EXAM STRATEGIES

One of the inevitabilities of university life is the examination. It is your opportunity to demonstrate your new knowledge and to reap the rewards.

There are two requirements for success. The first is knowing the content; the second, demonstrating that knowledge. Systematic use of these learning steps will not only insure learning, but it will also eliminate one of the most important causes of exam panic: the uncertainty concerning one's preparation. That is, it is necessary not only to know the course--but to know that you know it. The self- testing provided by recitation and review is a rehearsal of the final act. It provides proof of preparation and a shield against panic.

Demonstrating one's knowledge is another problem. According to students, their primary difficulties are "clutching" (exam panic) and having too many answers occur to them after they turn in their examination papers.

You need not resort to tranquilizers to conquer panic. Rather, follow these steps:

1. Carry your notebook to the exam but don't open it. It provides a feeling of security (because you could check a question if you really had to--before the test, of course), and your ability to avoid looking in it increases your feeling of confidence.
2. Panic is contagious. Stay away from the source of contagion--other students. Don't answer questions; if you do, those answers may become temporarily unavailable when you need them. Their probability of occurance once may be high enough to bring them out on the exam; but to occur twice on demand, the answers may need to be much better known .
3. Admit to yourself that you will not know all the answers. Instead of saying, over and over "I'm afraid I won't know it," say. "Some of it I won't know--and some of it I will." Thus when you read the first question and don't know the answer, you will respond, not with the conclusion that you know nothing, not be clutching, but by saying, "That's the one I don't know." Verbal magic? Perhaps. But it's effective.

Now let's look to the second problem of which students complain, having the answers occur to them after the examination.

1. Don't lump all your studying into one or two great grinding sessions just before the exam. Distribute your review periods rather evenly through the preceding week or so. Then stop studying two days before zero hour. Continual reviewing of the same material during the hours preceding the exam is an effective way to prevent its arousal when you want it. Leave your learning alone. The brain remains active, sorting and reworking after you close the book. Give it time to work for you.
2. Continue your daily habits as usual. Too much sleep or too little, changes in eating habits, attending a movie (because you're told it's a good thing to do before an exam) when you abhor movies--any of these may modify your physiological functioning so that you are "not yourself" during the examination.
3. For the most efficient use of your knowledge, the following procedures should be followed:

   a) the essay exam

   1. Set up a time schedule. If six questions are to be answered in sixty minutes, allow yourself only seven minutes for each. When the time is up for one question, stop writing and begin the next one. There will be 15 or 18 minutes when the last question is completed. The incomplete answers can be completed during that time. Six incomplete answers, by the way, will usually receive more credit than three complete ones.
   2. Read through questions once. Answers will come to mind immediately for some questions. Write down key words, listings, etc., now when they're fresh in your mind. Otherwise, those ideas may be blocked (or be unavailable) when the time comes to write the later questions.
   3. Do the easy question(s) first.
   4. Before attempting to answer a question, put it in your own words. Now compare your version with the original. Do they mean the same thing? If they don't, you've misread the question. You'll be surprised how often they don't agree.
   5. Outline the answer before writing. Whether the professor realizes it or not, he is greatly influenced by the compactness, completeness and clarity of an organized answer. To begin writing in the hope that the right answer will somehow turn up is time- consuming and usually futile. To know a little well is, by and large, superior to knowing much and presenting it poorly--when judged by the grade received. Simplify the reading task of the instructor by numbering supporting ideas wherever appropriate.
   6. Take time to write an introduction and summary. The introduction will consist of the main point to be made; the summary is simply a paraphrasing of the introduction. A neat bundle with a beginning and ending is very satisfying to the reader.
   7. Take time at the end to reread the paper. When writing in haste we tend to:
      • misspell words;
      • omit words and parts of words;
      • omit parts of questions;
      • miswrite dates and figures.
   8. Qualify answers when in doubt. It is better to say "Toward the end of the 19th century" than to say "In 1884" when you can't remember whether it's 1884 or 1894. When possible, avoid very definite statements. A qualified statement connotes an appreciation of the tentative nature of our knowledge.

   b) the objective or short answer exam

   1. Read through once, answering the obvious questions. For the more difficult, write your first reaction in the margin and circle the number (to insure finding the item later). As you go through the questions, later items will be found useful in answerinq early ones.
   2. Don't think too hard about the choices. You can make a case for almost any choice if you try. These are recognition type questions. The answers should be apparent.
   3. Don't be a "head-banger." If you think your professor wants you to choose c, then choose it. Don't say, "Well, b is just as good and I can prove it to him." An exam is not an appropriate battle ground for working out this kind of thing.
   4. Be daring. Research shows that the cautious person is penalized by answering only those questions of which he is very sure. Unless there is a sizeable penalty for wrong answers, it's best to guess. Seldom will your guesses be blind. Rather they tend to be based on partial information, some of it unverbalized.
   5. In multiple choice items, the alternative which differs most in length from the others tends to be correct. The test maker requires qualifying words usually and sometimes to make choices correct and others like always and never to make choices incorrect. Therefore, the correct item tends to be either longer or shorter than the others.

Successful grades require knowing it and showing it.

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