Exam Success - DOING YOUR BEST

The scene is a clear winters day in November after your Amatsu examinations. The
day you get your results. Youre opening your results slip and a huge grin spreads across
your face because the results are very good. You have worked hard for your exams and
prepared as well as you possibly could. Your results reflect that hard work. Youve done
it!
To guarantee that you turn this picture into one of the happiest days of your life, you
need to optimise your time before and during your exams.
Before you start:
You need a quiet place to revise, with good lighting.
You need all your resources (pens, colours, paper, notes, book) close at hand.
Remove things that present distractions!
You must plan your revision break down each subject into manageable
chunks.
Plan to take breaks and exercise a healthy body is a healthy mind!
Here are some reminders:
1. Highlight key points.

Why not try underlining or colour coding particular pieces of information? A series
of different colour highlighter pens might be useful here. This is a very useful first
step to breaking down long pieces of writing into more usable short lists or
diagrams.
2. Make a Mind Map

Some of you will be more familiar with this than others. A mind map is really a
spider diagram using colour so that each leg of the spider is a different colour.
Research shows that colour can help us remember things so why not try making a
mind map of a topic in one subject area, using different colours for each part of the
topic, and putting down the key words that will help you remember? It really is
worth trying this if your brain works this way, mind mapping is a perfect way of
remembering huge amounts of information. It may not work for you but you do
need to practise a little before you can make that decision. Try using PICTURES as
well as words and making each map funny or memorable in some other way so that
it will stick in your mind. Dont forget, these are your revision materials they can
be as outrageous as you like.
3. The Shrinking Mind Map

THE AIM OF THE GAME IN REVISION IS TO REDUCE A LOT OF MATERIAL INTO A SMALL SPACE.
IF YOU HAVE PRODUCED A MIND MAP, THE IDEA OF A SHRINKING MIND MAP IS TO CREATE
THE SAME CHART WITH FEWER BRANCHES. YOU HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF MAJOR LEGS
AND USE THE SAME COLOURS BUT YOU DO NOT WRITE ALL THE DETAIL DOWN. YOU MIGHT
SHRINK THE MAP ONCE, TWICE, OR EVEN THREE TIMES SO THAT THE FINAL SHRUNKEN MAP
MIGHT ONLY HAVE TEN OR TWELVE WORDS ON IT BUT EACH WORD WILL TRIGGER YOUR
MEMORY OF ALL THE OTHER THINGS THAT WERE ON THE ORIGINAL LEG.
4. Cassette Tapes/MP3

Take some of the lists or the notes that you have made and record them on to a
cassette/CD or MP3 format. VARIETY is the key. You might want to get different
friends or members of your family to read different things on to the tape so a
different voice will jog different memories. Other people will choose background
music to match a particular subject or topic so that, in an exam, thinking of a
particular piece of music will bring back the information you require.
The great advantage of the cassette is that you use it during "dead time" You would be
unlikely to take your revision file out to the park when you walk the dog but there is no
reason why you can't take your walkman with you. Don't forget what we have already
said about controlling time. If you put together all the little pieces of "dead time" in a
day you could easily find yourself between 30 and 60 minutes 'tape time' every day. Just
think how much difference that could make to exam success!
5. Song, Rhymes, Mnemonics and Acronyms

The title of this suggestion may sound more difficult than exams themselves to you!
The songs and rhymes part is fairly obvious. Making up catch phrases or rhymes can
help you with crucial bits of information. It may make you cringe but you wont
forget it!
Mnemonics and Acronyms can do a great deal more for you. A mnemonic is a word or
abbreviation than helps you remember. An acronym is a word made up using the first
letters of a series of other words or the first word of a series of sentences. For example
to remember the order of the carpals:
Some Lovers Try Positions That They Cant Handle
Scaphoid Lunate Triquetrum Pisiform Trapezium Trapezoid Capitate Hamate
6. Flash Cards

Research shows us that when our brain is storing information our eyes are often
angled upwards or to the right or to the left (depending on how your brain is set up).
Flash cards can be a big help in remembering important information. Why not try
making some brightly coloured lists or even just writing down key words that you
want to remember and putting them up in your room at home.
Try different colours for different subjects or different areas of the room. If you can
persuade your family to go along with this, another way in which people use this
technique is by using a number of different rooms in the house for different topics. If the
dining room becomes Muscles and the kitchen becomes Bones then moving from room
to room can, quite literally open up different "files" in your head.
7. Lists, Charts and Notes

It may lie that all the fancy" ways of revising we have talked about above dont work
for you. The traditional way of revision is to make lists of information and it may
well be that your brain likes this better than any other way. It is certainly the way
that most people will tell you to revise but you have been warned your brain and
their brain are different, find your own way. If you are going to make lists, try and
find ways of making them interesting and keeping them short. The temptation is
always to write down too much and it may be that you use the same technique as
we discussed for mind mapping by producing "shrinking" lists which become ever
shorter as you become more confident that certain areas of information are already
in your head.
8. Study Buddy

Sharing Learning - one of the most effective ways to learn is to teach someone else.
This is why your teachers are so amazingly knowledgeable! Be careful with this
because mastermind style question and answering does not necessarily guarantee
that you will be able to remember lists of information in an exam. You are probably
better off being tested on the charts and lists that you are trying to remember for
the exams than by having somebody look through your folder of work and asking
you questions here and there. A good plan would be to build in a testing time of a
few minutes each day to see how well your revision is going.

9. Practising Previous Exam Questions

We will give you examples of old questions and it is really important to see if you
can answers these questions from previous years. This is not just a matter of testing
your knowledge, it is more important than that. All exams are written in a coded
language because, to be honest, there are often not many different questions that
you can be asked about particular subjects. What does happen is that the same
questions are asked in different ways or wrapped up in what can be confusing
language. A massive key to success in examinations is understanding the question
that you are being asked. This may sound obvious but so many people miss out on
what they want every year because, although they were well prepared, they have
misunderstood the question that is being asked and have written down information
for which they cannot be given marks.
Over 60% of all errors in exams are caused by not reading the question properly.
10. Show You Know

We have already talked about a number of ways in which you might show other
people what you know but the important thing is that you convince yourself! There
is no point reading information and then saying to yourself "yes I know that" and
moving on. You must demonstrate to yourself that you do know the information.
How do you do this? It is up to you. Recite things out loud, write down lists, stop
yourself from eating that next biscuit until you can recall everything that you need to
- whatever it takes.
You know something if you can recall it when ever you want - you cannot be sure that
you know it just because you can recall it 30 seconds after you looked at it on a piece of
paper in your hand. Test yourself by trying to recall important pieces of information
when you are a long way from the crutch of your revision aids. LEARN AND RE-
LEARN - go back over lists several times to be sure that you
know.
A
experience or a miserable experience is up to you - so why
not enjoy it?

bove all, make it FUN! There is no rule to say that revision
has to be stressful, miserable or boring. It is a job that you
have to do to get from where you are now to that picture
you painted in your head of results day. Whether it is a fun
On Exam day
Do have breakfast. Saying "I dont eat breakfast" is like saying "I dont put
batteries in a torch."
use brief revision aids instead, if you want to do last
Organise equipment the night before
Keep a positive frame of mind. If you watch athletes at the start of a race, they are
g to succeed. Believe that you can too!
nd finally......... GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

Dont get stuck into files
minute revision.
Set the alarm clock
Get to the exam in plenty of time
telling themselves that they are goin
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