How to excel in your exams?

I am not going to say that I was a nerd and was able to solve every exam question, but I can say with confidence that I have attempted and worked on solving every question that I was hit with.  Once though I think all the students and myself included were baffled by the question or the whole exam paper which consisted of one question.  The subject had two very articulate professors, who loved story telling; I enjoyed their class very much, and no one had warned me to see what they had given in previous years, and thinking that its an easy paper I focused on all the other papers barring this one.  Well, I must say that the exam paper was a novel, a part of star wars or ferrari world or something of the sort; one needs to read the novel, enjoy it and then of course decipher it and come out with the answers.  I left the room dazzled, I think I got a B- as everyone had complained so they did a re-mark.

This takes me nicely to my post today, examinations have been debated for centuries, I personally do not believe in them, and think that a piece of research or a debate can be a better ground for marking the success or not of the students. However we are not talking about the objectivity of examinations as they are here and will stay until a president of an important country stops them.

There are ways to tackle exams,  I am not going to say that my way is the best way, but I had figured it out, and since I could do it and pass in every exam, so can you.

First thing to do is to make notes of every subject, then make notes from those notes, and summaries the notes into synonyms and things that will remind you of the subjects that you studied.

The second and very important thing, is to solve every past exam question you can put your hands on.  If you find 20 years of examinations, then albeit, do them, do not think that you know the subject very well and do what I did when I had those two lovely professors, read the subject, make notes, and more notes and do the past examinations.

The third thing is to remember that exam questions are marked by people who will be bored after marking the third script, so make your answers short and concise and use buzz words that match the subject matter. So if you are talking about global warming, mention temperature, and stuff like that, if you are talking about deceases then mention AIDS, cancer, flu, or anything like that. Try to drew a picture and depict your answers with diagrams which are a very good way to answer, make sure that you answer in points as each point is given a mark. And even if you don’t know the full answer, make sure that you attempt it.

The final point, do not answer the difficult questions first, finish the easy ones, and then embark on the difficult ones.  Make sure to stick to the time and only spend the same amount of minutes to each question (if a question is 10 marks in a three hour paper, then spend 18 minutes on it and so on).

Have fun at your finals, remember, on the night of the exam, watch a movie or read a book, never study on the day of the exam, and never discuss what you have with anyone. Confusion will arise and it may harm more than benefit.

Good Luck