Preparing for an exam- be it your school final, semester, or any competitive exam- seems like an arduous journey to make until you finally crack it. Plus, when the exam is knocking at the door, then studying large volumes of subjects followed by solving quantitative questions becomes even more challenging. Every exam, irrespective of its type, requires setting up a mindset that could differ based on the exam’s difficulty level. However, if you stick to a proper learning strategy and carry a positive mental demeanor, then it is possible to complete your syllabus way faster than you thought. Thereby, the entire preparation would be easily manageable in time.
So, in this article, I will give you 5 simplest cum efficient tips to follow while you are preparing for an academic, college or competitive examination. You simply have to maintain these 5 keys regularly. Let’s delve in!
5 Tips for Fast Exam Preparation
Go through the syllabus, weightage of each chapter, and question pattern
Firstly, check out which topics are included in the syllabus and how broad each topic is. Then understand the requirements of the exam. All these details will be definitely available on the internet (in case of competitive exams) and for academics or college semesters, from your respective state/central board.
Next thing is to note down the entire syllabus of each subject where the Whitaker of the chapters per subject will be mentioned. This process will simplify your learning strategy, hence enabling you to frame the preparation accordingly.
Then check out the previous year’s question followed by some model questionnaires to understand the paper pattern. It will be best if you can manage to print out the hard copies of the last 10 years’ question papers. Doing this will help you get a thorough idea regarding the question format, types, and marking trend of that exam.
Make a Schedule and Follow it Daily
Now that you know what your purpose is and what level of preparation you need to do, plan an approach of how to start preparing. For that, you need to focus on the time management part. A proper schedule will help you divide the lessons into small segments, and you can continue preparing in a more disciplined manner. It keeps you on track and prepares you to face a hard competition with the other candidates in the most crucial test of your life.
No other strategy of creating a time-table works the best than the one that we make by ourselves. However, if you are confused about where to start, feel free to check out mine:
- Set practical goals that you can cover in a day. Do not overburden your routine with too many topics you can achieve in each study session
- Schedule the subjects that need more attention, for those times of the day, when you usually feel more focused and productive. For instance, some learners get a good concentration while starting at midnight, while some find it easier to grab the lessons studying early in the morning. So, this usually varies among the students
- Make time for practicing quantitative portions at least once a day
- Never study at a stretch without a break. Keep taking short breaks of 5 to 10 minutes. This will relax and prepare your mind to continue for some more hours
Remember, procrastinating your tasks, thereby overlooking your time-table will result in a lot of pending tasks for later, which might create a toll of pressure to cover in the last few days before the exam.
Follow limited but reliable study materials
Some students have a misconception that studying notes from multiple resources of multiple authors might bring them good marks. But the reality is something else. Sometimes, grabbing loads of notes for each topic of each subject will be difficult to manage within a short time despite following a routine. So, it is important to focus on the key points of any topic of any subject matter and stick to only a handful of study resources. Whatever book you follow, make sure to understand the fundamental concepts of that topic and you are good to go.
It will be better if you keep a good stock of study resources, in case you need it while studying. This guides and makes your preparation easy and efficient.
Stop Fantasizing Exam Fear and Taking Stress
To many, it might seem a silly point but trust me, it is not a factor to overlook. Sometimes especially the deserving students fail to crack the exams due to some imaginary exam fear. It also happens when somebody takes lots of study stress on himself/herself, eventually forgetting the answers in the exam hall. Sometimes this fear will lower your mental determination and energy to study for hours and remember things that you used to do before.
However, the good thing is such issues can be easily got rid of through yoga, meditation, and other healthy techniques. Plus, you will be more attentive towards your goal with improved mental health to understand things and retain the same without trouble. Automatically your confidence level will get boosted and you will. hardly feel nervous to face your exam.
Never Study New Topics the Day Before Your Exam
The last day before your exam is the day to relax and revise the things that you study for the whole month/months. Focus on the doubts that you faced previously and the mistakes that you made in the short tests during the preparation days. Make sure that every important topic of that subject is covered and revised well. Never start learning a whole new topic on the last day as you might not be able to remember the freshly learned things till the next day in the exam hall. Plus, you might lose time to revise your old lessons.
So, keep the last day simply to brush up your preparation. Do not force your brain to take extra load which might result negatively on your previously learned lessons.
Summing Up
Hope that the above tips, if followed in an organized way, will make the preparation feasible to beat the exam with commendable marks. Just remember one thing, any exam, however difficult it is, can be cracked only and only if you study both hard and smart.
