“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.”
This quote is actually from The Little Engine That Could, but it’s also a great mindset to have in the lead-up to an exam. Let’s be honest: exams can be daunting, frustrating and stressful. But more than that, the build-up is often even worse.
As forward-planning creatures, it’s in our nature to think or worry about upcoming exams, and what might happen. If you’re anything like me, you’ll think about the best and worst possible situations, and how those situations might impact you and your results.
But both you and I know that that’s not overly productive.
Luckily, the days before an exam actually can be very productive, and can be used in pragmatic ways. In this article, we’ve included just a few ideas of how you can use that time effectively.
Efficient study
It’s two days before your exam. You have a full mock exam next to you, but ain’t nobody got time for that.* What you’re looking for are smart, efficient ways of consolidating information and preparing for your exam and, for me, these study techniques were some of the best ways to walk into the exam feeling confident.
For content-heavy subjects:
I was a huge fan of summaries.
With those summaries, I would get other people to test me verbally. I found that if I could explain things in speech, there was a good chance I could do likewise in writing. Try to keep speaking as long as you can – link the content you’re discussing to other parts of the course.
In the days before my exams, I also made conceptual mindmaps. This allowed me to really consolidate how different elements of the course interlinked, which is useful when drawing connections in an exam scenario.
For English subjects:
If you don’t feel like writing full essays (totally understandable), try doing them in dot point form. That is, go through a bunch of essay topics, and simply dot point out what you would write about. One dot point per paragraph.
If required to remember quotes, work through your quote list to try to commit them to memory. If you’re struggling, just work on the first few words of each – this will, hopefully, provide some sort of cue to help you remember the rest.
Read through previous essays to see how you could improve them. You could even try to re-write a paragraph or two to really firm up your technique.
For maths subjects:
Honestly, I don’t think much beats practice questions for math subjects. But I would be strategic about the ones you focus on – there’s not that much point going over old ground with things you’re already super confident on.
If you haven’t already, make sure your reference book is up to scratch – and actually useful. Work out how you’ll interact with it, and make it easy on yourself for the actual exam in terms of finding relevant information.
Lastly, you can also try going over past tests and mock exams to see what mistakes you’ve made in the past. Be really clear about how to approach those types of questions – you might even like to include them in your summary book.
*Some people might like doing full practice exams shortly before their final exam, and that’s cool. There’s no right or wrong here.
Focus on your weakest areas
As above, there’s not much point going through a million practice questions when you know that you’re totally all over the content already. Sure, it can be a nice little confidence boost, but how well are you using that time, really?
Going through what you don’t know as well can be a little overwhelming, but remember: this is your last chance to really brush up your skills. After this exam, chances are you’ll never have to bother yourself with the content again.
If you have access to your teachers, confer with them about things you don’t know – or, of course, ask any questions you have about any subject on the ATAR Notes Forums. An unasked question is simply wasted potential, and you really don’t want to walk out of the exam thinking, “bummer – I knew I should have asked about that.”
Get outside and smell the roses
Everything so far has been about academic stuff, but a few days is actually a really long time, and it’s just not realistic for you to be studying non-stop. And it’s not that productive, either!
Trying to cram every night and pulling all-nighters might feel like you’re doing good things, but in reality, you’re probably just giving yourself a smaller chance of doing well on the exam. Remember: your exam won’t be sat at 3am, so it doesn’t make a heap of sense for you to be studying at that time.
When you can, go for a walk, enjoy the weather, and smell the roses. Try to acknowledge that exams aren’t the absolute end of the world, and there are other things going on in life. If you can get away from it all for a while, chances are your study when you do go back to it will be more productive, and that’s a good thing.
Stop your study at a reasonable time
This is something to work toward in general, of course, but particularly the night or two prior to your exam. There becomes a point where studying just won’t be useful any longer, and realistically the only thing you can do is stress yourself out before the exam.
When exactly that point is is subjective, and a personal thing, but go with your gut and trust the idea that your preparation has been sufficient. For me, I didn’t study at all the night before an exam, and particularly not the morning of an exam (if the exam was in the morning; if in the afternoon, I’d usually just passively flick over some notes to keep myself busy).
Organise your exam day
And, finally, if you want to feel productive but don’t really want to study, there are other things you can do. Make sure you’re organised logistically. How are you going to get to the exam? What time? Do you have your student ID? A water bottle? Your pens?
Thinking about this stuff prior to the night before can reduce stress, and it can also get you in a good frame of mind for the exam. I called this my “exam zone”. The last thing you want to happen on exam day is to realise the batteries on your calculator have run out, or you have no pens that work!
Exams are coming, but know that soon, they will be over. You can do this, and we believe in you! 👊
