The All instance Top Ten Study Tips For Success In Tests And Exams

by: Michael Tipper
There comes a day in every student’s life when those things that you dread start to loom on the horizon. Depending upon how confident you are about them, your horizon will either be measured in months, or perhaps days. What am I talking about? Of course I mean examinations. You may be about to go into mid term mock examinations or you could be facing your final tests.

Whatever your situation and whenever you are going to be sat in an examination room it is never too early to start getting ready for those tests. Thorough preparation will supply you with a strong foundation and will give you the confidence and belief that you can do them and that you will get the grades you want.

But where do you start and which of the hundreds of study tips and study skill ideas do you use?

I am often asked for my top ten tips when it comes to exam success and by the years I have accumulated many ideas, some of which are more effective than others. However whether I were to limit myself to just the top 10 that I felt were the most forceful based on all of the work I have done in that field, here are the ones that I think are the most compelling:

1. Find your own deep and compelling reason to successfully learn your subject and pass your exams.

   This really is the most fundamental of the study tips I shall share with you here considering your success will be deeply rooted in your motivation to learn. Many kids at school do not want to be there and can’t be bothered to try which is often why they fail. It does not mean that they are unable to learn, it just means that they have not applied themselves to the work at hand. I know that that is often true considering I have met literally hundreds of humans who “failed” at school by conventional standards yet later in life made the decision to go back to studying a subject considering they wanted to do it. And considering of their motivation to succeed the did.

   So what does that mean to you? Well understand that you are driven by emotional needs and not necessarily logical ones. whether we were driven by logic, the world would be a much better place. So you have to find a deep emotional reason for achieving success as a student. And whether you can dig deep and find that reason next nothing will stop you considering you will find a way.

2. Plan your moment to include study, revision and social commitments - a balance of having fun, taking breaks and studying is vital.

   Balance is very fundamental to have a successful and rewarding life and the same is true when you are a student. OK you could spend every waking hour reading every book you could find and learning everything you could and yes you would pass your exams provided you had not burnt out. But it would not be fun, you would have no friends and you would definitely be out of balance.

   Taking appropriate breaks and giving yourself little rewards when you have finished an essay or learnt something new for your exams is vital for your success. that is considering it keeps you in balance and gives you a degree of variety that keeps you fresh and wired. Yes having a night out with your friends is good for you - but only whether it is as a reward for doing good work and is as part of your overall plan.

3. Use multi-coloured Mind Maps for your notes.

   My friend and mentor Tony Buzan developed the most effective thinking tool ever (and I am not exaggerating here) when he invented the Mind Map. Imagine being able to get the key facts from an entire book on a singled-out page in a way that was not only easy to remember but would stay in your memory for as faraway as you wanted it.

   Imagine having a thinking tool that allowed you to prepare essays and assignments in a fraction of the instance than you do at the moment AND have them much better. Imagine being able to give a compelling hour lengthy presentation from a individual page of colourful notes that you put together in about 10 minutes.

   Well all these are possible with the Mind Map. It is an amazing tool that combines the ability of organization, the fact that we have a very strong visual processing mechanism and that it combines right and left brain processing.

   I have seen what Mind Maps can do for students of all ages and all abilities and whether I had my way it would be a compulsory tool taught to kids from a very young age.

4. Review your notes regularly to reinforce your new-found knowledge.

   This is another very simple but extremely compelling tip for you. The experience of most students is that the learning that takes place in the classroom is really an knowledge gathering exercise. When it comes to revising for their exams at the end of the year they go to their notes and often can’t remember ever seeing that knowledge before. They know they must have considering the notes are in their handwriting but they can’t remember anything! So the preparation for exams becomes a re-learning exercise.

   This study tip is so simple and dominant yet most will not bother. whether at the end of every day, every week and every month you quickly scanned what you have learnt, made a few key word notes and thereupon reviewed those ultra-condensed notes regularly, you would be

   amazed at how much you could remember. that only need take 10 minutes at the end of the day, half an hour at the end of the week and perhaps an hour or two at the end of the month.

   Each instance you review what you have learnt, even in condensed key word format, it is more deeply engrained in your memory.

5. Swiftly skim through your text books and course material before you read them in depth to give you an overview of your subject.

   Now there is not ample space here to explain why that tip is fundamental considering it is a fundamental part of learning how to read faster and absorb more info. Just trust me on that one and before you start reading, skim through your book (no more than 10 minutes) to get a feel for the contents.

   As you read in greater depth later on, some of what you have got from the quick scan will help put into context that knowledge and allow you to form the essential hyperlinks in your mind and memory.

   Doing that will often stop you from getting stuck at any point considering you will have a flavour of what is to come later in the book and that added preview can help the understanding of earlier info.

6. Learn how to remember lists of things by linking each item to a location on a journey or route you are familiar with around your town. You could even use your own home.

   At some point, once you have understood your subject, you will need to be able to memorise it. Many citizens think that just understanding it is suitable to learn it but unfortunately that is not the case and so some memorization is essential.

   The most dominant way of doing that is to create a “filing system” in your mind. One way to do that is to create a little journey in your imagination (it can be a real place or you can assemble it up). See for example the chair, the bed, the TV, the door and the window in your bedroom. whether you wanted to remember a sequence of items you would link an outrageous (and therefore memorable) picture to each location.

   To recall the info, simply revisit the journey in your own mind and “see” the data in the foolish pictures you have created.

7. Before you do any revision, warm up by doing some gentle exercise to relieve any tension in your body and to get a rush of healthy oxygen flowing to your brain.

   There is a saying - “a healthy body, a healthy mind” - and nowhere is that more true than when it comes to learning. Two things happen when you physically warm up before studying. First of all you get rid of any physical tension that will create stress in the body and mind (not good for learning) and secondly you will get a rush of oxygen to the brain which will help you think more clearly (definitely good for learning).

8. Do past papers under thorough exam conditions as often as possible to familiarise yourself with the format and the pressures of working under exam conditions.

   If you are training in a sport or practicing a musical instrument, you will practice the plays or rehearse the pieces for the big day. It would not produce sense to spend months doing push ups and next turn up on the big day and expect to play soccer really well. It would plus be unwise to only practice scales on your instrument and soon after when the big performance comes up expect a perfect recital.

   So the same is true of exams. Fortunately these days you can get hold of past exam papers from previous years. Do these, under the same exam conditions, by and by again so that when the big day comes you will have exam experience under your belt.

   Doing that will give you more confidence, much better exam techniqe and an insight into how the examiners for your subject think. Remember practice makes perfect.

9. In an exam, build certain you read the question completely and fully understand what the examiner wants before you allocate your date and start answering the questions.

   This is commonsense but you would be amazed at how many citizens do not do that. Take your date, plan what you are going to write and soon after write it.

10. If you are faced with a mental block breathe deeply, relax and ask yourself “If I did know the reply to that question, what would it be?”

    This might sound foolish but whether you do it with a positive expectation that your very energetic subconcious will give you the reply, next you will be amazed at what comes to mind. The combination of the breathing, relaxation and expectation is the key. Of course you have had to have done the preparation beforehand considering that won’t work with knowledge that you have not previously learnt or covered in class.

So there you have my top 10 tips. Each are very compelling and just doing one of them will construct a big difference to your success…but whether you do all 10…Wow!

Good luck and please do let me know how these work for you.
About The Author

Michael Tipper makes it very easy to be highly effective at learning and passing exams in a way that any student can easily achieve. To receive your free 7 day mini-course on being a highly effective student visit http://www.the77habits.com

himself@michaeltipper.com

[Source] Bapake Adhe & Dika