As well as planning your time and organising your course materials, it also involves thinking about the exams right from the outset of the course. You may not like the sound of this initially; but stick with it and you’ll see how you can make life much easier overall and feel more con¢dent as a result
TAKE THE HEAT OUT OF THE EXAMS
You can do a lot to make your exams easy by getting organised from the outset of the course. In this chapter we’ll talk about some of the practicalities for studying in a way that eases the final revision, as well as introducing some fresh approaches regarding how you work throughout the academic year.
Finding time to study and prepare for exams is a challenge for virtually every student. If you’re a parent with a full-time job and studying by distance learning you will experience many conflicting pressures and far too many demands on your time. Even full-time students at school or college will find that they have too much to do. Coursework, youth activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, part-time jobs, holidays and a social life all conspire to fill your time. As deadlines approach, feelings of pressure and anxiety
mount and it can all get a bit overwhelming.
And I’m afraid it may appear at first that I’m going to add to the problem. I’ll be suggesting that you do a little more towards your exams earlier than you might otherwise have done. It’s linked with the idea of taking control to build confidence and guarantee success. But I’m going to help you cope more effectively with the workload so that, overall, you won’t be any worse off timewise. The extra effort from the outset will certainly reduce some of the last-minute cramming and panic. More importantly, you’ll feel much more positive about the whole situation, so you’ll do better as a result.
The exams are closer than you think!
At most, the academic year lasts 9–10 months. This can seem to pass fairly quickly with the result that exams begin looming much sooner than you thought. With the increasing incidence of modular exams students can be facing their first exams within 10 weeks of the beginning of the course.
The problems
Typically the views expressed by students are:
‘I’ll start thinking about the exams as we approach the end of the course. I’m certainly not going to worry about them yet, I’ll only get depressed if I do.’
‘I have far too many calls on my time to do well in exams. I just lurch from crisis to crisis, deadline to deadline and I can’t seem to do anything properly.’
‘No one has the time to do justice to the mock exams and we’ll all do better when the real thing comes around.’
‘I expect my teacher/tutor to prepare me properly for the exam by covering the right things and setting suitable assignments and mock exams.’
We’re going to talk about making all of this easier but this means you need to start thinking about the exams right from the start. And this applies equally to whether they are 10 weeks or 10 months away. You’ll see how this makes it much easier in the long run and you’ll do much better than you would otherwise have done.
START THINKING ABOUT THE EXAMS AT THE START OF THE COURSE
Don’t view the exams as a separate exercise
It’s no good thinking about the course itself as a separate element from the exams.
From the outset of the course you must think continually about the ¢nal exams.
By this I certainly don’t mean that you should give yourself a regular shot of anxiety or depression about the dreaded final test to spur yourself on. What I am suggesting is that you keep an eye on how what you have studied today might fit into an exam question. This is particularly important for the modular exams looming within 10 weeks, but is also essential practice for the exams some 10 months hence.
‘I expect my teacher/tutor to prepare me properly for the exam by covering the right things and setting suitable assignments and mock exams.’
We’re going to talk about making all of this easier but this means you need to start thinking about the exams right from the start. And this applies equally to whether they are 10 weeks or 10 months away. You’ll see how this makes it much easier in the long run and you’ll do much better than you would otherwise have done.
START THINKING ABOUT THE EXAMS AT THE START OF THE COURSE
Don’t view the exams as a separate exercise
It’s no good thinking about the course itself as a separate element from the exams.
From the outset of the course you must think continually about the ¢nal exams.
By this I certainly don’t mean that you should give yourself a regular shot of anxiety or depression about the dreaded final test to spur yourself on. What I am suggesting is that you keep an eye on how what you have studied today might fit into an exam question. This is particularly important for the modular exams looming within 10 weeks, but is also essential practice for the exams some 10 months hence.
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