Nothing can take the place of adequate preparation, not even prayer. Cramming may get you by temporarily, but regular review can help to avoid test anxiety, panic, mental blocks, and help you achieve a mastery of the subject. Students who have used the following suggestions have been able to cope with exams.

Studying For Exams

A. As soon as the term begins, start studying with exams in mind. If you are behind a day in the early weeks, you will be impossibly behind by the end of the term.

1. Learn the instructor's objectives for the course and, if necessary, his peculiarities. Recheck the instructor's course syllabus periodically.

2. Search for the over-all patterns into which the material fits. Learn key concepts.

3. Find relationships between required reading, outside reading, and lectures.

4. Know specifically what kind of test will be given and what material will be covered.

B. Begin reviewing well in advance--about a week before the exam. Follow a three-part pattern:

1. First, review the general organization of the course. Check the syllabus.

2. Then, study key concepts and relationships.

3. Finally, work on specific facts and illustrations.

a. Make lists of the material to be memorized and recite these lists to yourself whenever you have free time.

b. Practice formulating and reciting possible answers. When you feel you have talked out an answer sufficiently, write it down in full. List, compare.

C. Study check list.

1. What did the teacher talk about most in class? What discussions were encouraged by the teacher and how did he summarize these discussions? Study your class notes. They will help you to anticipate the questions that will be asked on the test.

2. List the points, dates, terms, and principles the author of the text feels are most important. Most of the test questions will probably come directly from the textbook unless the instructor has stated the test will be taken from other sources.

3. Use and define new words and words that are used with a specific meaning in the subject area. Study the new ideas that have been introduced in the course.

4. Go through your notes and explain in your own words what you have learned. Verbalize this to yourself or, if necessary, answer your own questions aloud. Teachers do not expect the textbook repeated back to them, but want to know whether you can interpret and use the information that has been presented in the textbook.

5. Study the conclusions that were drawn during the class discussion and by the author of the textbook. This can be done by studying the summary of each chapter.

6. If the notes taken during the class period and from your textbook are not clear, go back to this section of the text and review.

7. Make a list of ten or twelve questions that you believe may be asked on the test. This can be done from recalling what the teacher emphasized during the class discussions. Write out the answers to these questions; then, if some of these questions are asked on the test, you will be prepared to answer them and your answers will be organized and complete. If these questions are not asked on the test, the information which you have organized will, in part, be answers to the questions that are on the test.

Taking the Exam

A. Arrive at the exam prepared and confident.

1. Get a good nights sleep. Staying up the night before an exam almost guarantees a mental block.

2. Eat a good breakfast. You need food for energy. Take a bath and dress neatly. If you are hungry or grubby, your test paper will reflect your condition.

3. Take two ballpoint pens. Have scratch paper available and two sharp #2 pencils.

4. Know beforehand if dictionaries and texts are permitted.

5. Relax! It is only natural to have butterflies in the stomach.

6. Try to control the panic by some of these activities:

a. Close your eyes for several minutes.
b. Concentrate on your breathing. (Slow breathing from your diaphragm is a natural relaxer).
c. Take chewing gum. It channels some nervous energy and alleviates the dry mouth sensation.

7. Think positively. If you keep insisting you are going to flunk, you will!

B. The Exam Itself--Proven tips for success.

1. Look at a test as a measurement of what you have learned. Since a teacher cannot cover everything, selection of questions is usually based on what the teacher considers the important areas of the subject and meet the objectives for the course. If verbal directions are given before the exam, listen carefully. If you do not understand, ask questions before the test begins.

2. Put your name on the test Immediately--every book or page.

3. If a math or science exam, write down all the formulas you memorized for the test. Your mind is fresh and you aren't under pressure of trying to remember while working the problem. This channels some of the nervous energy into something specific.

4. Read through the entire test before you answer anything.

a. Check minutes or points allotted for each question to determine how to budget time.

b. Read directions carefully and underline key words.

c. If you are given your choice of questions, make your choice carefully but quickly. Do not change your mind later on the spur of the moment.

5. Answering the questions:

a. Go through and answer those questions or problems you know. This also gives you a feeling of success.

b. Go back to those that take more time. If you feel stymied, go to another question. You may find the answer in a later question.

c. Leave the most difficult problems for last. You will have a good portion of the test done and can spend time working on the troublesome questions.

d. For math, try estimating the answer before working the problem. You will have a rough idea of the size of the answer.

e. If you have time left, re-read to be sure you haven't overlooked a question, a page, or misread a question.

f. Don't change an answer, UNLESS you have misread. Usually your first choice on a True/False is correct.

g. Do not try to be the first student to leave the exam. Students who leave early may have given up. You are allotted an amount of time; use it all.

h. Last check, be sure your name is on the exam.

C. After the Exam

Always go over every test afterward. Learn how to do the problems you have missed or find the correct answer for questions you have wrong. Mastery learning of a subject is like building blocks. Each block is supported by another. If there is a weak area which you do not understand, that will be a vacant and weak space in your knowledge.

Kinds of Exams

Many instructors will vary the format of their exams by combining different measurement tests within an exam: Multiple Choice, Matching, True/False, Direct Answer, Essay. These may be in sections with a % value or interspersed in the exam and have an assigned point value. Understanding how each type is handled may be of help in planning your time. Usually true-false questions take the least time so there will be more, and they will be given a lower point value. While there will be fewer essay questions; they take longer to answer and have a higher value.

Following are suggestions that may help you in taking each kind.

Multiple-Choice Tests--

In a multiple-choice test you are expected to select the correct answer from a possible four or five given answers.

These tests are less difficult if you remember the correct answer is always given. In taking any test of this type, go through and answer all the questions that you feel sure you recognize the right answer. Then return to the unanswered questions and take them one-by-one, eliminating the answers which you are sure could not be correct. Then guess from the remaining possibilities.

Example: A selfish person is:

Using the process of eliminaion, ask yourself:

Is a puny person always selfish?
Is a strong person always selfish?
Is a youthful person always selfish?
Is a wasteful person always selfish?
Is a egoistic person always selfish?

You can obviously eliminate four of the answers leaving egoistic as correct. Sometimes the multiple choice may also include "all of the above", "none of the above", combinations such as "a and b". Use the same process of elimination and what fits best.

Matching Test--

1. Check to see if there are the same number of items in each column. If one column has more than the other, you will have more difficulty in selecting the correct answer.

2. Select the first item in the first column and see if you can match this with an item from the second column. Mark the correct answer and check the answer in the second column which you have used.

3. Match in this way as many as you are sure fit together.

4. Then, go back and match those which you think might fit together.

5. Scrutinize the list a third time; and, if any are not matched, fit those together with their most probable meanings.

6. Don't spend too much time on any one question--do as many as you can.

Suggestions--In taking any objective type examination or true-false examination:

1. Be sure and follow the directions.

2. Inquire whether there is a penalty for guessing.

3. Allow time to try all of the questions, and

4. Make sure that your answers are in the right place.

True/False Tests--

The questions for these are often taken directly from the book. Watch for unusual or catch statements. Watch for date, for definitions, or statements of fact.

Example: All birds can fly. T__ F__

1. Ask, before you take the test, if you are penalized for guessing. (If so, don't guess. The teacher subtracts the number wrong from the number right. You pay twice for every wrong one).

2. Understand precisely how to mark the answers. (Do you put your cross by the right one or the wrong one).

3. Watch your numbers It's easy to get mixed up. (The right number in the wrong place is wrong).

4. Watch for special words.

a. Statements with never, always, no one, are likely to be false.

b. Moderate statements are often true.

c. Extreme statements are almost always false.

d. "Almost, but not quite true" - is always false.

e. "A tiny, tiny bit false" - is always false.

If a true/false question causes difficulty, the following principle is often helpful. Most such questions are built on the pattern of briefly describing two things and their degree of relationship to each other, i.e., "Some cats are black". The two "things" in each statement are usually true; statements are made false by changing the modifier so as to overstate of understate the degree of relationship. The following series of modifiers are typically used:

All -- most -- some -- no
Always -- usually -- sometimes -- never
More -- equal -- less
Great -- much -- little -- no
Positively related -- not related -- negatively related
Is -- is not

When students see one of these in a sentence, they can usually test whether the statement is true by substituting the other words in that series. If none of them makes a better statement than the modifier already in the sentence, the statement is true. Thus when the above statement "some cats are black," and the substitution is made "All cats are black", "Most cats are black", and "No cats are black," the original statement is shown to be true. Knowing this common pattern, a student can go to the key word in true/false statements and not have to worry about possible exceptions to each word in the statements.

Many students have learned to look for the key words, "no, never, every, all, entirely", because they usually cause the statement to be false. That is, it is difficult to make any statement which is true of all or no items to which it refers. Knowing this tendency of students to look for these specific words, however, many instructors work hard to formulate some statements in which the use of these terms makes true statements, i.e., "An island is entirely surrounded by water All men are mortal".

Care should be used in answering a true/false statement containing two independent clauses. If one of these is true and the other false, the whole statement is to be marked "false".

Direct-Answer Tests--

In this type of test the statement is made with one important word left out. You must recall and supply that word. Here are some rules to follow in taking such a test:

(F.P. Robinson, Effective Study, p. 58, rev. ed., 1961)

1. If an answer calls for one name and you give more than one name or word, you are wrong. The teacher can't decide which you really meant.

2. If you put the right answer in the wrong place, it's wrong!

If you can't recall the exact word, try to recall a term which means nearly the same. Sometimes you are given credit for this type of answer.

Words that may give you a clue to the kind of answer expected:

WHO calls for a person or people
WHY calls for a reason
HOW calls for steps
WHAT calls for facts
WHEN calls for a date or time
WHERE calls for a place

The length of line may give you a clue to the answer expected, but don't depend on it entirely.

Essay--

1. Set up a time schedule. If six questions are to be answered in sixty minutes, allow yourself only seven minutes for each. When the time is up for one question, stop writing and begin the next one. There will be 15 to 18 minutes remaining when the last question is completed. The incomplete answers, by the way will usually receive more credit than three completed ones. However, be sure to check this point with the instructor before the exam.

2. Read through the questions once. Answers will come to mind immediately for some questions. Write down key words, listings, etc., now when they're fresh in mind. Otherwise these ideas may be blocked (or be unavailable). When the time comes to write the later question, this will reduce "clutching" or panic (anxiety, actually fear which disrupts thoughts).

3. Before attempting to answer a question, put it in your own words. Now compare your version with the original. Do they mean the same thing? If they don't you've misread the question. You'll be surprised how often they don't agree.

4. Outline the answer before writing. Whether the teacher realizes it or not, he is greatly influenced by the compactness, completeness, and clarity of an organized answer. To begin writing in the hope that the right answer will somehow turn up is time-consuming and usually futile. To know a little and to present that little well is, by and large, superior to knowing much and presenting it poorly--when judged by the grade resolved.

5. Take time to write an introduction and summary. The introduction will consist of the main point to be made; the summary is simply a paraphrasing of the introduction. A neat bundle with a beginning and ending is very satisfying to the reader. Write in complete grammatical sentences. Write legibly. Leave margins and space at the end for additional material.

6. Take time at the end to reread the paper. When writing in haste, we tend to:

(a) Misspell words
(b) Omit words and parts of words
(c) Omit parts of questions
(d) Miswrite dates & figures (1353 written as 1953; $.50 as $50, etc.)

7. Qualify answers when in doubt. It is better to say "Toward the end of the 19th century" than to say "In 1894" when you can't remember whether it's 1884 or 1894. In many cases, the approximate time is all that is wanted; unfortunately 1894, though approximate, may be incorrect, and will usually be marked accordingly. When possible, avoid very definite statements. A qualified statement connotes a philosophic attitude, the mark of an educated man.

8. When you finish a question, forget it entirely and concentrate on the next! Watch your time!

 

Summary of Terms for Exams

Analyze: Divide into component parts. Find main ideas and show how they are related and why they are important.

Compare: Look for qualities or characteristics that resemble each other. Emphasize similarities among them, but in some cases also mention differences.

Contrast: Stress the dissimilarities, differences or unlike- nesses of things, qualities, events, or problems.

Criticize: Express your judgment about the merit or truth of the factors or view mentioned. Give the results of your analysis of these factors discussing their limitations and good points.

Define: Give concise, clear, and authoritative meanings. Don't give details but make sure to give the limits of the definition. Show how the thing you are defining differs from things in other classes.

Describe: Recount, characterize, sketch, or relate in sequence or story form.

Diagram: Give a drawing, chart, plan, or graphic answer. Usually you should label a diagram. In some cases, add a brief explanation or description.

Discuss: Examine, analyze carefully, and give reasons pro and con. Be complete, and give details.

Enumerate: Write in list or outline form, giving points concisely one by one.

Evaluate: Carefully appraise the problem, citing both advantages and limitations. Emphasize the appraisal of authorities and, to a lesser degree, your personal evaluation.

Explain: Clarify,interpret, and spell out the material you present. Give reasons for differences of opinion or of results, and try to analyze causes.

Illustrate: Use a figure, picture, diagram, or concrete example to explain or clarify a problem.

Interpret: Translate, give examples of, solve or comment on a subject, usually giving your judgment about it.

Justify: Prove or give reasons for decisions or conclusions, taking pains to be convincing.

List: As in "enumerate", write an itemized series of concise statements.

Outline: Organize a description under main points and subordinate points, omitting minor details and stressing the arrangement or classification of things.

Prove: Establish that something is true by citing factual evidence or giving clear logical reasons.

Relate: Show how things are related to, or connected with, each other or how one causes another, correlates with another, or is like another.

Review: Examine a subject critically analyzing and commenting on the important statements to be made about it.

State: Present the main points in brief, clear sequence usually omitting details, illustrations, or examples.

Summarize: Give the main points or facts in condensed form, like the summary of a chapter, omitting details, and illustrations.

Trace: In narrative form, describe pattern, progress, development, or historical events from point of origin.