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Tackle exams with elan
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With exams crouching at the corner, those at the writing end may not always be well prepared. Take heart. Last-minute preparations, if done systematically, can yet save you. Here are a few tips from <145,4>ANAND NAIR, who has had a long innings with the British Council, streamlining syllabi in different countries
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In an ideal world there would be no exams -- and no many other things, like poverty and chronic illness. But alas, our world is real and it contains examinations, at regular and predictable intervals. They are the punctuation marks of a schoolchild's life. So we have to pull up our trousers (or churidars), tighten our headbands and square up to exams. Right?
It is true that there are more examinations in developing countries than in the so-called developed countries. For instance, in the United Kingdom, children are promoted from Class I through secondary school, right through to the final year or GCSE stage without ever wondering whether they will have to repeat a year. They might be assessed for achievement or effort, or indeed to test the system itself, but that is all.
In developed countries, however, there is a shortage of places as one goes up to the apex of the educational pyramid and the ability of the student to get to the next stage is tested many times along the way. Interestingly, the experience is just as daunting to the able student as to the weak one. Whichever category you belong to, how can you perform to the best of your abilities?
The first fact to recognise is that those who have worked hard throughout the years are going to find the process easier than those who have whiled away their time, and left everything to the last minute. However even during the last few days there are some things that the examinee can do to improve his results:
Budget your time
If there is only one (or a few) weeks left to prepare, it is important that you are wise to what is important and what can be put aside for the moment. You had intended to draw that graph personally and check out the gradients, but this is too late to do so. It will waste valuable studying time. Concentrate on learning what is quickly learnable and occurs frequently in the examinations.
Make a study timetable, - and stick to it. It should be realistic, and at this point very pragmatic. There is no time now to spend on gaining insights about the horseshoe magnet. Just memorise what you have in your notes and leave thorough understanding for later.
Memorise
Underline, in your notes or text, those bits that need to be memorised, - and can be memorised. Stick to essentials. Create mnemonics if they help. An easy example is the one used by students to remember the positive and negative trigonometric ratios in the four quadrants in a circle.
Prioritise
There is no time to learn comprehensively. Learn the responses to those questions that are known to occur frequently in tests and exams. Be guided by your tutor or class teacher or even by other students who have more experience. Ignore the peripherals.
Take care of your health
This means not skipping meals to study, forgetting about the diet to contest in that Miss India contest and generally looking after your physical needs. These include regular well-balanced meals, lots of fluid (particularly during hot weather days), and snacks if you are studying into the early morning hours.
Exercise and relaxation
Sitting too long at the desk induces torpor: you read, but the words swim in front of you and your mind goes round in circles, not absorbing much.
Know when to switch off, take a walk round the compound, get a bath, play with your siblings, listen to music, - whatever.
TV and music
Forget about what happened in your favourite serial; this is hardly the time to worry about the virtual characters there. Music, on the other hand, is often a good background to study to. It varies with students. While some need perfect quiet, others need a little music to provide a soft rhythm in that private world of studies. Follow your instincts.
Be comfortable
Study in a place that is well lit and ventilated. Being comfortable, however does not mean, read lying down.
You will probably get drowsy and nod off eventually if you read in the horizontal position.
You cannot risk that on the eve of exams.
However if you are really tired, it may be best to sleep for an hour or two at least and start again, refreshed.
Be selfish and antisocial
I remember an excruciating examination eve when I was doing my English (BA) paper. My father had organised a Kathakali performance in the fields opposite our house. I remember guests pouring in right through the night, trays full of tea and coffee that were ordered from the kitchens, and me going from crowded room to crowded room seeking a hiding place, tattered copy of `Macbeth' in hand.
If I remember right, Kathakali won the exasperating day.
Make it an absolute bottom line with your family that there will not be weddings or birthday parties or family reunions organised during the exam period.
Make a bargain with parents. `You keep your side of the bargain and I will put in the required hours for getting a good grade in the exam.'
And keep your promise!
Household chores
Ask to be excused from household chores during the few days in the run-up to the exams.
Whether it is the car or the bike, let it go unwashed, let siblings do the clearing up.
As a matter of grace do some extra housework after the exams; there might be another one in another year and you might need the goodwill of your family.
Make brief notes
It is useful to make some notes. They should be brief as also succinct. These notes are aide-memoirs and not exhaustive precises. If they take more than five minutes to make, for a chapter, then you won't have time to learn them on the eve of the exam. So be merciless in pruning them to handy titbit size.
In the exam hall
Do not waste precious minutes reading the entire question paper if there is no choice anyway.
Start with the questions you are more sure of and proceed to the next easy one and so on.
Do not spend an undue amount of time on a question that is hard to tackle and thus end up not having time for the ones you do know the answers to.
Checking
Leave a little time, a good ten minutes if that is possible, for a quick read-through when you have finished writing.
It might give you an extra five or six marks if you are able to edit careless errors.
Waiting for results
Once you have done your bit and the exam is over, try to forget it.
The die is cast; you cannot change anything now.
Enjoy your holidays and resume your normal life quickly.
At the end of the day a single-sample test can say very little about you; so forget it.
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