, when you get to your exam, you get stuck on a question, move on to the next one too late and, at the last minute of the exam, leave some questions blank. These three tips will help you avoid wasting time in front of your exam papers.
Wear a Watch
You read that right, what better way to manage time than to carry a time-management tool with you. Wearing a watch means you won’t have to look up the time in the exam room, and you’ll be able to create your own time reference points. A useful tool, since you won’t have access to any electronic devices.
Take Some Breaks
Please note that we don’t advise you to take five minutes to admire the ceiling, but rather to take a short break to breathe, take a sip from your water bottle and stretch your body a little, especially your hands and neck. You can even take advantage of this time to glance at your watch!
Analyze the Questions
As teachers say every year, reading the questions, highlighting their key words and analyzing them are important steps to success in your assessment.
If you have any initial ideas for answers, especially for essay questions, write them down alongside the question.
Mark the Difficulty
You can even label your questions by difficulty. For an easy question, put a green dot or the letter E, for an average question; a yellow dot or the letter A, for a difficult question; a red dot or the letter D.
Evaluate Your Time
In your analysis, take the time to look at the value of the question. The more points it’s worth, the more important it is. So make sure you spend more time on those high-value questions.
Prioritize the Right Questions
On the other hand, if you hesitate, move on to the next question. Favouring precision and quality over speed is a good idea, but answering as many questions as possible is even better.
Even if you don’t know what to answer, don’t forget to try an answer to every question.
Understanding Key Words
To help you interpret typical exam wording, we’ve created a short list of what you’ll be asked to do according to the key word in the question.
- Explain: make something clear in your own words;
- Compare: find similarities and differences between two things;
- Define: provide the definition or meaning of something;
- Demonstrate: prove something with facts and arguments;
- Describe: give the main characteristics of something;
- Naming: write or mention the name of something;
- Summarize: present something in a concise manner;
- Underline: draw a line under something;
- Highlight: emphasize something with a highlighter.
If you have extra time, analyze the questions again: did you answer the key word correctly? Did you make any mistakes? Did you answer every question?
If you ever change an answer, do so only if you know you’ve made a mistake, otherwise you might erase a correct answer.
The best way to prepare for exams is to study in advance. There are many resources available to help you, so use them to increase your chances of success. Above all, don’t forget to read the questions carefully and move on to the next one if you don’t understand.
Good luck for your exam!
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Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Do Well Before an Exam?
- Start studying in advance, at least one week before the exam, and follow a study routine;
- Writing checklists of things you’ll need to study or complete in preparation for your exam;
- Use study tools (mind maps, sample questions, …) to prepare for the exam;
- Relax before the test, by putting away your study materials;
- Practise analyzing and annotating the questions, and writing information related to the answers in the margin;
- Learn how to manage your time with a practice exam;
- Get enough sleep before the exam session;
- Work on your listening skills in class;
- Consult the reference materials and the exam format (which includes the exam components) to prepare yourself.
How Can I focus 100% On my Studies?
Study in a distraction-free environment;
Put your phone on silent, out of reach or use an app that helps you focus like Forest;
Use the Pomodoro technique or any other technique.
How to Prepare Mentally For an Exam?
- Use time management techniques: try out the Pomodoro technique, the SMART method, etc.;
- Try visualization: imagine yourself passing your exam, finding an answer to a question, managing your time well;
- Practise mindfulness: pay attention to the present moment, to what you’re feeling and accept, without judgment, what you’re feeling.
What Are the Different Types of Exam?
Closed-book exams: This type of exam means you won’t have access to your lecture notes, activity sheets or other study materials to answer the questions. To ace this exam, you must master the material being studied.
Open book exams: This type of exam is based on your understanding of the subject, so you’ll need to annotate your course notes and know the subject almost by heart.
Multiple-choice exams: A multiple-choice exam requires you to master the subject studied, discerning the correct response from the wrong one. It often takes the form of an exam booklet.
Online exams: In general, an online exam is similar to an open-book exam. Among other things, it assesses factual knowledge.
Oral examination: For an oral exam, you’ll be asked to answer questions orally, which means you’ll need to practise your pronunciation, use the hesitation form (hum) less often, improve your vocabulary and, of course, know your subject.
How Much Time Should I Allow for Each Test Question?
The average time per question for a multiple-choice or very easy question is around two minutes, but this statistic can vary according to question content categories, exam types and time allowed to complete the exam.
How to Remember What You Study?
Here are five tips to help you remember what you study:
Why Do I Fall Asleep When I Study?
You’re trying to study, but you fall asleep. Find out what to do:
What Is the Pomodoro Method?
Find out more about the famous Pomodoro method:
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