How to prepare an exam? Written by MinHa Kim
- Select a place where you feel comfortable.
- Clean the place where you would study.
- Read through the entire notes that will be on the exam.
- Memorize notes, concentrating on one major theme at a time until you know it well.
- For the first major theme, start at the top and just read through.
- After you feel confident that you know every theme, put down your studying and take a break from the subject.
- Sleep well and eat well.
Whenever I prepared an exam, I guess I usually crammed in the last few days. It was pretty effective to get high score, even though I wiped out and needed whole day for sleeping to recover myself after the test. Actually, I used to study for my exam for enough time like a month or more. One day, I had final test in high school and I couldn’t afford to have enough time to prepare it. There were so many other things to do at the time. When I got to have time for it, I had only 3 days. I was desperate and started to review my notes quickly. I barely slept for 3 days in a row. After test, my score was a lot better than before when I had long time for the test. Since then, I had been strongly believing that cramming is the best way to prepare an exam. I crammed for the other tests again. However, time goes by, I realized I forgot everything that I have studied. It was just studying for the SCORE. Consequently, I couldn’t learn anything on a long term basis, despite I studied. it could be the best way for an exam, but it shouldn’t be the wisest way to learn something. I am still in school and have a few more tests. I am trying not to cram anymore, because I decided I would study for myself to learn something, not for just my score.
Thanks MinHa for writing these tips!