My Exam's Tomorrow - and I haven't Studied!
While no one really recommends cramming, sometimes that's what you have to do. So here are some hints to get you through it:
- Pick the most important subjects from your material
- Look over your lecture notes, or someone else's if you don't have any, and see what the lecturer focused on. Concentrate your cramming on these broad areas. You don't have time to learn specifics.
- The key to cramming is memorization so it only works for "knowledge" questions. Focus on material that can be memorized.
- Spend 25 percent of your time cramming and 75% drilling yourself. Recite and Repeat the information.
- Relax: being upset at yourself for not studying earlier won't help and may hurt your performance in the class
- Remember how you felt while studying and while writing the exam and plan to study earlier next time!
Hints:
- Be realistic - no one can study for 8 hours a day
- Make sure you get plenty of food and sleep
- Try to study in a quiet place
- Rewrite your notes - it can help you retain information
- Read your notes out loud
Day of the Exam:
- Eat - don't skip the meal before your exam - not eating can result in tiredness and poor concentration.
- Arrive just a few minutes before your exam to avoid the usual wide-spread and contagious panic
In the Exam:
- Use a cheat sheet - Even if you're not allowed to:
Make a cheat sheet of the material you are certain will help; take it to the exam; throw it out before you sit down, then recopy it from memory, somewhere on the exam booklet, as soon as you can.
- Read all of the questions (except multiple choice) before beginning, and write notes on the paper for anything important that occurs to you as you read.
- If you're having a problem with one question move on and return to the problem question if you have time left at the end.
- Watch the clock
