Easy Study Skills for Exams
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Easy Study Skills for Exams
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Study skills: do you start reading at one end of your libraryand try to read through to the other end?
Of course not. So you already know one effective approach. Beselective! We can build on that now.
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More Study Skills - what not to study
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Whole books
Your lecturer tells you to read "War and Peace". If you havestudy skills you won't! Even with perfect memory - how much ofthe book can you cover in an exam essay that takes 40 minutes towrite?
Look through the library for abridged versions of your books, orcommentaries... Now you're using your study skills.
Buy your textbooks 2nd hand. Why do you think they are inperfect condition? Because the last students hardly opened them!
Why should you buy books that the last student didn't read? Nowyou're thinking! Now you're using study skills.
Whole syllabus
One benefit of attending classes is that you get a skeletonoutline to apply your study skills. The skeleton will becomplete for the sake of completeness. But only some partsmatter to your study skills.
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Study yourself - you're interesting aren't you?
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Each day write down at what time of day you didn't mind usingyour study skills, and could really get down to work. Write downthe times when you hated to study. I study best early in themorning. You might study best late at night.
Do you work best in a totally silent room, or with backgroundmusic?
Do you work better if you are petting the dog or does itinterfere with your study skills?
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Use your spying study skills
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Find past exam papers in the library. Put them in order by date,then go through the earliest one, and write down the subjects ina column at the left of your page. Put the date at the top ofthe second column and a tick for each subject. Now put the dateof the next paper and a tick opposite each subject that isrepeated, and write in any new subjects.
Do the same for all the years that you have. Why is the dateimportant? Look at your table. If a subject appeared every yearfrom the left, then suddenly stopped appearing it probably meansthat the examiner changed. Study all the subjects that appearevery year first. Then study those that appear four years out offive... you get the idea.
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Important study skills - Make a calendar
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Plan in detail which subjects you'll study on which days untilthe exam.
Don't be too ambitious. You already know that at some times ofthe day you can't use your study skills. You know that you won'twant to study on your birthday or Christmas day or... Just berealistic. A calendar that gives you over a thousand hours ofstudy isn't as good as one that gives you 400 hours that you canstick to.
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Become an expert
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An expert knows more and more about less and less.
You've used your study skills to cut out big chunks of yoursyllabus. Use the time you save to learn more about the partsyou've left than the examiner knows. Use the internet to searchfor exciting snippets of information about your shortenedsyllabus.
Perhaps your examiner doesn't know the exact day of the week onwhich an important bit of history happened. Perhaps you'veforgotten what you read about it, but write down your bestguess. The examiner will be impressed, because he doesn't knowthat you got it wrong!
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Study skills for the day of the exam
------------------------------------
Everyone will tell you that if you don't know it, it is too lateto learn. They are wrong! They are talking about long-termmemory. You will be using short-term memory.
As you are sitting outside the exam room study your formulae, ordates, or anything else that you have difficulty remembering.Whenever the examiner says that you can start writing, writedown all these things on scrap paper. You have managed toremember them for ten minutes. You can now forget them until youneed them again, which may be never.
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Study skills in the exam
------------------------
"That isn't allowed!" you exclaim. It definitely is allowed. Ifyou have a multiple choice paper just miss every question thatyou don't know. There is usually another related questionsomewhere. When you see it, you will work out the answer to thequestion that you didn't know. That is study isn't it?
----------
Conclusion
----------
Study smart - not longer than everyone else. Start with a freereport on the most powerful exam technique.
Easy Study Skills for Exams
----------------------
Study skills: do you start reading at one end of your libraryand try to read through to the other end?
Of course not. So you already know one effective approach. Beselective! We can build on that now.
-------------------------------------
More Study Skills - what not to study
-------------------------------------
Whole books
Your lecturer tells you to read "War and Peace". If you havestudy skills you won't! Even with perfect memory - how much ofthe book can you cover in an exam essay that takes 40 minutes towrite?
Look through the library for abridged versions of your books, orcommentaries... Now you're using your study skills.
Buy your textbooks 2nd hand. Why do you think they are inperfect condition? Because the last students hardly opened them!
Why should you buy books that the last student didn't read? Nowyou're thinking! Now you're using study skills.
Whole syllabus
One benefit of attending classes is that you get a skeletonoutline to apply your study skills. The skeleton will becomplete for the sake of completeness. But only some partsmatter to your study skills.
-----------------------------------------------
Study yourself - you're interesting aren't you?
-----------------------------------------------
Each day write down at what time of day you didn't mind usingyour study skills, and could really get down to work. Write downthe times when you hated to study. I study best early in themorning. You might study best late at night.
Do you work best in a totally silent room, or with backgroundmusic?
Do you work better if you are petting the dog or does itinterfere with your study skills?
----------------------------
Use your spying study skills
----------------------------
Find past exam papers in the library. Put them in order by date,then go through the earliest one, and write down the subjects ina column at the left of your page. Put the date at the top ofthe second column and a tick for each subject. Now put the dateof the next paper and a tick opposite each subject that isrepeated, and write in any new subjects.
Do the same for all the years that you have. Why is the dateimportant? Look at your table. If a subject appeared every yearfrom the left, then suddenly stopped appearing it probably meansthat the examiner changed. Study all the subjects that appearevery year first. Then study those that appear four years out offive... you get the idea.
----------------------------------------
Important study skills - Make a calendar
----------------------------------------
Plan in detail which subjects you'll study on which days untilthe exam.
Don't be too ambitious. You already know that at some times ofthe day you can't use your study skills. You know that you won'twant to study on your birthday or Christmas day or... Just berealistic. A calendar that gives you over a thousand hours ofstudy isn't as good as one that gives you 400 hours that you canstick to.
----------------
Become an expert
----------------
An expert knows more and more about less and less.
You've used your study skills to cut out big chunks of yoursyllabus. Use the time you save to learn more about the partsyou've left than the examiner knows. Use the internet to searchfor exciting snippets of information about your shortenedsyllabus.
Perhaps your examiner doesn't know the exact day of the week onwhich an important bit of history happened. Perhaps you'veforgotten what you read about it, but write down your bestguess. The examiner will be impressed, because he doesn't knowthat you got it wrong!
------------------------------------
Study skills for the day of the exam
------------------------------------
Everyone will tell you that if you don't know it, it is too lateto learn. They are wrong! They are talking about long-termmemory. You will be using short-term memory.
As you are sitting outside the exam room study your formulae, ordates, or anything else that you have difficulty remembering.Whenever the examiner says that you can start writing, writedown all these things on scrap paper. You have managed toremember them for ten minutes. You can now forget them until youneed them again, which may be never.
------------------------
Study skills in the exam
------------------------
"That isn't allowed!" you exclaim. It definitely is allowed. Ifyou have a multiple choice paper just miss every question thatyou don't know. There is usually another related questionsomewhere. When you see it, you will work out the answer to thequestion that you didn't know. That is study isn't it?
----------
Conclusion
----------
Study smart - not longer than everyone else. Start with a freereport on the most powerful exam technique.
Source...