Advice on Examinations. Review on Tips on Examinations

Let’s take a teenager. We will name him Ybbat. At the moment he is pacing around his room frantically, book in hand. Ybbat is muttering important facts and equations to himself. The

time is past midnight, but Ybbat still has a lot to learn. Why you ask? Because he was outside watching a movie and forgot his revision for exams. Oh! I hear you say. But the question is, Will Ybbat manage to get a good grade for his exams?. It’s hard to say. But if you want a good grade, and presuming you are still in school or college, then maybe you should read the review. Oh yeah - and one thing. Don’t fall for those books that tell you all of this stuff for $39 or some sum like that. Just read my review instead. And all you have to do is rate and comment.

P.S. Sorry if you were annoying by my style of writing, and thought that I was giving you a lesson. My apologies.

:: Revise months before ::

Yes, revise months before the exams start. No, I am not crazy. What I mean to say is that once you have finished a topic, then you should revise all of it again. For example, if you have finished the tedious History topic titled ’Paul Revere’s Ride’, then my advice is to, in your free time, instead of watching Shah Rukh Khan stuttering in the cinema or rolling a black ball with three holes in it down a lane to knock down some pins, read the subject and try to remember the tale of Paul Revere, who rode on a horse from one place to another while shouting until his throat was hoarse.

Likewise, if there is anything at all that you do not understand, don’t wait until the end-of-term or end-of-semester exams to clarify your doubts. If you are having trouble grasping the subject of how a V-shaped valley is formed, then go to your teacher, or a sibling, or a parent, or a tuition teacher, or a dog - Oh... maybe not a dog. But the fact is that you should know every bit about how the sides are worn away, crumbles, and the end result is two steep sides that form to make a valley.

:: Pay attention in class ::

This applies to every day, every class. I mean, you are not likely to get good grades in Science if, while the teacher was explaining about white light, you were concentrating on text-messaging your best friend silently. When you will have the test, then you will think that the teacher didn’t teach this, and then remember that you were text-messaging your best friend silently and didn’t hear what the teacher was saying.

:: Revise well ::

Teachers are not stupid. They are smart, sometimes too much. You see, they test you to find out if you have revised well. Revising well means looking at every small detail, and not just reading the main parts and skimming through the pages because you wanted to take part in the cricket game outside. So, if a teacher throws in a question which was written about in the textbook, but your eyes never fell upon it, it will be a tip-of-the-tongue moment. I also believe that you cannot revise everything in an hour, because, as the famous saying goes, ’Rome was not built in an hour’.

An excellent way to revise is to have a sibling/parent prepare a test for you, which will be taken in exam conditions. For this, it is not allowed to prepare the test yourself, because even if you don’t want to, you will be throwing in questions that you think are easy, and then the exam will be something like taking an exam which has been leaked and sent to you.

:: Nothing should Disturb you... ::

For this, strategetically place your revision timings. For instance, if you are planning to revise for five hours at the most, then don’t start revision at 3.00 pm if the time you have lunch is 3.45 pm. Ideally, you can revise in the time between breakfast and lunch, and then if you want a great grade between lunch and dinner, and if you still aren’t satisfied you could spend some time at night making a last run-over, although you should sleep early.

:: Sleep early ::

If you sleep for less than five hours, you will be horribly groggy when you go to take your examination. But make sure that you do get some sleep. If you do not sleep, then it will be worse. I won’t go into details here, but the facts are that you will not be able to take the exam.

:: Last Tips ::

If you have prepared well and are sure of this, then you should be confident of yourself. This doesn’t mean that you shout it out to the world. Just be sure of yourself. And, remember, that cheating doesn’t help. People think up new techniques for cheating, but remember not to participate in any of them. Read your paper carefully, don’t make any careless mistakes. And that’s all I can say on this subject.

This was my advice. Whether to follow it or not, is your choice. Thanks to juggernaut, for Ybbat (you didn’t figure that one out yet?)