Study Skills Corner #3 Preparing for Exams

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Study Skill #3: Exam Preparation

I’m making the assumptions that you have been: - reading your textbook - making notes on your readings - attending lectures - taking notes in lecture and THINKING There are three main things to do to prepare for an exam: 1. Combine your lecture notes 2. Condense your notes 3. Rehearse for the exam from your notes

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Combine Your Notes

As soon as possible after EACH lecture, combine your lectures notes, textbook reading notes, and lecture slides (PowerPoint) into a SINGLE set of notes.

* Look at handouts with examples of notes - Keep important things / flag items likely to be on test - Eliminate redundancies - Synthesize and condense as much as possible - Answer ALL questions that you have indicated by a ‘?’ - Be sure all points on your Study Guide are covered

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Condense Your Notes

After several lectures, but NO LATER than ONCE PER WEEK, condense your notes for each major topic (usually a Chapter) to a single page. (Refer to handouts) About a week or so before an exam (more or less depending upon YOU), for each lecture begin to 1. Read through all your COMBINED notes in ONE SITTING, then 2. Make THREE MASTER LISTS. One for each of: 1. KEY TERMS (index cards) 2. THEMES (concepts) 3. RELATED CONCEPTS Finally, condense ALL YOUR NOTES FOR THE EXAM on to a SINGLE PAGE.

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Rehearse for the Exam Using Your Notes

At this point (couple of days before exam), you are using your SINGLE SHEET that contains ALL INFORMATION FOR THE EXAM You should review your single sheet several times before the exam, memorizing a little more each time. Your goal is to reproduce your single study sheet from memory .

This will take some effort, but it will GUARANTEE you a GREAT SCORE on your exam!

The night before the exam, look over your sheet one more time and then GO TO BED. Don’t watch a movie, go out, or do anything else.

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Cramming (Ugh!)

• DON’T DO IT! But if you get stuck for time… – NEVER pull an all-nighter!

– Focus on your study guide – Read over the notes that pertain to study guide items • Make a cram card (crib sheet) for those things you find difficult to remember – Review this before you go to bed the night before the exam – Review this right before the exam – When exam is handed out • PUT YOUR CRAM CARD AWAY!!!!!!

• Write this stuff down on the exam right away!

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The 80/20 Rule Revisited

• Remember: 80% of results accrue from 20% of your effort • When you condense, and re-condense, your notes, you are ensuring that you are concentrating your effort on the 20% of the material that will get you 80% of the results 7

References

• Frank, S. (1996). The Everything Study Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation.

• Koch, R. (1997). The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less [CD]. Niles IL: Nightingale Conant.

• Robinson, A. (1993). What Smart Students Know. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc. 8