Aims & Objectives
Aims:
To provide learners with a comprehensive knowledge
base of how to tackle higher level exams
Objectives:
After the session, the learner will be able to:
1. Consider why we find exams stressful and identify
potential solutions
2. List a variety of effective revision strategies
3. Describe effective exam performance techniques to get
the most out of your exams
3 Areas to Cover
• Attitude and Managing Stress: Sorting
your head out
• Exam Revision: What works
• Exam Performance: What to do on the day
Session Outline
Attitude & Managing StressSorting Your Head Out
What is Stressful about exams?
Individually, consider how you ‘feel’ about examinations. Note down your
fears, anxieties and worries.
Why we worry so much
about exams…
• We wrongly perceive it as winning and
losing
• Failure is taboo
• Success is elusive
• It is easy to become obsessed with grades
• There is more expectation but less support
• We experience student rivalry
• We can become overwhelmed by our
course reading
And what to do about it…
• Understand yourself – why do I stress?
• Disconnect your self-esteem from your
results
• Work for your goals – and then let them go
• Remember that good enough is good
enough
Getting Some Perspective: The
problem with exams
1. Exams fail to measure student’s real
academic ability
2. Exams don’t measure career aptitude
‘Top exam results don’t necessarily
make people happy or wealthy, and
conversely that poor exam results
don’t necessarily inhibit people’s
ability to succeed in their careers
and personal lives’ (Tracey 2006: 8)
‘In the short term, the difference between a
first, second or third class degree may or
may not help you get a good job. In the long
term, the underlying qualities that make you
who you are play by far the greater part in
determining how you fare in your career.
Certainly, there is no correlation between
the class of degree you get and your future
pay packet.’ (Tracey 2006: 10)
Good results come from
working wisely. Quite where
the idea of hard work comes
from nobody knows.(Tracey 2006: 15)
In pairs: Think about revision strategies that might be
considered as ‘working wisely’. Make a list of
possibilities and be prepared to feed them back to the
rest of the class.
So what is working wisely?
• Creating a revision timetable
• Working SMARTly
• Knowing the exam paper
• Having a strategy
• Sourcing the information ready
• Keeping study varied and interesting
• Keeping learning active
And what it is not…
• Having a vague plan
• Relying on what you’ve already got
• Having incomplete knowledge of the exam
format
• Studying without direction
• Passive Learning
Examples of Passive Learning
Reading and Rereading
Callender & McDaniel (2009: 39-40):
‘there has been little evidence to challenge the common opinion that rereading, even immediate rereading is an effective way to study a text’
‘readers extract the same representation from the text both times it is read’
‘fluency…is often misunderstood by readers as improved understanding and comprehension’
Examples of Active
Learning
• Re-presenting information – charts, diagrams, wheels, pictograms, Flashcards, Timeline, Mind-mapping
• Summary sheets
• Predicting questions
• SQ3R
• 3R – Read, Recite, Recall
• Keyword Associations
• Essay Planning
• Self-Testing
• Articulation
• Group Study
• Mock Exams
Exam performance:
What to do on the day
1. Have a time plan
2. Read the Question(s) carefully
3. Write proportionally
4. Where applicable, write a 5 minute plan
5. Stick to your time plan
6. Keep a cool head
7. Be concerned with yourself, not others
8. Use all the time you’ve been allocated
Exam Feedback
Look at some examples on the handout.
Question: What does this tell you about exam
performance?
Answer: There are only so many ways in
which you can go wrong
Final Thoughts
• Exams are high pressurised situations but are over quickly
• Exams have weaknesses too – this is why we are asked to produce coursework
• There is room for error
• Getting things into perspective can help relieve stress
• Good enough is good enough
• There are only so many ways in which we can go wrong in exams
Aims & Objectives
Revisited
Aims:
To provide learners with a comprehensive knowledge
base of how to tackle higher level exams
Objectives:
After the session, the learner will be able to:
1. Consider why we find exams stressful and identify
potential solutions
2. List a variety of effective revision strategies
3. Describe effective exam performance techniques to get
the most out of your exams
References
• Callender A.A., and McDaniel M.A. (2009) The limited benefits of rereading educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 30–41.
• McDaniel, M. A., Howard, D.C. and Einstein, G.O., (2009) The Read-Recite-Review Study Strategy: Effective and Portable Psychological Science April 2009 20: 516-522
• Tracey, E., (2002) The student's guide to exam success [e-book] Buckingham: Open University Press. Available through: Keele University Library <http://opac.keele.ac.uk> [Accessed 30 September 2010].
• Cottrell, S., (2008) The study skills handbook. (3rd ed) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.