Prepping for Success on Exams

Prepare for Exams Continuously Throughout the Semester

The most effective strategy for preparing for exams is distributive review throughout the semester.

Use the strategies for Getting the Most Time Out of Class to develop a strong understanding of the material. By actively reviewing new material throughout the semester, you will store it in your long-term memory, which will give you a strong base from which to begin your final preparation for the exam.

• Each week, actively review new material in short study sessions. After you are confident that you understand the new material, set it aside and go on to something else.
• The next day, test yourself to see how much you remember. If you are not comfortable with your recall of the material, actively review it again.
• The following day, come back and test yourself. As you learn the material, gradually increase the time between study sessions.

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Final Preparation for the Exam

Getting Ready to Study

• Set a study schedule. Schedule adequate time exclusively to prepare for this exam. If you developed a schedule for your semester, you should have these sessions already scheduled. Do not hesitate to modify your schedule if you feel that you did not give yourself enough time. If you have not created a semester schedule, go to our Planning Ahead page.
• Establish an objective for each study period. Do not stop until you have mastered the objective. Set up a plan to attack discrete pieces of information in sessions of 20 to 30 minutes then take a short break and return to the information to see how much you remember. If you feel confident that you have learned the information, then go on. If not, spend another period studying the material. Again, the best way to see if you can remember material is to teach it to a partner.
• Choose a productive study environment. Any area in which you are comfortable and free from distractions will be a productive environment. If you are studying with someone, then a space where you can talk aloud is essential.
• Study with someone. The best way to test your knowledge is to teach it to someone else. Make sure that it is someone who shares your goals and motivation.

Study Techniques

• Use the framework of the course.
  The most effective way to study for exams is to organize the material within the framework of the subject. Do not try to learn material in small pieces. Start your studying by developing a map of the organizational patterns of the course. Each piece of information will be easier to remember and recall if it is connected to these patterns. Some examples: The details about various post World War II political movements in the Middle East will be easier to analyze if you look at them within the framework of the history of western colonialism in the region.
  
  In a psychology course, learning different theories of personality development might be easier to remember if you think about them within the structure of applying what you have learned. If you were a practicing psychiatric professional, how would the new information contribute to your toolbox for diagnoses and treatment of a client?
• Anticipate questions that will be asked on the exam.
  You should do this as part of your regular review of your lecture notes. If you did not do so, review your notes, looking for material, subjects, and ideas that the professor emphasized. You can also go to office hours, not to simply ask what will be on the exam, but to engage in a broader inquiry about the material. In doing so, you will learn more about which material the professor deems most significant. Read the assigned readings. If a traditional textbook is used you can look for clues. If the textbook appears to place emphasis on materials differently from the professor, you should ask for clarification. Do not assume that because the professor did not highlight specific material in class that it will not appear on the exam. He or she might assume that you learned the material from the reading.
• Answer the questions.
  For essay exams, write a thesis statement to answer the question and then collect supporting details. Develop all of this into an outline. You can try writing a complete answer but do not try to memorize it.

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Taking the Exam

On the Day of the Exam

• Eat healthy meals. Lean towards healthy foods that will not leave you with a sugar crash in the middle of the test. Eating something that you find comforting can help you relax, just eat it in moderation.
• Do something to relax before the exam. Listen to music, go for a walk, play a video game, or workout. Anything that you find relaxing will help you avoid stress and help clear your mind of distraction.
• Avoid studying for the hour before the exam. Trying to cram more information might distract you from the material that you solidly learned while studying.
• Avoid distractions from fellow students. Travel alone to the exam. Arrive early enough so that you can choose your optimum space, away from others who might prove distracting. Do not talk to other students about the test. This might lead you astray from what you know and have prepared.

Different Types of Test Formats and Questions

Multiple Choice Exams

How to attack the exam. Read all directions thoroughly and then quickly preview the entire test before starting. Are there sections of the exam weighted more heavily? Do the questions get progressively more difficult? If there is a difference between sections, set a rough time schedule for each section. Plan time to review your answers and change answers if appropriate.

How to attack each question.

• Answer easy questions first. If an item is too difficult to answer quickly, skip it and go back to it later.
  
• Read the entire question before looking at the answer choices and if possible, answer the question without looking at the answer choices. Then examine all the answer choices before deciding which is correct.
  
• If the correct answer is not immediately apparent, eliminate any non-plausible choices. Is there an answer that differs from all the others?
  
• Remember that the instructor is usually looking for the best answer, so if two answers appear possible, make a choice.
  
• Use clues from previous questions. If you were certain of the answer for a previous question and it contradicts some of the possible answers on an item, then you can eliminate them.
  

Quantitative Questions

Understand the problem by answering a series of questions.

• What is the unknown and what information do you need to find it?
  
• Will drawing a sketch help?
  
• Are there multiple parts to the question? Not answering each part is an easy way to lose points.
  

Find a way to solve for what is unknown.

• Write down all that is given or known.
  
• If it makes sense, draw a sketch to help visualize the problem.
  
• Write down all relevant formulas
  
• Use proper notation that is consistent with that used in the formulas.
  

Solve the problem using the procedure you developed in previous step.

• Work neatly and carefully and show your work for each step. This will help the grader follow your work, which might lead to partial credit. It will also make it possible for you to figure out where you went astray if your answer is incorrect.
  
• Include the units for your answer.
  

Check your Answers.

• Carefully recheck your answer. Does your answer make sense to you? Is the quantity reasonable? Did you use all of the data that you originally decided was pertinent? Is your answer in correct units?
  
• If your answer does not seem to make sense, rework the problem.
  

Essay Test Taking

• Read through the entire exam before beginning so that you can plan how much time to take on each question.
  
• If a question appears that you did not anticipate, do not panic. Start with what you do know: the overall structure of the course.
• Then ask yourself how that topic of the question relates to the structure.
  
• Read the question carefully to determine what kind of response is required. Does the question simply require you to recall material from the course? Or, does the question require that you analyze a new situation using what you have learned?
  
• Start by outlining your answer. This might come from a pre-developed outline for a question you anticipated or can be developed on the spot. This will help you organize your answer and keep you from forgetting key points if you have to hurry to finish an answer.
  
• Start with a strong introductory paragraph that establishes your argument with a clearly written thesis.
  
• Make it easy for the grader to follow your argument by properly forming paragraphs and using marker words such as “first, second, third” or “the counter argument.”
  
• Provide details that support your argument. Each piece of information should be clearly connected to your argument. Do not include extraneous information just because it is something that you remembered.
  
• Finish with a conclusion that demonstrates that you have addressed the question and made an argument. This will solidify your answer in the mind of the grader and give you a chance to assess that you effectively answered the question.

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Overcoming Test Anxiety

What is Test Anxiety

Every U of M student experiences some anxiety in the face of preparing for and taking exams. It is a normal response to any performance related activity. If you find that anxiety is hindering your performance on exams, there are a number of steps you can take to help alleviate your difficulties. It is helpful to first understand the nature of destructive reactions to the stress of exams.

Stressful situations such as studying and taking exams cause many students to experience physical reactions such as increased heart rate and perspiration. These are completely normal reactions to any stress inducing situation and are not necessarily a sign of destructive anxiety.

Destructive anxiety takes the shape of psychological and behavioral reactions that make it difficult for you to make good decisions about how to achieve your goals and can hinder your ability to organize your thoughts, read and understand material, and might cause a mental block when trying to recall material. The most destructive reactions to anxiety occur when you allow feelings of self doubt, negative feelings, and excessive worries to overwhelm you.

How to Reduce test anxiety

Preparation Beats Anxiety
The most common cause of text anxiety is under preparation. The more effectively you prepare for an exam, the less anxiety you will feel.

What do I do if I am still experiencing anxiety? If anxiety is making it difficult for you to prepare effectively for an exam or if you are experiencing destructive anxiety despite your preparation, there are a number of strategies you can use to overcome the anxiety.

Analyze instead of personalize
The key to overcoming anxiety is to train yourself to focus on tasks by analyzing what needs to be done in the here-and-now instead of personalizing negative feelings and worries.

Correcting this can take a bit of practice, because you have to police yourself and counter negative thoughts with positive thoughts focused on what you can accomplish. When you feel negative thoughts creeping up, you have to alert yourself to make a change and then follow through on changing your thought process.

• Use positive, supportive self-talk to counter negative feelings and negative internal talk. Instead of saying to yourself, “There is no way I can learn all of this material” say “I need to organize the material into chunks to make it easier to learn.” Instead of expressing doubt in your ability, “I always do poorly on essay exams” say “I can use new strategies for achieving success on this exam.” If you are confronted with an exam item that you cannot immediately answer say to yourself “That’s just one item, I can go on to others and come back to it” instead of “I knew this test was going to be impossible!”
  
• Remind yourself that you have the ability to succeed. Thinking “I’m just not smart enough to pass this exam” or “I don’t think I belong here” can lead to giving up the effort of trying to learn the material. Instead, remind yourself about why you came to U of M and tell yourself that you have the skills to learn the material and focus on the next task. If you are just getting started with studying for an exam, that task might be a study schedule. Establish concrete goals for each study session so that you can mark your successes.
  
• Excessive worries can be destructive. Thinking “If I do not do well on this exam, I’ll never get into med school” over emphasizes the importance of the exam and places your focus on something far in the future, which hinders your ability to focus on the immediate task. Turn your thoughts around to the positive by reminding yourself why your goals are important and how the task of preparing for the exam is part of how you are progressing toward your goal.
  
• Do not judge yourself. When confronted with difficult material or looking at the results of previous exams, do not react by judging yourself, as in “I’m just not smart enough to understand this!” Analyze the task or results for clues as to how you can improve or how you will prepare for what comes next. Look at previous exams to see what you did correctly. Were there any particular kinds of problems or questions that you did well on? Did you make similar mistakes throughout the exam? Can you make a plan for improvement simply by analyzing the exam? When looking at the material to study for the next exam, use your analysis of previous exams and experiences to develop a plan for studying.
  

Try Relaxation Techniques

What do I do if I can’t calm down enough to change my thought process? If you continue to experience test anxiety to a point where you cannot keep your mind from straying to negative thoughts, using relaxation techniques can help you change your outlook. There are a number of relaxation techniques so you will need to experiment to find the one that works best for you. These strategies can be used during your study periods and during the exams.

• Use self-controlled desensitization techniques.
  
  
  • Deep muscle relaxation: Tense individual muscles for 10 seconds and then release them. As you release each muscle, concentrate on relaxing it as far as possible. Successfully move from one muscle group to the next until you have relaxed your entire body.
    
  • Deep Breathing: concentrate on your breath as you take deep breaths, filling your lungs and then exhaling slowly.
    
  • Guided imagery: Choose a scene that you find relaxing and imagine yourself there. Focus on the sights, sounds, and feelings you experience there.
• Counteract anxiety once you are relaxed.
  
  
  • Use the strategies listed above to shift your focus on the tasks you need to accomplish.
    
  • After you are relaxed, imagine yourself going calmly into the exam. Talk yourself through the strategies for succeeding on the exam. See yourself effectively reacting to an item you had not anticipated.
    
  • For more on relaxation strategies visit http://www.campusmindworks.org/students/self_care/relaxation.asp.
• Use exercise to help reduce tensions and help you relax.
  Although you obviously cannot not get up and jog around the classroom during the exam, exercise can help you relax during study sessions and exercising immediately before an exam will relax you and give you time to clear your mind of worries.
  

Additional Resources on Campus

See the U of M Health Systems website Campusmindworks.com for further information on managing exam related stress and relaxation techniques:
http://www.campusmindworks.org/students/self_care/relaxation.asp
http://www.campusmindworks.org/students/self_care/managing_stress.asp

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