Three Steps to Studying for Uni Exams (~jinghan)

A self-confessed study-whore’s guide for lost souls

Equipment: your favourite stationary, a tree of paper, and a brain (get one for $4.99 from the reject shop!)

Time: No more than a week for any one subject* (even that can be too long) or you are studying too much and will die from studying. (I’m warning you!)

Exams at uni are different to high school, there is no set curriculum, hence everything is at the whim of your particular lecturer. Sounding intelligent when you get into the exam is probably more important than memorising all the key terms/steps/dot points. Yes, things would be a lot easier if we actually did some more learning throughout the semester… but for now follow these steps:

1. Summarise the course.

Palm cards, dot points, mind maps, back of your hand, the easiest most brainless thing to do. But it gets you out of procrastination mode and into ohshit-so-much-to-study mode.

2. Learn the facts/formulas as you do practice questions.

As much as we love cramming, first resort is to do questions. Only look at your notes if you’re really really stuck, and make big read crosses and write the right answer when you mark the questions. The shame and inconvenience of it all will make you naturally remember stuff. Keep going back to the topics that you fumble with. Draw smily faces when you get better at something. =D

3. Do a past paper or two and cram.

When the exam is almost knocking at the door, this is the time to do a past paper (ie. something that covers all the topics in one hit) cram that stuff you realise you haven’t learnt yet.

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Extra Tips that you may or may not like to follow:

• Human brain works better during the day, so I advise you to actually get up in the morning
• Give yourself a break in the evening and watch mind-less TV, when you feel like nothing is going in anymore… nothing is going in anymore.
• If stuck email a tutor/lecturer or facebook some classmates. The more vague your course outline is, the more important it is that you keep in touch with classmates.
• Only go over the stuff that you crammed the night before in the moments before the exam (the less you crammed the better, I tell you) otherwise just relax and repeat your seat number over and over in your head.

*disclaimer: this depends on how much is already in your brain, and presuming you have absorbed at least 50% of the course during lectures/tutes etc. Allow extra time if you’re learning the course from scratch (or if you have a conventional oven).