Approaching Exam Revision: Strategies And Techniques

Write a report which explains how you have approached revising for exams.

This should:

1. Briefly outline how you have approached examinations to date and identify strategies to improve your revision techniques.

2. Produce a detailed revision plan, starting with this week – and weekly plans going forward.

3. Provide the evidence for the practice of at least one new revision method.

4. An evaluation of the success (or otherwise) of each stage of the process, namely revision planning, revision notes, and revision technique. You should also include an evaluation of your final exam technique and performance. This should comment upon structuring, analysis and written expression including accuracy and vocabulary.

5. You should also submit the feedback sheet for a successful examination paper which meets the assessment criteria; a revision plan; revision notes; notes on planning for successful use of time under exam conditions. These may be included as appendices, but you should refer to them in the body of your text. You should include a brief introduction and conclusion

Approaching Examinations and Strategies for Improvement

I often find it very difficult to cope up with the huge stress. So, I must make some plans that will help me to revise the subject with ease before the night of the exam.  So, I need to make a good revision plan so that I have the entire syllabus in my grip (Jain 2013).

I have just a week in hand and the exam is due just in the upcoming week. So I have to make some plans so that I can manage the syllabus and go through all the chapters in a very systematic manner. One such subject that has a huge syllabus is English literature and one tough job that I often face, is going through the dramas or the plays that are present in my syllabus. The strategies that I may use are

• I will try to keep calm and do not fear the exam. I must make a routine or a revision plan that will help them to proceed in a step by step manner.
• I have to calculate the number of days or the time that is left in my hands. It is according to this plan that they will divide the work of revising the syllabus.
• As a drama or a play (for example a Shakespearean play Macbeth), has many acts and scenes, I must go through the chapters thoroughly.
• This is followed by a second go through the session that will help me to delve deep into the acts and each scene of the play. I will be reading the textbook thoroughly is one of the most important parts of any revision plan. This will help me to develop a clear insight into the story of the play.
• After this extensive reading, I can actually highlight and jot down those points that are most important (that which contain some of the important quotes and notification) or some important incidents as well.
• This method will help me to also jot down those parts of the pays that are difficult for them to understand. So, they will have enough time on hand to consult with my peers or with my teachers as well.

Some of the very useful methods of revising for the exams are as follows

Solving some past papers

I feel that this is one of the most important and modem methods of revision for the exam. This helps me to develop a clear idea about the patterns of questions that might come in the exam. The schools and the teachers are now paying a huge emphasis on the question patterns. So, it can also happen that the students might get some very common questions in my exams from the exams of the past few years (Sherman et al. 2018.).

Peer to Peer learning

I believe that group study is one of the useful methods of revising the lessons before the exam. This helps in getting a large number of new information and tips that might be very useful for all the students in the exams. The notes that might be present with one student may not be present with others. So, it is in this peer to peer learning system that I can follow the system of knowledge sharing and can revise properly. I will also be able to correct each other if in case they are following any wrong methods of studying (Boud et al. 2014)

The revision plan has been very helpful for me because the method of going through each and every chapter and jotting down the important points helped me to be much more organized. This did not make them grapple for notes or answers. This reduced almost more than half of my burden before the exam.

Detailed Revision Plan

I will be using the calendar to make a rough calculation of the revision plan was also very useful as I could make a clear idea about the time that is actually left in my hands and this helped them to manage all the revision works within time rather than panicking later.

I will make sure to highlight the important points was also very useful as the students could go through the important parts very easily before the exam rather than searching the whole book. I could also consult the same with my teachers if in case they had any problems.

• The final exam technique was
• To go through all the chapters thoroughly
• To mark the important points
• To mark the portions that were tough and needed proper clarification from teachers
• Peer to peer learning was also a very helpful method
• Devoting a span of 3 to 4 hours for revising the syllabus before the exam was good. This helped me to study within time and also get a good sleep. This helped them in writing the exams in a confident manner.

I feel that the performance was good. The marks scored were also satisfactory. I did not panic as all the notes were organized and all important tips were collected from teachers and also from other students of my group. The one thing that has to be incorporated in the coming days is solving more past years question papers right from the beginning so that the student is more familiar with the questions that might come in the exam.

Conclusion

Thus it can be concluded that for proper revision before the exam, I must make a plan beforehand. Time management is one of the most important steps that the students might take. Peer to peer learning is also one of the helpful revision techniques. I must collect and solve the questions of the previous year some while in the course of revision.

References

Baert, S., Omey, E., Verhaest, D. and Vermeir, A., 2015. Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement. Social Science & Medicine, 130, pp.91-98.

Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Sampson, J. eds., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.

Dunlosky, J. and Rawson, K.A., 2015. Practice tests, spaced practice, and successive relearning: Tips for classroom use and for guiding students’ learning. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1(1), p.72.

Huang, S., Deshpande, A., Yeo, S.C., Lo, J.C., Chee, M.W. and Gooley, J.J., 2016. Sleep restriction impairs vocabulary learning when adolescents cram for exams: The need for sleep study. Sleep, 39(9), pp.1681-1690.

Jain, S. 2013. Top 10 revision techniques for your final or Part 1 exams. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/top-10-revision-tips-for-your-final-or-first-year-exams-8576161.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2018].

Khalil, B., 2017. Paperless reads: Exam Attack: How to Beat Exam Stress. School Librarian, 65(1), pp.18-19.

Patil, S.S., Wadhva, S.K. and Shukla, S., 2018. Exam anxiety and factors contributing to it amongst medical interns of a tertiary care centre. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, 6(2).

Sherman, C.K. and De La Paz, S., 2018. FIX: A Strategic Approach to Writing and Revision for Students With Learning Disabilities. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 50(4), pp.233-242.

Strong, S.I., 2018. How to write law essays and exams. Oxford University Press.

Walker, D., 2017. EMPOWERING ENGLISH WRITING STUDENTS: REFLECTING ON ASPECTS OF THE PROCESS THAT HELPED ME MOST?. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 20(2), pp.85-93.