How to Properly Prepare for Exams

By Arya

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Learning to prepare for exams is one of the most difficult tasks for students. Students have to dedicate themselves to understanding the topics of the exam, which if not done well results in bad scores. Personally, it has taken me years to figure out how to properly and efficiently study for exams to see the results I want to see. 

There are many ways to learn to prepare for an exam effectively, such as:

1. Plan out a study plan before starting any exam preparation. 
2. Figure out what topics you are stronger and weaker in.
3. Read over topics and take notes, or make flashcards if you know that works better for you.
4. Do a lot of practice problems.
5. Don’t study in a place you are comfortable in.
6. Watch videos on the topics you need more help on.
7. Don’t have your phone or any other distractions easily accessible. 
8. Make sure to take short breaks.

Personally, I never had to study before high school. During both elementary school and middle school, I was able to get away without studying for any exams — school came easy to me. However, that all changed when I began high school. 

The workload, the content and the exams were a whole other level than what I was used to. This was a bit of a slap in the face to me, as school was never something I worried about too much. I was taking AP (Advanced Placement) Biology, in my first year of high school. This was the first college-level class I had ever taken, and I didn’t realize how much work and effort I needed to put into the class. I very quickly realized that I needed to learn how to study, which is kind of ironic — the fact that I needed to learn how to study.

Learning to study was a long journey. At first, I would just read over my notes, which was completely useless and did not help me learn at all. I realized that I needed to practice more and that I needed to take notes on the topics I was learning about. When I began to do this, I realized my exam scores began to rise. From there, I began to learn how to study — by watching videos, making a plan to start studying days before the exam, taking notes, and doing a lot of practice problems. 

Over my two and a half years of high school, I have finally learned how to study correctly!

Over the years, I have researched many ways to study more effectively, but not all of them will work for everyone — find what works for you. For me, only certain things work like:

• Making a study plan before starting any exam preparation. 
• Figuring out what topics you are stronger and weaker in and building my way up to the ones I am weaker in.
• Reading over topics and taking notes.
• Doing a lot of practice problems.
• Not studying in my room.
• Watching videos on the topics I need more help on.
• Keeping my phone in another room while studying.

I would encourage everyone to try out different methods of studying to figure out what works best for you! Preparing for exams requires the skill of time management. You can fit in everything if you space out your time and get things done on schedule. Depending on the last day before the exam to prepare is not going to work, due to the practice, repetition, and time our brain needs to learn. The last day is solely meant for revision and going through the major topics once again. And the most important thing before an exam is to have a good night of sleep so that your mind is fresh and energetic on the day of the exam.

• https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/top-10-tips-study-smarter-not-longer-study-skills (extra study tips)​
• https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/studying-101-study-smarter-not-harder/ (studying 101)