Preparing for Exams

Having identified your distracters, you are now in the position to deal with them. Looking back at your list, try to categorise your distracters into ‘THINGS’ or ‘THOUGHTS’.

(a) Define your own study area and keep it clear.

Remember the example above? The writer couldn’t get round to his task because his attention was drawn to other things lying around. When you settle down to work, only the materials that you need for studying – stationery, files, notes, paper – should be on it. It should be a place with adequate light(ing), and if possible, be near a window with a pleasant view, so that you can rest your eyes every now and then. (Sometimes, good scenery can be inspirational too!)

(b) Keep yourself away from potential attention-stealers.

Put your phone on silent mode (don’t even think of sms-ing!), and stay away from the computer if you get tend to get distracted with thoughts of surfing the Internet, playing computer games, or checking email every 10 minutes. If yours is a laptop, keep it in its case, making it as inconvenient as possible for you to set up. If watching television is a temptation, get your family member or housemate to hide the remote-control from you until you take a break.

To deal with distracting THOUGHTS, you can do the following:

(a) Get interested, make it personal.

If you find a particular subject boring, you are not likely to get very far in your studying, because your mind will naturally want to stray to more ‘pleasant’ thoughts. Get interested in your courses, find ways to make the content personally meaningful to you, e.g., relate it to real life, think about how you would like to use this knowledge in future.

(b) Think positive.

You might be distracted by negative thoughts, such as anxiety about not doing well, the difficulty of the subject, or your seeming lack of academic skill in facing exams.
If this is true for you, remember this: Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do (John Wooden). Focus on your strengths. Find out what you can do to prepare for the subject in the best way possible, and prepare yourself to do what is necessary. For more information on how you can study effectively, refer to the section on study strategies.

(c) Make a list of 'THINGS TO DO LATER'.

Going back again to the example above, the writer was distracted by the many other things he had to do as well. As your study time progresses and you find yourself thinking of things you need/want to do later, jot them down. Keep this piece of paper accessible to you, but don’t focus on it; complete your study session first.

b. Time-management or self-management?

Ever heard the saying, “Manage your time, or it will manage you”? This is true. On the other hand, you can’t really manage time, because it is at no one’s command – everyone has 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week. So, you can only manage yourself around the time.

With regards to exam preparation, here are some important considerations:

Plan in small blocks

o E.g., plan hourly blocks. You will only be able to really concentrate for a maximum of 45 minutes, so plan a 15-minute break after that. (But remember: 45/15, not 15/45!)

Plan with precision

o Indicate exactly what you plan to achieve within that time.

o Example of planning without precision:

-“Psychology” 2-4pm;
- “Biology” 5-7pm.

o Example of planning with precision:

-“Psychology (Cognition) – Chapter 5: Imagery processing”;
- “Biology (Gene expression) – Chapter 10: prokaryotic transcription”

Plan with the end in mind

o Start from your goal. Check your exam timetable (also available on your department’s website), and work backward from there. In the run-up to the exam, set specific targets to complete by each week.

- Need a weekly planner?

o Break your study into bite-sized tasks which are more manageable; in this way you would have accomplished something tangible by the end of the time-limit.

- E.g. LAW: Write outline for sample examination question for Intellectual Property Law (Patent Infringement).

Plan with your strengths in mind

o When are you the most productive, or at your mental best – morning, afternoon, or night? Use these times to study your more difficult subjects. Use your down-times to do more mechanical tasks, such as laundry, cooking, or grocery shopping (but don’t get carried away!).

o You probably would not need to divide your time equally between all your subjects. In deciding how much time you want to allocate for each subject, consider the following:

- Amount of study you have done during the semester;
- How difficult you perceive the subject to be;
- Weightage of the exam;
- How well you hope to do in it.

o Get started with a blank daily planner!

Plan with flexibility

o This might seem contradictory to the point above, but what it means is that you shouldn’t plan a time-table that’s so packed, that it leaves you with no buffer time to perform everyday activities (you still need to eat, rest, travel, and take showers!) and to deal with unforeseen emergencies.

o Think of your schedule as the means to an end, not an end in itself. Some students prefer to operate on a more ‘elastic’ time-schedule, as they feel unable to commit themselves to hourly blocks. If this describes you, then what you can do is to set yourself specific, attainable task-goals for the day, and monitor your progress along the way. Write down your task-goals the night before, and keep them in front of you all the time. Check that you are on target.

Reward yourself!

o After you have accomplished each of the tasks you have set out to do, give yourself a break – go for a walk, watch some television, or catch up with your friend.

c. Balancing lessons and projects/assignments with exam preparation

Some tips: (Refer also to the previous section on Time Management)

• Don’t panic. Take it as a learning experience – being able to multi-task is a crucial life-skill which you will need to rely on increasingly as your responsibilities grow in future.

• Break down the assignment/project into smaller tasks. What are the steps you need to accomplish to achieve the final product? E.g. library research, laboratory work, discussion with group members, completion of first draft, completion of final draft.

o Plan backwards. When is the assignment/project due? By when do you need to complete your first draft?
o Decide on the time-frame you will need for each task. If lessons are still going on as usual, you will need to take that into account as well. Be realistic in your plan, otherwise you will be discouraged if you cannot achieve what you had planned.

• Now look at your class time-table and your exam time-table.

o Lay out your exam schedule in chronological order. This makes it easier for you to see when you need to finish preparing for each paper.
o Make full use of your time between lessons. If you are tired from lessons, schedule to do something less mentally demanding, such as picking up required material from the library for your project. Getting together with a study group during these times can also be productive; you will at least be more motivated to discuss the topic, and reinforce what you have learned, or identify areas that need more work.

• Use a daily planner to plan out when you will complete each step of the project/assignment.