The unfortunate trend over the last decades of reducing the number of internal and external examinations for students prior to their final matriculation exams is most upsetting to me because it does not allow students to evaluate their goals, their action plans or their results.
Too often, the first exams are their last and their one chance does not go to plan. For this reason, I absolutely recommend as many examinations (for practice) before the final exams at the end of the year. This also applies to examinations in years 6 through to 12. Simply said, without practice, a student can not be expected to perform to their maximum abilities.
However, there are methods and techniques that will help the student do well in examinations.
For this reason, I stress that parents or students should purchase a copy of How to Pass Exams Easily from schooldays (look for details at the foot of this article).
Let me discuss briefly what can the student do now. The reality is that if students are halfway through the school year and understands that things are more difficult than they expected them to be and they are starting to panic, then this is what I suggest.
Read the book How to Pass Exams Easily to understand what a good study technique is. It will be hard for them to catch up, but it will be possible if they start now. In this case I am talking about how to learn more information, more easily and how to retain that information for the exam.
In the same book to find out how they can do the best they can do in any exam with the available information that they have learnt. In this case, I am talking about how to do the best they can in the exam with the knowledge they have. This is different to the situation I mentioned above.
Finally, they should understand that there are things they can not control.
A student can regulate the amount of information they take in and they can control some of the variables in the examination room. However, there are issues that are beyond their control, the fact is, once they are in the exam room, there is nothing more that they can do.
The student can not study any more, and there are only so many exam techniques that they can use. So the best thing a student can do is realise is that where factors apply to them that they can not control; they should relax and simply do the best they can do.
There is nothing to be gained by worrying about things they can not control, in fact it will be totally counterproductive. Furthermore, if they have done the work required, then their best will generally be enough (“all you can do is all you can do, and all you can do is enough”).
At some stage they have to relax, let go and let it happen. This is much more easily done if they have studied hard and to their maximum ability. If they are also comfortable that they know all the exam tricks possible, then a student can definitely be in a better position to relax and know that if they remain calm and steadily work through the exam paper, then their results should be more than adequate.
And if they are not, then there is nothing they can do about it anyway.
So when it comes to exam time, students should follow the old saying; “Do your best!”
About the author:
Dr Dale Gerke completed over 21 years of school and university education and in that time, had both success and failure with exams. Initially Dale found studying for exams difficult and the consequent results reflected that. After two years at university, Dale developed anexam technique that completely revolutionised the appropriate study approach. Dale’s subsequent results were generally credit and distinction ratings (and certainly no more failures).
His book, How to Pass Exams Easily – by Working Smarter not Harder, available on the schooldays bookshop, outlines the study and exam techniques that Dale developed and explains how you can also pass exams easily.
|