5 Minute Guide to be Exam Ready

Hear from Sana Medileh who is an Early Careers and Employer Brand Advisor at Clyde & Co. She has extensive graduate recruitment and teaching experience. Read on to learn from her 5 Minute Guide to be Exam Ready.

No matter how long you’ve been in education for, exam season remains a nerve-wracking period. The high stakes of achieving the grades that will open the doors to good graduate programmes, are enough to make anyone’s head spin. Thankfully, with a bit of preparation, going through the season becomes entirely manageable and (almost) stress free.

This article will guide you through the steps to academic success by focusing on two key areas: achieving year-round consistency and time-management.

Achieving year-round consistency

Believe it or not, learning does not start while nervously deciphering the notes you scribbled in class four weeks ago. The key to success in academia is consistency. Information learnt at a slower pace and revised often will stick in your mind longer. From note taking to revision timetables, we will cover all you need to be ready for your exam day.

Step 1: Active learning

It might go without saying but learning is an active experience that starts while you are in class. The more engaged you are with your course, the easier it will be for you to memorize its content.

While listening in class, try to connect what you hear with knowledge you’ve gathered in other modules or previous years, for example. Take any offered opportunity to answer questions, present your homework, or to engage more broadly during the lesson (ask yourself: why is the course organized this way rather than another? What choice of material is being used?). Go further than just knowing the right from the wrong answer, but rather, why is one right and the other wrong. Have a look at the bibliography of your classes and check out the source material.

You can also discuss the content of the class with classmates to check your understanding of your lessons or assignments. Fostering a collaborative work environment with your classmates will be beneficial for everyone involved.

In other words, be curious and interested in what you are learning. By taking this approach, you will improve both your level of confidence in your abilities and your critical thinking skills.

Step 2: Note taking

Taking notes during class is an essential step but you can do more.

While in class, because you try to keep pace with your lecturer, you might find yourself skipping to write a lot of details. Consequently, some bits of information that you write, and that make sense while in class, can become obscured while reviewing your notes a few days later. To help with this, you should aim to rewrite them as rapidly as possible – ideally within the same day you took your class – to make sure they are comprehensive enough when it is time to revise. More than just adding detailed information and explanations to your notes, take this opportunity to make the information clearer and structured.

To restructure your notes, you can add colours, highlight, or underline. It is also good to add structure with titles, and subtitles. As you add more content to your notes, you can also do the opposite : solely write down the essentials on flash cards.

Flash cards are your best friends. We advise that you use one card colour per subject to help your memory make the right associations.

Once you will have showed curiosity in class, took sufficient notes, re-read and arranged them, what you will need is a plan on how to organize your study time.

Time Management

By organizing and prioritizing tasks, students can maximize their productivity, reduce stress, and ensure a balanced approach to their studies. Time management will also be a key part of your professional success, so it is paramount you learn strategies at the earliest opportunity. In this section, we will cover revision timetabling and how to beat revision fatigue. Here we will broach revision schedules and how to make the best use of past papers.

Step 1: Revision Schedule

Following a revision schedule is not only great to prepare for exams but it is also good practice for your future career. Time is a precious resource that you will want to manage successfully to both juggle all your commitments and to take time for yourself to replenish your energy levels. 

In this respect, a calendar will be your best friend to map out your time. To start easily, log all your commitments on it: your courses, your work shifts, or clubs you are attending. Then, as the year goes by, add all your deadlines for various homework and essays (or applications dates for our Clyde & Co Vacation Scheme!). Give yourself reminders way ahead of time to aim to complete your homework in advance. This way you won’t always feel like you are running behind the clock. This method is also beneficial to give yourself time to anticipate any unforeseen event (do you remember this time you had a fever on your last free Sunday to write your essay?). This wiggle room is also good to consult your lecturer one last time before you submit your essay if necessary.

Mapping out your commitments this way will help you keep track of how much time you allocate per subject and give yourself clear achievable goals.

When it comes to exam season, you can use a colour coded timetable to even out the time you offer to each revision block per module. Furthermore, to keep your attention up when revising, it is advised to mix and match the subjects you oversee over a single day.

Finally, setting aside time for yourself is as important as reserving time for studying. You need to have time to exercise, have regular and healthy meals, and to meet with your family and friends. Adding these to your calendar, along with important dates (ie. birthdays, family gatherings…) will help you have a full view of your actual workload and responsibilities. This way, you will see whether you can realistically juggle all the different parts of your life, or if you are feeling overwhelmed.

Scaling back temporarily on some activities will then become possible to free yourself some time. Have a frank conversation in advance with your work manager to adapt to an uptick in homework by reducing your hours. Being able to discuss this with plenty of notice will ensure you will be kept in their good favour. Similarly, it can also give you time to reach out to your university for support.

All of this will help you keep your spirits up which plays a fundamental role in staying motivated. You will work better and be more productive if you are feeling positive. 

Step 2: Past papers are you best friend

An aspect of time management that often flies under the radar of students is taking an exam. Think about it: wouldn’t it be extremely frustrating to have studied consistently over the year, made the best of all your flash cards, only to end up not having the time to finish writing your essay on time?

It is true that you will have had your fair share of essays and homework to write at home, the key difference being that for those you don’t have a rigid time window to produce an adequate and structured answer. This is where past papers come in handy.

Past papers are invaluable tools for students to assess the real level of knowledge excepted at an exam. To make the most of them, you will need to take them in real life conditions: make sure you complete them in the ordinary time window, set your phone on focus mode, and let your family/roommates know not to come knock at your door in the next three hours.

Thanks to this experience, you will be able to understand your weaknesses – the points you need to work harder on – but also reassure yourself on the parts you already master. Ask a lecturer for advice and opinion on your work.

To have your hand on past papers will also help you understand what type of questions are asked, or how are they phrased: in other words, what will be expected of you.

Furthermore, this will also increase your confidence level for the actual day of your exam as it will limit the “surprise” element of your day. It will help you realize what “three hours” means when it comes to think through an answer and write some elements on a draft before you pen it.

While we are on the topic of drafts, a good rule of thumb on how to manage them to not lose too much time would be: only write titles, subtitles and stick to bullet points for your core content. However, writing a full introduction and a conclusion on draft is useful to ensure consistency in the core of your essay.

Managing your exam time window is primordial to submit an exam or an essay that will be consistent from end to end, and not have a drop of quality because you had to rush the end.

Being able to provide a quality answer against the clock is as important as having the knowledge to write your answer in the first place.

To sum up

In conclusion, mastering time management and maintaining consistent effort are crucial for achieving excellent results in exams. By effectively organizing your study schedule and dedicating regular time to your studies, you can reduce stress and improve your performance. Remember, success is not just about working hard, but also about working smart. Consistency in your efforts ensures that you build and retain knowledge over time, leading to better outcomes. So, start planning, stay committed, and watch your hard work pay off in your exams!