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How to Create Good Study Habits for Exams

Taking exams can lead to stress and anxiety if you have not studied during the year because you will find yourself cramming for each test and studying late into the night. With a little time management during the school year, you not only minimize stress at exam time, but maximize productivity and results.

Steps

Buy an extra notebook for each subject at the beginning of the year so that as you finish a chapter in class, you immediately write notes and summaries in that book. The classwork will still be fresh in your mind so at exam time you merely have to take the notebook home from school. Write down the key points you learned from each lesson onto a cue card. This helps your mind to retain the day's important facts. On the weekends look over the cue cards. Get your parents or friends to quiz you on them.

Record your notes on a digital voice recorder or another device (you can also use your phone), listen to them in your spare time, listen to them as you would an audio book, concentrate on the words and try to memorize them as you hear them. Researches also found that listening to sounds during sleep enhance memory. [1]

Learn how to make mind maps, cluster maps, PowerPoints and other memory aids. Mind maps are graphical illustrations of a subject and a great memory tool to use, especially during exams. These tools are great for flash-carding and memory-retrieving.

As soon as you finish a topic, take out a book from the library and read more information about the subject. Look up questions you had and try to clear any confusion that you possibly had while learning the topic. Take notes to refer back to them before and at test time.

Don't do rough drafts for essays. Just do the good copy straight away, but thoroughly as well. In an exam situation you won't have time to write out a whole draft copy, so practice writing out good copies straight away. Make sure the good copy is neat, punctuation and spelling are correct, and the information makes sense.

Make a timetable for exam days by marking the dates on a calendar, so you can be prepared by the time the test comes around. The future is approaching faster than you may realize so be proactive and try to get on top of things early.

Make a list of your classes and the topics covered in class. As you study a topic, mark it in a way that is meaningful to you, to remind you which topics have already been studied.

Set aside a study time each day when you are not too tired, or too hungry. If you are going to study for a long time, remember to take a break in between, preferably every 20 minutes or so.

Set up a study group. Study groups share notes, thoughts and ideas or how to solve or understand a particular problem. Be sure to honor the class rules on what work may or may not be done in groups.

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Plan out 'trial' exams for yourself. All you have to do is redo one of your past tests or quizzes within a time limit. Get into the exam mode by clearing your work desk of everything except your paper and pen.

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Plan for academic success and execute the plan with tenacity. Provided that you are healthy you should execute your plans whether you are feeling strong or weak, tired or energized, lazy or motivated, focused or distracted, discouraged or encouraged. Realize that it is up to you to make the moments in your hand count for something and dont let your feelings trick you into being less than empowered.

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Get enough sleep at night. It's harder to concentrate when you got less than six hours of sleep the night before. Aim for eight to ten hours of deep sleep to feel truly refreshed and ready for anything in the morning.

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When choosing individual subjects to study, start with the least enjoyable or the most difficult subject. Master it, and you'll end up loving it. At the very least, you won't have to worry about putting it off until it's too late because you don't like it.

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Follow a daily timetable, on the first day it will be a challenge; second day it will become a practice and the third day it will become a habit. It is a matter of conditioning yourself to a sustained work ethic that will facilitate peak performance in the sometimes intense academic arena.

Video

This video shows you how to study for exams.

Tips
Don't panic on exam day. On the night before the exam, and in the morning, read through your notes a few times, then put them away. Don't panic if you have not studied well. Just think over the question and you might remember something the teacher taught you. After all, you are studying things that men/ women have discovered before without previous knowledge. Keep a glossary of any words belonging in an educated vocabulary and pertaining to your subject matter which you may be able to incorporate in formulating your exam responses. Make your own reviewer. Write your keywords in every topic and use different colors of ink for easy recognition. When you create your reviewer, use all the resources you have available. Make sure to personalize it so you can enjoy it! Eat a healthy breakfast that day, so you feel energized, but don't eat so much that you feel full. Something to consider is a study that says males do better on tests if they are slightly hungry, and females do better on tests if they are slightly full. Again, don't overdo it. You gain less by studying for exams at the last minute. One way to think about it is to start studying for the next exam as soon as you get the material, don't wait until a week before the test to start. Try and have all your study notes complete at least 2 weeks before the exam. This allows you plenty of time to work through past papers for revision and go over and re-read anything you're a bit hazy on. In the lead up to exams, try and get your hands on some exam papers for previous years. Doing these before the real exam will give you an idea as to what you'll be up against and will highlight anything you still need to revise. If you suffer from exam stress then take a calming antidote, perhaps an herbal tea. Just don't overdose because it'll make you drowsy. Don't stress out, it makes your mind work slower. Allow yourself a few minutes to settle into a zone of intense concentration when approaching your reading or writing academic assignments. Realize that you may need to internalize information actively to keep focused. This may be accomplished by following the text with a pencil and whispering the text to yourself to ensure

that you are progressing during your study segments of time. Reproduce the academic material from memory to monitor retention levels at regular intervals as a sort of self-testing mechanism. Find as many associations or ways to connect the new information which your brain is acquiring with the information which is already securely entrenched in your brain to foster cohesion in your arsenal of knowledge. Adopt passionately creative methods of memorizing related information using numbers, acronyms, mnemonic poems, wild stories and outlandish mental pictures to truly bring the material alive in a virtually unforgettable way. Have a balance in life, exams are simply a quick and lazy way to assess people. Don't panic, just study. Develop a positive attitude towards exams. If you are well prepared you'll walk into the exam room thinking "WOW! I can't wait to prove myself to these examiners, I'm gonna Ace this test, just to show them." Negative attitude: "Oooh, I'm so nervous. I hate exams; what's the point? I really don't feel up to this". Ever heard this? "Good luck with your exam!" This is false hope, you shouldn't need a pint of luck to help you succeed,and if you DO need good luck, then you obviously haven't prepared enough. While some can be, most exams aren't really this big. Exams are really just large quizzes with a time limit. No big deal. During the exam, avoid blanks. Try as hard as you can to make an intelligent guess. Take the closest answer but remember not to take too much of your time in answering one item. Go back and review your answers after you finish the exam, if you still have time. Don't waste valuable opportunities to better yourself by being lazy! Always have a positive attitude. Prepare for the worst and expect the best! Be relentlessly confident in yourself and your abilities! Research shows our focus can last about 45 minutes, so take a 20 minute power nap or relax your mind by listening to classical music. Mind your diet and don't drink alcohol. Avoid visiting any social-networking sites! It can be done.

Warnings
If you have not prepared yourself for the test, during the term, and before the test, then expect to reap according to what you have sown. Don't cheat. It is very dishonest and rude. Too much study can be as bad as not enough study because the mind shuts down when too much information is crammed into it. Mind blanks are possibly the most frightening things to occur in an exam. They can happen in any subject, but you can overcome them. The only way to overcome mind blanks is to relax the brain from its hysterical state. In the exam room, close your eyes, breathe in for 5 seconds and let it release through the mouth automatically. Repeat this until you can feel the facts crawling back into your memory. Failing an exam can be a very traumatic, shameful and embarrassing experience even if you have other opportunities to redeem yourself so you should do your best to ensure that your mastery of an area of study is sufficient to enable you to pass with pride.

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Sources and Citations

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm . 1. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3157/sounds-cues-during-sleep-enhance-memorystudy-finds