As a college student, I have come to learn many things, including how best to prepare for college exams. While I do not guarantee that you will score 100 percent on your exam, if you follow these five college exam-taking tips, you will likely find your work improving. I have followed and found them to be successful.
#1: Prepare Early
If there is one problem that seems to hurt a lot of people when it comes time to take a college exam, it is procrastination. Waiting until the last moment to study the material for an exam can leave a person scrambling, and “cramming” the night may not provide enough time to cover the topics to be tested and also can cause another problem (review Tip #5). Most college instructors give their students days, weeks, and even months of advance notice before mid-term, final, and other important exams come around, so prepare early. Be sure to read all textbook chapters as soon as you can, and review any recommended websites, videos, or other resources. Life has a way of throwing at us unforeseen events—if you get your work done early, you can avoid having your study schedule irreparably sidelined by things for which you simply cannot prepare.
#2: Take Clear Notes
I have seen or otherwise heard of classmates who simply don’t know how to take notes. This proves to be a major stumbling block, because taking clear and concise notes is key to reviewing material (see Tip #3) and understanding and remembering what it is your instructor told you while in class. Everybody has their own style of taking notes, and everyone needs to highlight different points. But some advice you may want to follow includes jotting down only keywords and key phrases, as opposed to writing down everything the instructor said, and listing key aspects the teacher made in a categorized set of clear and organized points. For example, take this theoretical information given to a student by his or her instructor in a lecture about planet earth:
Earth is a planet in the solar system approximately 90 million miles from the sun. More than 70% of earth’s surface is comprised of water, the planet has seven continents, and a northern polar ice cap. There are several regions of active volcanoes and earthquakes, most notably the Pacific rim; the Pacific rim includes the Australia, New Zealand, the entire eastern Asian continent, up north through the Bering Straits, down along the western United States and southward along western Central and South America.
Whew…can you imagine writing all that—verbatim—as the instructor is saying those words? Each of us would probably write these notes differently, because we each would probably feel the need to highlight different things. But why not consider a nice, organized, condensed version of notes akin to the following:
Earth:
Planet in the solar system
About 90 million miles from sun
More than 70% surface area comprised of water
Seven continents
Northern polar ice cap
Regions of active volcanoes and earthquakes
Pacific rim contains many volcanoes and earthquakes; generally runs along and includes land areas facing Pacific
The above example of notes could be considered very clean, simple, organized, and explanatory. Of course, you could tinker with this format so as to be more helpful or convenient for your individual needs, but you can begin to see why it is so important to take notes in such a way so as to minimize the time you are having to write in class, maximize the amount of information you include, and make more efficient the time you spend having to review your notes.
#3: Review the Material
Of course, once you have finished your note-taking and reading, it is important to review the material before the exam. It is always wise to take any self-tests your textbook, instructor, or other resources may offer you, because this can help you diagnose problem areas (those which you need to improve your comprehension of) before the exam. If, for instance, you are about to take a general math studies exam and find yourself getting a number of questions about Venn diagrams wrong, it is probably safe to assume you are going to have similar poor results on the Venn diagram portion of the actual exam. So return to your textbook and review those notes from your instructor’s lecture and take time to re-study all you can about Venn diagrams. Once you have finished this second round of Venn diagram studies, go back and self-test again. Repeat these rounds of studying tough areas until you feel satisfied with your results.
#4: Live the Exam
You are probably asking yourself “what does he mean by ‘live the exam’?” Well, simply, make preparation for the exam a part of your life. Big exams require—and deserve–your complete devotion, because passing them can mean the continuation of your college success. Failing may mean pushing back or even putting out of reach altogether your dream of obtaining your degree. While driving in the car, why not put on a cassette or CD of instructional material pertaining to the topic(s) of your exam? Create flashcards that will help test yourself on the material you are having to learn for the exam. Have friends or family members ask you questions which will prompt you to respond with correct answers, or why not even bend the ear of another on all you can say about the topics you are having to cover; speaking about the things you are learning will help reinforce in your own head all the material you have read or heard.
#5: Get Enough Rest Before the Exam
If there is one thing few of us are getting enough of today, it is sleep. College students are not exempt from needing sleep. Countless studies have indicated getting enough rest every night helps us perform better at what we do (and there are several other health benefits that go along with getting enough sleep, too). Instead of spending the evening before the exam cramming, or pulling one of those “all-nighters,” why not spend the days and weeks before the exam studying and then get into bed early on exam eve and give yourself plenty of sleep so that you are well rested. Ubiquitously, studies show the average adult needs seven to eight hours of sleep per night; individual sleep needs, though, can and do vary.
