How to take the exam with flying colors, without putting life on pause

Blogger Robert Bateman I toldAs he received his law degree, while managing to work 40 hours a week to spend time with a small child and exercise. Here are tips and habits that helped him not to go crazy.

1. Go to school and remember the main goal

Attend classes need not only to learn the material - it is you can do on their own. In addition, you still can not remember all heard the first time. Sport - is an opportunity to learn about exams, learn about how things work from the inside. And that's what we must try to do in the first place.

• Find previous examination papers or answer patterns. They will be very useful, because it will help to understand how the issues are usually made. Look at the website of the University. If materials do not, look in the library books with practical tasks.
• Find the approach to teachers. Remember, they almost always want you to have passed the exams successfully. So do not be afraid to ask what you expect. Someone willing to share information that others do not. In any case, you will hear some tips and learn who a favorite subject. It is also worth finding out which books or research papers published your professors. It tells on their main areas of interest.
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• Meet classmates. Even if you do not find friendsIt is necessary to share information and resources. Create a general chat in any instant messenger, where you can discuss the article or to find out what you missed.
• Do not start homework, even if they do not make for assessment. You need to create a good reputation among the teachers. Be those who aspire to knowledge and learning with pleasure.

2. Organize the learning process

Make notes on hand

So you get used to it in advance, because the answers to the exam, will likely have to also write the most ordinary ballpoint pen. In addition, since the information is better remembered. According to studiesThe Pen Is Mightier Than the KeyboardThose who took notes on a laptop, worse answer theoretical questions.

From hand to write more slowly, which means that you will have to restate information and record only the most important. Highlight the main colored markers and be sure to write down everything that comes to exams.

To be honest, I barely leafed through his notes. But I scanned them and uploaded to Evernote, and then often turn to them. Without this application, I probably would have gone mad.

Robert Bateman

Find a handy app to organize the records and do not forget to add them to it.

Gather as much information as possible

Keep useful articles, memos, photos, and add tags to them. So you will easily find the right, repeating a topic. Even if in the end will be useful, not all the material collected, the benefit will still be.

For example, use a tag system:

• Common object.
• Specific topic within the subject.
• type of document.

If there is a chance that the recording will get extra score on the exam, do not feel sorry for 10-20 seconds for it to add it to the desired tag.

3. Begin preparations as early as possible, but do not forget about the rest

Memorizing everything at the last minute, and you do not get a good grade, and do harm to health. much more useful store information gradually, taking breaks.

Scientists have proven that spending experimentTracing the Trajectory of Skill Learning With a Very Large Sample of Online Game Players. More than 850 thousand participants learned to play in an online game. Researchers analyzed two different approaches to learning, one group practiced 10 times with a daily break in the middle, and the second - 15 times without a break. The results of both groups were similar. Extra time to practice has been wasted.

In preparation for the exams, my classmates were having coffee at three o'clock in the morning and never left their records. I prepared as usual, for an hour or two a day, as he had been three months before.

Robert Bateman

This approach does not work because you are less nervous in the process, but also because of sleep. At the stage of non-REM sleep the brain consolidates memories. So the dream - as the "Save" button to received information the day. If you are nervous before the exam and not getting enough sleep, you will cope with the tasks significantly worseThe human emotional brain without sleep - a prefrontal amygdala disconnect.

4. Develop a training plan

Every thing seems immense, until you begin to lay out everything on the shelves. Imagine it as a few courses or modules, in which there are threads. Some of them are important, some overlap in the different modules.

As soon as possible to find out exactly when will the exam, at least in any month. And then develop for themselves the curriculum. Like this:

1. Count the number of days prior to the exam.
2. Determine how many items you need to prepare.
3. Select to start a few days on each module to collect information on specific topics.
4. Divide the remaining days to the number of topics. Do not forget to include in this schedule weekend.
5. Not delve only interesting items. Also, concentrate on what you are given bad.

5. Get daily

Decide when and where you are going to do. And get down to business until it had time to talk yourself out.

I worked as riding on the bus. This is where some 60% of all my self-study. I go for a long time, so I immediately switch the notebook and began to teach. I was listening to music without words or white noise to less distracted by what is happening around. It is also helped pass the road.

When you have routineYou do not need to think about motivation. There is no need to sit and wait for her to appear. You know what to do - remains just start.

Robert Bateman

6. Practice, but do it correctly

Passing the exam - a skill that can be trained. Many times to re-read materials, trying to memorize them - a waste of time. According to researchersRecall for words as a function of semantic, graphic, and syntactic orienting tasksSuch attempt does not bring results. To really something to remember, we must deeply reflect on and understand the subject. Forget about the cards with definitions and dates. Train to take exams.

I knew that my exams will last for three hours and each will be three questions with detailed answers. I wondered what could be about issues and began to train to respond to them. At first, he wrote on a laptop, looking at his notes and without limiting the time. With the approaching exams, I began to write by hand. Then I stopped to peep in the notes. Then he began to note the time.

On the day I did not write more than one essay. Matter what question you need to answer depended on what exactly I was reading that day. By the beginning of exams, I basically learned many texts. I could compose essays for different parts of the desired response. So I remember a lot of information. For each of the four exams studied on four themes. For each topic, I remember the name of at least twenty court cases passing year and the basic principle, and often even the names of judges and quotes from sentences.

I'm not a genius. When I was in school, I had a rather mediocre scores. Now I know that at that time did not like this:

• Approach to learning disorganized.
• I taught everything at the last moment.
• Not trained to take exams.

When I I changed these habitsThen I began to learn perfectly well, and yet I had enough time to rest of his life.