Exams

studentphil

Now seems to be a good time to have a thread on exams with 5 or 6 weeks until most universities have their exams.

What is the best way to over come common problems like exam panic?

I think the best way to think of exams is even if you fail, it is not the end of the world and there is always a resit or you have to find something different in life which you are good at.

suffolkb

You could always try revising for 6 weeks instead of posting on here constantly.
Not much point in doing the revision after the exam.

Tallulah22

Thanks Studentphil

I have a big exam on a subject that i can hardly understand but i am trying my best and hopefully i will pass.

studentphil

suffolkb wrote: »

You could always try revising for 6 weeks instead of posting on here constantly.
Not much point in doing the revision after the exam.

Thanks, so revision goes a long way.

dmg24

Revision is definitely a good answer!

But, on a more constructive note, the best way to approach revision is to break down your subjects into 'bitesize' chunks, and take lots of breaks ... but not on here!

studentphil

I think you can not beat mind maps for revision, the colours, shapes, images make it really easy to remember stuff.

melancholly

isn't the key thing about revision that find what works best for you?! i work best learning lists, others like diagrams....... it's the kind of thing you work out doing your alevels - what helps YOU most!

suffolkb

I have this image of SP being like Rimmer in Red Dwarf. Spending 6 weeks drawing up colour coded revision timetables and then running out of time, going into the exam totally unprepared.

randomtask_2

I agree with melancholly regarding doing what works for you (or has worked well previously) - a friend of mine swears by mind maps, I think they're unstructured and make it too easy to lose focus, especially if you're actually using word associations. They're not that good for numeric based subjects either.

My tip - might sound an obvious one - when revising, write things down like you are answering exam questions. Trains you to think about the question, rather than memorising passages of text or names, facts etc.

I also think it's easier to work off recognisable visual cues, so your own handwriting is arguably better than the print found in textbooks.

Last of all, and I'm not deliberately trying to sound like I'm auditioning for The Apprentice or anything, I would never go into an exam I've known about for ages thinking "I might fail but there's always the resit". Too negative even for a pessimist like me. I'd go in positive and be thinking "I'm going to pass"...there are various levels of pass (1st, 2:1, 2:2, etc) before you get to a fail after all...

studentphil

University exams are strange as they seem to put terror into people compared to GCSE or A levels.

Oldernotwiser

studentphil wrote: »

I think the best way to think of exams is even if you fail, it is not the end of the world and there is always a resit or you have to find something different in life which you are good at.

You're really not one of nature's optimists are you, Phil?