You may have studied your material well and still not get the grades you deserve. Or you can have less work done and still maximize your test scores. What do you need to do for? Practice exactly what you have to do on the exam by asking as many questions as you can under the right conditions.
Assuming you’re already working without notes or text, timing yourself and learning how much you have to write as discussed above, then you’re well on your way.
Whats Next?
Find out as much as you can about what is required in the exam questions. Pay attention to the action words in the questions. Indicate, define, explain, outline, compare… learn exactly what these words require. They will tell you how deep to go in your answers.
Too many incoming exams look at the content words in the question to see what it is about and then dump what they know onto the page. It’s better than nothing, but especially if you’re well prepared, you’ll probably write too much and won’t get any points for the extra parts you write! It doesn’t matter how much you know if the question isn’t about that!
Know your curriculum. Find out in each section the depth required. Don’t rely too much on your textbooks – they contain a lot of extra information to help explain what you need to know or to make it more relevant or interesting. Get the most out of your teacher’s experience.
Listen to your teachers and ask for advice. They will be delighted to see you think so proactively about the progress of your own study and will save you a lot of time that you could waste trying to figure it out for yourself.