Studying for Exams

In an attempt to organize my work for the next few days, I will share a few revision tips - stuff that served me well last year. I don't really have a lot of experience in sitting exams, but I seem to be good enough at it, so here are my tips:

• Throughout the year: 
• make the most out of classes (if they are any good) - stay focused, answer questions and ask doubts, always take notes and do the exercises. 
• keep your notes well-organised - they don't need to look all pretty and girly, but it is far easier to study if they are clean, in the right order and easy to read. This is something in which I failed this year, and I felt it really contributed to me feeling less motivated for school.
• start at the foundations - if you're struggling, it's often useful to revise the basics. Don't be ashamed to admit to yourself that you don't know stuff that was taught three or four years ago: it happens to everyone! Besides, in just a few hours of studying, you can master those skills and get a real boost in your confidence in harder topics.
• don't let work pile up - revise enough to make sure you are following and absorbing the main ideas.
• establish connections between topics - take your time to think about what you're learning. Ask yourself questions that probe deeper and try to build a wider picture of your knowledge. You have to memorise far less data this way and you can apply what you know in a much more pointed way.
• trust yourself - it's near impossible to study if you think you won't be able to do it, because you just can't concentrate, so keep positive!
• don't rely too much on others - you are the one who has to learn, and, in exams, there won't be anyone to help you, so get used to solving problems/learning on your own. Ask for help only when you are really stuck.
• work, but not too much - avoid feeling burnt out or exhausted. It's better to solve a single problem/answer a question which contains the core topics and methods, and understand it thoroughly, than to solve a million ones without grasping the essential ideas.

• Revision before exams:
• plan a timetable - decide what you are going to do each day. Be realistic when planning and set yourself work you can actually finish. This way, you make sure that you cover everything before the exam.
• don't overwork - give yourself breaks to rest, eat, talk to someone else, do a bit of sport. Your performance will be much better while studying, and you'll avoid unproductive stress. Also, sleep enough: you'll profit more from a good night of sleep than from torturing yourself in front of an open book until 2 a.m.
• do past papers, and pay a lot of attention to the mark scheme and solutions - this allows you to answer exactly what the examiners want, and maximise your points. Besides, being familiar with the type of questions gives you self-confidence.
• avoid last minute revision - the afternoon/morning before the exam, try to relax as much as possible. Whatever you study at this point won't improve your performance: what matters is your continuous, year-long work.
• use your notes to make sure you know the full syllabus.
• be critical and honest with yourself when doing past papers - when you get something wrong, make sure you understand why, go back to the question and discover the line of thought that would have led you to the right answer. This way, you can train yourself to think in the right direction. Ensure you do past papers in the set time, and check what grade you would have had.

• While doing the exam:
• read and understand the questions - often, the way a question is worded suggests the answer. Underline the important parts of the question, and think of the topics you know that are connected to those. If you have no idea of what you should answer, read again and again and write down all the data given to you to try to find what connects the different pieces.
• stay calm - don't panic. If you don't know what to answer, leave it and try again after doing everything else, so as to have as many points as possible. Then, read and re-read; if you get stuck at the middle, think coldly of what is the next logical step. It will generally be something you've seen before, so you'll be able to get there!
• always think back to things you have done before.
• organise your answers before writing them down - create a list of main ideas and check how they are related to each other. This way, you'll make sure you're not forgetting anything.
• write clearly and be obvious - if the topics they want to read are muddled, probably the person who is correcting won't recognise your knowledge there, so be very precise. Write down even the most basic ideas - you don't want to lose points in things you do know.
• do everything the way they ask - don't write more or less than the word limit; use the method they ask for in the question; etc. This is obvious, but it can mean a significant difference in your grade.
• check all your answers carefully - re-read both the questions and your answers to make sure you have answered in the right direction. However, don't panic and start correcting everything - if you're in doubt, don't change your answer.

Best of luck to everyone!!