Revision Tips in Exams

REVISION TIPS IN EXAMS

Revising for exams is about more than just reading through the notes you made in class. It also means knowing how to answer the questions for real when you're in the exam. Practicing with old exam questions can improve your chances of doing well.

Preparing for the exam - why it’s important?
Revision works best when you practice what you'll be doing in the exam - and that means answering questions. By writing out what you know as exam answers, you'll be making it easier to remember what you learned in class.

Knowing what you will be examined on
In the exam you'll be expected to answer questions on the subjects you studied in modules. This means you'll need a full set of notes to revise from. If you missed some classes, your notes may not be complete. To make sure your notes are up-to-date, check your notes against the subject revision checklist (if you haven’t got one, ask your teacher). If the checklist shows you are missing notes on some subjects, ask your teacher which chapters of the text book you need to read, and make notes to fill in the gaps.

These are an ideal way to practice answering exam questions i.e. to read the past years exams papers but you don't have to wait until then to get some practice: most text books have example exam questions.

Past exam papers are very useful when organizing your revision notes. Arrange your notes in the same order as the topics appear in the exam paper. Once you've done this, try to list the key facts for each topic. You'll find that organizing your notes makes them easier to remember.

Passing exams with top marks means knowing what to write about, and also what to leave out. You don't have to write down everything you remember, and getting this right needs practice. Before you start writing, check the number in brackets after each question. This tells you how many points each question is worth. It also gives you a clue to how much you should write.

For example, a three-mark...