It’s unavoidable. Exams follow teaching as surely as night follows day. Educational authorities at all levels have tried many ways to test whether their students have actually absorbed what their teachers and lecturers told them – things such as face-to-face interviews, assignments, group activities and the like.
But there is forget about certain, universal and “controlled” method of working this out than getting students to sit down at a desk for a limited period and respond in writing to pre-set questions without being able to refer to notes or any other memory aid. This is an experience a lot of people would rather to do without but ultimately, in a single situation or another, each people will have to get it done if we’re to achieve anything.
In its crudest essence, an exam is just a memory test. Sure, you can find all different types of exams but they all require the student to consider things jamb runz. As an example, a history exam usually involves remembering historical dates and characters; an engineering or business exam often involves remembering formula and how they are applied. Even an essay requires that you remember how to really write one or something more physical, just like a driving test, requires that you remember how to utilize what you’re taught.
So just how can we get our memory to work for us when have to do an exam? I believe that there are a lot of methods, but one that has worked well for me personally a lot of times (I have done plenty of exams) is the One-Page Memory-Jogger. It sounds crude and simple and it really is – and it doesn’t take that much time, but there is a bit of science behind it. Let me explain the steps:
Step 1 – Get your notes together. This is pretty self-evident. Most courses have some written notes, often ones you’ve written yourself. Buy them into the exact same chronological order as these were taught, if possible. Several of those notes might be messy and parts might be missing, so you will need to fill out the blanks one of the ways or another to produce as complete a group as you can.
Step 2 – Get the key points sorted. Pick out the main element things you’ve to consider and write them out as “headlines.” This might take some effort and practice. As an example, there isn’t much point remembering a mathematical equation if you can’t remember how to utilize it, so you will need to do a lot of examples to get the technique right and then take note of what exactly you’ve to consider about that.
Step 3 – Get the key points onto one A4 page. Sounds impossible, but trust in me, it can be carried out and it’s worth the effort. You may want several attempts, but every time you get it done, you start almost subconsciously establishing reference connections or “hooks” that your mind uses to jog itself into remembering what those points mean.
Step 4 – Understand that page! Remember all of that page and write it out a few times from memory. Making little sentences that features “jogging” words is among several simple techniques you should use to consider elements of the page. You can find others that you can find in just about any simple memory training course in a library. Little rhymes, numbered lists, even pictures can help. And its only 1 page – so you can do it!
Step 5 – Write it out in the Exam. As soon as the exam starts, grab one of the exam pages and write out your “one-pager” on the back of it. In the event that you can’t get it done on the exam paper, then write it on something official – anything, provided that it’s not something that seems like you can have brought it in with you. Strangely, you will see that you won’t need to refer to it very often as you will likely remember the main element points anyway.
Additional Tips – Make sure to ensure you actually find and answer most of the questions you’ve to. Sometimes they are on the back of the exam paper. And read each question carefully so that you understand precisely what they want.