Let's put it like this, you've had the entire semester
to learn the work. To waiting until the last minute to
'beat' is how to fail.
You should have kept up with your work each day, reading
over your notes, rewriting them, adding to them, so that
the only book you need for study is your note book.
You should begin "physical training" for exams at least
two weeks before they commence. You have to do serious
physical exercise each day to work up a sweat and energise
your brain.
You want your body in peak physical condition, because it
has a direct effect on your mind.
Sleep a lot during the study period. Take naps,
sleep eight/nine hours a night and meditate.
The exercise you do during the day should help
you sleep.
You can't sleep, get up and exercise. If you get a few
hours sleep, restudy exactly what you've studied before
you went to sleep.
I know it's hard to sleep the night before the exam,
maybe you'll get five hours, which is a lot, considering.
Don't worry about it. Don't pull an all nighter.
During the "beat" period, put in a whole pile of DVD
movies, games, comic books, etc. Use them to divert
after your last meal of the day, or during the day
when you feel like your brain will explode.
Just before going to sleep the night before an exam,
watch a movie to relax your mind.
The morning of the exam, get up, exercise, a good
breakfast, and "talk" your notes to you.
Go to the bathroom even if you think you don't have
to go, get to the exam room on time. Take your seat,
tell yourself it's a piece of cake.
Have a timepiece on your desk.
Answer the easier questions first. Anything you are
unsure about, uncomfortable with, leave, and go back.
BUT READ EACH QUESTION SLOWLY.
Many questions are "trick". They are trick because a word
is in or out, the focus of the question is not what it may
seem on first glance.
Read the question as if it were written in a foreign language
and make sure you are properly defining the words so that you
don't write a book on something that wasn't asked.
Even the easiest questions might have that little "twist".
Find it.
After you've answered the easier questions, go to the posers
and to those on which you can write a thesis. Glance at the
time, divide it per question, stealing five/eight minutes or
so for a "read over".
Answer as clearly and precisely as you can. Many hard
questions can be defined in your answer so that the
examiner knows how you have interpreted the question.
Often, answering "both" sides of the question when you
are not sure is the best method.
If the question is asking X, this is the answer, if the
question is asking Y, this is the answer. Do it in a
dialectic form.
"If the question is X, then......" and after your brilliant
dissection, "However, if the question is Y, then...." so that
you've played both options.
As time diminishes, you should be on your last question,
so you can finish with at least five minutes remaining.
Read over your work, grammar counts, clarity counts.
You may have transposed a date, left out a name or
vital connecting clause.
If you have finished early, great, gives you more time to
proof read. If you are running out of time, keep going until
the final second, stopping midword if you have to.
If you have overrun, your problem is getting words from your
head into prose.
This means you haven't properly "talked" the information
to yourself. You have to talk it, put it in your own words,
so that phrases, terms, roll off your tongue easily.
When the exam is over, go the bathroom. Sit and meditate for
a few minutes. Clear your mind. Wash your face.
Forget about the exam you just took, think about the one you
are about to take.
If you are free for the day, go and lie down for about an
hour or so. Maybe you'll fall asleep. Do some study, then
end your day with another movie.
If you have another exam, talk yourself through it.
You already know how you'll feel in the room, all the
little unknowns that might have concerned you yesterday.
Appreciate if you don't know the information now, after
a semester work of study, you never will.
During the "beat" period, eat healthy. You can't afford
stomach or bowel problems. Menu plan for exam week(s).
Concentrate only on the subject you will be sitting, then,
after the exam, forget it, and move on. No post mortems,
no, "I should have written..." forget it. Move on.
You will survive your exams.
Believe that.
