It’s unavoidable. Exams follow teaching as surely as night follows day. Educational authorities at all levels have tried many ways to test whether their students have actually absorbed what their teachers and lecturers told them – things like face-to-face interviews, assignments, group activities and the like.
But there’s no more certain, universal and “controlled” method of working this out than getting students to sit back at a desk for a restricted period and respond in writing to pre-set questions without being able to reference notes or any other memory aid. This is an event many people would rather to accomplish without but in the course of time, in one situation or another, each of us will need to do it if we are to achieve anything.
In its crudest essence, an exam is simply a memory test. Sure, you can find various different kinds of exams but they all require the student to keep in mind things Jamb expo. Like, a history exam usually involves remembering historical dates and characters; an engineering or business exam often involves remembering formula and how they are applied. Even a composition requires that you remember how to really write one or something more physical, just like a driving test, requires that you remember how to utilize what you had been taught.
So how can we get our memory to benefit us when need to do an exam? I believe there are lots of methods, but one that has worked well for me personally lots of times (I have done plenty of exams) could be the One-Page Memory-Jogger. It sounds crude and simple and it really is – and it doesn’t take that much time, but there’s a little bit of science behind it. Allow me to explain the steps:
Step 1 – Get your notes together. This is pretty self-evident. Most courses have some written notes, often ones you have written yourself. Buy them into the same chronological order as these were taught, if possible. Many of these notes might be messy and parts might be missing, so you might need to fill in the blanks one way or the other to create as complete a collection as you can.
Step 2 – Get the key points sorted. Choose the key things you have to keep in mind and write them out as “headlines.” This might take some effort and practice. Like, there isn’t much point remembering a mathematical equation if you can’t remember how to utilize it, so you might need to accomplish a number of examples to obtain the technique right and then write down the items you have to keep in mind about that.
Step 3 – Get the key points onto one A4 page. Sounds impossible, but trust in me, it can be done and it’s worth the effort. You may need several attempts, but every time you do it, you begin almost subconsciously creating reference connections or “hooks” that your mind uses to jog itself into remembering what those points mean.
Step 4 – Remember that page! Remember every part of the page and write it out once or twice from memory. Making little sentences which includes “jogging” words is certainly one of several simple techniques you should use to keep in mind elements of the page. You can find others that you will find in virtually any simple memory training course in a library. Little rhymes, numbered lists, even pictures can help. And its only 1 page – so you certainly can do it!
Step 5 – Write it out in the Exam. As soon as the exam starts, grab one of many exam pages and write out your “one-pager” on the rear of it. In the event that you can’t do it on the exam paper, then write it on something official – anything, provided that it’s not something that seems like you could have brought it in with you. Strangely, you will find that you won’t have to reference it often as you will probably remember the key points anyway.
Additional Tips – Make sure to be sure you actually find and answer all the questions you have to. Sometimes they are on the rear of the exam paper. And read each question carefully so that you understand exactly what they want.
