One of the most effective ways to prepare for an exam is to take an exam. That may seem like an obvious premise but it is something that most people do not do. Nor do people want to prepare in this manner. It is anxiety provoking. Furthermore, it is intentional stressful and most people will shy away from that kind of preparation.

The best way to approach this is with a study partner from the class. Have your study partner prepare an exam for you - and you do the same for your study partner. Make it difficult. The task is to find out what you do not know. And you also want to simulate exam conditions. Prepare the exam for an hour and a half. Then actually do the exam in an hour. In sports parlance, it is preparing yourself for “game conditions”.

The preparation of the exam is important. It takes the person out of “student mode”. You are approaching the material from an instructor’s perspective. - What would the professor ask? - By preparing a simulated exam for your study partner, it is reviewing the material based on what an instructor would deem important for the students to know and to examine.

Why you want your study partner to make the exam difficult is that you want to find out what you don’t know. There is absolutely no gain in studying and reviewing material that you already know. It is a poor use of your time. You want to find out your area / areas of weakness, so that you can focus on correcting that deficiency. This means a real critical self examination, which is not pleasant. However, it is excellent preparation. If it is possible to prepare in this manner, the actual exam will seem easy. You will have had someone test you with the most difficult material already and you are prepared. You will be ‘game ready’.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: school, exams, studying, preparation, anxiety, simulation, time