Key to success

"Be selfish. Try to arrange life at exam time so you have as few stressful distractions as possible"

"I would not worry about cleaning the oven during exam time".

If possible, I like to look at the exam room and environment before the day of the exam.

Sleep well once you know where you are going

The night before the exam have a good sleep, but, before that, make sure you know the room number and time for exam.

Have a good meal before the exam.

Prepare everything the night before. Wear comfortable clothing. Gentle exercise might relax you. Arrive in good time

Pen, Pencil and another pen, etc...

When taking examinations every individual is different so it is difficult to advise what would be of benefit.

However, just try to make sure you understand the topic you are being examined on and go prepared, i.e. Pen, Pencil and another pen, etc...

Calm Down

Do not panic. During the exam

Listen carefully to the invigilator

Relax

Read the instructions on the exam paper

Read the questions carefully. It is quite common for questions to make no sense the first time a panicky student reads them. Relax.

carefully again on the assumption that the ones you prepared for are there, but worded differently.

dentify the questions you think you will answer

Use the time given sensibly.

Read each question carefully and remain focused on it throughout your answer.

Make a plan. Structure your answer paying attention to the exact wording of the question.

If you run out of time on a question it is usually best to go on to the next question.

Always answer the full number of questions required.

It is a feature of examinations that the full number of required questions answered poorly gets a better overall mark than an inadequate number of brilliant answers.

f you have left a question unfinished you may be able to find the time to come back to it.

Individual approaches

I prefer essays and coursework to exams. The way I see exams is that you learn something parrot-fashion the week before, scribble it down in the exam - and have forgotten about it by the following week. Exams test your memory, but the things you remember (like names and dates) are not always useful to remember.

More interesting and valuable things can be learned by the research for coursework.

What I usually do for exams is to gather lecture notes, handouts, and information from books and write out all the bits that I are relevant on big sheets of paper. I use spider diagrams and sub-headings: anything that makes learning it a bit easier.

hen I read it over and over. And then I try writing it out without looking at the paper.

Awanka kamai guna yahapath kamai tiyena onima kemekuta succes wenna puluwan

Kammeliyekta nam kawadawath success wenna labenne na

Purajeru kiyawana modainata kawadawath success wenna ba

ov aka attha shaani. api pasuthavannan nova jaya pan bonnange para purai .ask.

Karana onima deyak wenuwen kepa kirimak karana uthsaha wanthayo me loke, me life eka win karanawa

Thawath kenekuta garu karana ekath success wenna godak wedagath wenawa

ivasimen sana sima labei

There are several methods I have been using to ensure good results.

They include choosing only relevant information, then braking that information down into keywords and bullet points.

The use of keywords and bullet points also helps to create structure, which is helpful, if one needs to write an essay for an examination.

It is also useful to revise for short spells rather than for long periods, this helps to absorb information.

I have also found it useful to practice writing down on a piece of paper the knowledge I have of my subject. This shows me what my strong and weak areas are.

Remember that exams are not the be all and end all - they are just one aspect of your student life

his page started with advice from students on a first year module. I added suggestions from a web page created by Learning Support at Middlesex University and suggestions from other sources

The first year students contributions are identified by green buttons. Suggestions from the Learning Support page and other sources have blue buttons. The introduction to the Learning Support page says: "The following tips on revision have been gathered from lecturers and students past and present. People learn in different ways, some of the advice is contradictory. Use whatever works for you; discard the rest."

Make sure that you have completed some previous exam papers as part of your final revision under strict time conditions. Also remember to have the answers (or mark scheme) on hand, it's no use thinking that you have the right answers

Even the most able students will make silly errors when working under time pressure. You need to make sure that you concentrate enough to keep the silly errors at a minimum and also ensure that there are no gaping holes in your maths skills.

Waj

Take a good look at the previous papers, they are unlikely to provide sufficient clues for you to be able to "predict" possible questions for your exam. However, they will help you to appreciate how examiners phrase the questions and help you appreciate the spread of knowledge you require.

The questions sometimes contain clues which will help you solve them - remember the sort of clues which crop up and look out for these in your main exam.

It's no good only revising part of what you have learned in maths. If you want to achieve a good grade, make sure that you can have a good attempt at all questions (even if you can't answer the generally trickier later parts of the questions, the earlier parts should be straightforward marks in the bag).

Strange as it may seem, maths is actually one of the easiest topics to revise - provided that you have understood what you have learned and have solved lots of problems along the way to help you reinforce your understanding.

If you have done this then your maths revision should consist of testing yourself by doing past papers, identifying areas where you've forgotten what it's all about, solving more problems in your weak areas and that's it! No strings of dates or foreign verbs or properties of elements in the periodic table to memorise. Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of thinking that maths is so easy that you don't really need to revise at all or you'll be in for a big shock!

f you've practised some past papers under timed conditions, then this hearing this should be a challenge - rather than a death sentence!

You may have been given a couple of minutes to read the instructions on the first page - make sure that you use these wisely and know exactly what is expected of you.

Some examination papers will say things like:

"Unless otherwise indicated candidates should answer to 2 decimal places". Remember this as you will lose a mark by giving an answer as 2.34567834899 rather than rounding it to 2.35. If no indication on rounding is given, ensure that you round your answers to the same degree of accuracy as other numbers which are provided in the question.

Also, make sure that you know how many questions you have to attempt and how long you've got to answer them.

When you open the paper, do you ignore what's in it and steadily go from question 1 to 2 to 3 turning the pages as you go? Or do you find a question which you know very well and do that first to build your confidence. It's entirely up to you.

I've found that the best thing to do is to very quickly scan through all the questions - you'll see the ones you know well giving you confidence, but this will give you an overall view of the whole exam paper and will help in managing your time. Then wade your way through the questions in sequence leaving out any that you don't like the look of until later.

DURING THE EXAM

Always check your work. Sometimes you can end up with silly errors and not realise it unless you check that your calculations are correct and that the answer is realistic.

Statistics questions are notorious for containing calculation errors as there are normally quite a few numbers involved which need punching into your calculator. It's very easy to miss pressing a key on your calculator which can result in silly answers like saying that the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 14 Km or quoting an average age as 230!

Always read each question thoroughly.

Don't just think "I know what this is all about"

and trample through the question in your hob nailed boots - as you're very likely to come unstuck or make silly mistakes.

f you do a bit of maths before you start the exam it will be a great help, even though not all questions will have the same number of marks, it is a good idea to work out approximately how long you have to answer each question.

1 hour 45 minute exam with 19 questions allows about 5 minutes per question - so the last thing you want to do is linger for ages on a tricky question when there are others you could be answering and getting lots of marks for.

Always write down your method of obtaining answers - put down all thoughts you think are relevant.

Correct answers do not always attract full marks - On a question worth 6 marks, even if your final answer is wrong it's still possible to get 5 out of 6 marks for showing your method!

Be wary of rushing through the questions you believe you know well, as a simple calculation error can throw you into confusion and dent your confidence.

Always check the question for Units (minutes, Kilometers etc.) and make sure that you use the correct units in your answer - remember to perform unit conversions if necessary. Also remember that answers in ? are always to 2 decimal places!

When calculating with minus numbers always show your working e.g. 2 - (-7) = 2 + 7 etc. Even experienced mathematicians make mistakes by missing minuses - make sure you don't.

Whenever you see a right-angled triangle in a diagram, no matter what the wording of the question, immediately think tan, sin, cos and Pythagoras.

Then read the question properly and use these tools to get the answer.

When "Diagrams not to Scale" or something similar is seen next to a diagram - this means that you are expected to calculate the answer and not measure the lines with a ruler or try to estimate.

If you can't see how to do any part of a question, miss it out, but leave a gap in your answer book in case you can finish it later

If you are still stuck and time is getting short, then try guessing - you may get lucky.

Learn the material so you can do well on the exam.

Learn the material well enough so you will still know it next semester!!! (Most of you will be taking more math.

These classes ALWAYS depend on the material you learned the previous semester! If you don't really learn it

Have all memorizing done a couple of days before the exam

USE FLASH CARDS FOR MEMORIZATION OF FORMULAS AND RULES!!!

REWORK EXAMPLES!!

Make an exam for yourself (or better yet, for a study partner)

Take it after a delay period - So you won't remember where you got the problems

If you take the exam too soon, you may think you know the material better then you do!

It is extremely important that you be able to do the problems without knowing what section they came out of!! Be sure to mix the problems up when you are practicing!

Go back over what you had trouble with on your practice exam.

stuff that you didn't absorb well enough from just doing your homework.

The afternoon before exam day:

Read through your lecture notes and think! Work some problems and review memorizing.

Do something fun ----------- But not too much fun!

Also, if you need to get some private tutoring for the exam, do not set your appointment for exam day - or even the night before. Being tutored the day of the exam may fry your brain.

Waiting until the night before is cramming. Plan ahead for all tutoring appointments.

You can get everything you want in life as long as you give others enough of what they want. If you give nothing of value, you get nothing of value

Myths about working can hurt your progress. "Work is not supposed to be fun." "You must buckle down and get serious."

Have you ever thought about how you want to live, and who you

To remind yourself about what your life is all about, I

It is easy to get off-track at times,