Exam success is on everyone’s minds these days. It really is the stepping stone to your further education or career choices…
Naturally, you’re nervous. Everyone is. But don’t worry yourself about that. It’s normal.
That’s why, with so much riding on GCSE or A Level exam results, it helps to keep a healthy perspective as well as get proactive to help you through exam season.
In the Weeks Before Exams
It’s helps to do the following to make sure you’re on the right track:
- Check the Spec. Exam board specs and past papers are free online. Pick a paper you’ve not done before to practise on. Downloading the mark scheme can help you work out ‘how’ to do those tricky questions you struggled on.
- Know your AOs. Every GCSE paper has exam objectives – these are broad statements about what you have to show. Part of this is knowing what you are marked for. When do you have to show working out in Maths? When are you marked for SPaG?
- Speak to Teachers. Now is the time to ask about that iffy mock result, to ask how you can personally improve and achieve your target grades.Don’t stalk them outside the staff room. Hang on after class to ask when would be a good time to sit down with them for a few minutes.
The Night Before
Final prep for exam success happens the night before. Here are five top tips.
- Get ready for the next day. You’d have been given an exam checklist for a correct pencil case kit. Double-check it.
- Eat a balanced meal and plan to have brekkie the next morning.
- Get your uniform ready – especially that tie or your school shoes. They might be under a mountain of other stuff, but it’ll stop last-minute panicking if you get ’em out.
- Read over a few notes, but don’t cram notes.
- Get an early night, rather than stay up late stressing over what you know/don’t know.
Achieve Exam Success On the Day
- Organise your desk space so you know where everything is. If your desk wobbles, alert a teacher before starting.
- Take deep breaths. Breathe in for four seconds, breathe out for seven. It works…
- Listen to instructions carefully, and read each question carefully.
- Can’t answer an answer at first, leave it and come back to it
- Don’t worry about crossing something out – a simple line through it – and starting again. It’s fine. Everyone does it at some point.
- Clock watch to help you stay on track. More marks for longer questions might be stacked through an exam paper’s middle to last questions.
- Ignore what everyone else is doing. Imagine yourself in a bubble where no one can enter your personal space…
Need Last Minute Revision Support?
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Image – with thanks to ssatuk
Tags: exam objectives, exam specs, exam support Manchester, further education, SPaG