The worst “brilliant” idea you can come up with is to leave studying to the last minute. That is where test day jitters get to you and you become anxious about writing a test or exams. With final year exams coming up, it is vitally important to go there well prepared and ace your exam. Trying to cram your work has proven time and again that it causes more anxiety and stress during the exam and the best way to avoid this is planning.
Becoming anxious or stressed is a normal part of the exam day process but there are some strategies you can implement so that the stress you experience does not overtake you to the point where you forget what you have studied and become panicked during the exam. Here are some tips on how to gain control of your anxiety.
- Give yourself enough time to study. Most/ if not all schools give you the exam time table well in advance. Use that to space out when you will study which subject and how much time you will allocate for each subject. You may decide to study the least difficult subject first which might motivate you to tackle the more difficult subjects. Or you might choose to study the one that is most difficult so that you end off with what you enjoy or find easier. There really is no order to what subject must be prioritized first, but the most important thing is to allocate enough time for each subject.
- Make use of our past papers online. This can help to give you an idea of the type of questions you will be presented with at the end of your exam. Familiarizing yourself with the material can be the difference between a pass and a fail, or a B to an A! You can access these papers from insert past papers link form El Roi
- Speak/explain concepts to yourself or others. It has been said that when you explain concepts to yourself or to others, you better understand what is written. You might even find that your oral explanation of a certain concept does not make sense when spoken allowed. That is when you realize you will have to go back and revise that concept until it makes sense to you. If you are interested in studying in a group, this could also be a chance for you to do that, where you learn from each other and explain different concepts to one another.
- Include all your senses when studying. Reading your work is not enough to understand your work. You need to map, draw diagrams, make connections, draw pictures, and visualize what you are studying so that it makes sense to you. This will also need some discernment as to which subjects you will use mind mapping on and so forth. Not all subjects use the same methods of studying. For example, in Math, you won’t necessarily draw pictures to understand the work. It is more concepts practicing methods to get to a precise answer.
- Take breaks. Just as classes are set up so that there are breaks in between, you still need to take breaks in between so that you can be effective while you are studying. Taking a break allows your brain to process the information that you have learnt. It also helps transfer information from the short term memory into the long term memory where it will be stored for future use
For all our students, we would like to wish them all the best for the upcoming exams. Also remember that at Elroi Academy has willing counselors who are always happy to help and give you assistance during this time of exams. There really is no shortcut to success. The only way to ensure you do your work diligently is to be disciplined in studying and you will achieve the marks.
