Examination Prep: The Atomic Things to Achieve Success

Recently, I spent a few days creating my final memories as an undergraduate student at my university. This signifies not only that I have graduated but also that I am now a new graduate with numerous stories to share. However, in retrospect, these memories are not entirely novel, as some of them are common to most university experiences, especially those on this side of the world. Therefore, I will be sharing my experiences related to examinations.

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When it comes to matters of exams and preparing for them, I wasn't much of an avid planner for my academics when I first started out in school. But as a result of my performance then, I changed my attitude towards my academics and began to consider better strategies.

In as much as we would like to view the education system we have now as "flawed," especially with the fact that the majority of what we do is basically memorize, even without understanding sometimes, we can all agree that the first step to actually learning something is to believe we can learn it; otherwise, it would be a rather tedious process of stuffing our brains with information.

Starting out early

I naturally found it quite challenging to spend the last few minutes (or hours) preparing for an examination. This is because I not only have to study weeks' worth of materials previously provided in such a short time but also have to do the same for other courses within that same time frame. It is that time when I would be expecting this tiny brain of mine to absorb all the necessary information (sometimes everything) and then provide it from some imaginary storage device I might have somewhere in my head—what a fantastic ambition!

In order to better position myself to "remember" all that I may have studied, I try to ensure that there is a lot of time to study and enough time to cement what I have studied into my brain. "Repetition is the mother of learning," they say. And the more I practice what I've learned, the easier it is to remember it; it may even become second nature for as long as I revise it.

The volume of material to cover and the complexity of its subject determine how much time it could take to really "master" its content. One's mindset is a large contributor.

Believing in oneself

Throughout my school years, I used to tell myself, "Nothing is impossible to learn if I completely believe I can learn it and put my mind to it." This eliminates any cognitive bias I may have had about a course based on previous performances I am aware of or the collective negative perception of my colleagues that could affect me.

It has happened twice, at least, when I would be the only one to score an A in a particular course. And this is not because I had an upper hand or something of the sort; it is because I dedicated special attention to those particular courses and adequately treated them. In the end, it always paid off.

I practically applied this to generally any course that may seem "challenging" and had good results in it. Of course, getting started as soon as possible helps a lot.

Just do it

Part of my first mistake in my first year was that I failed to assess and understand what works for me, and that includes the matter of "timetables." I do not mean lecture timetables, but study timetables.

At first glance, it does sound like a good idea to have a timetable, as it would seem one is on the right path to success, but in my experience, it puts me in a rather rigid or inflexible position. And as we all know, not everything happens the way we plan (or expect), and that often requires us to be "flexible" in our plans. That is, imagining potential flaws and developing realistic plans to adequately maneuver efficiently.

For example, I could be taking 10 courses in a semester. And so to "ensure that I am up-to-date with those courses," I tried to allocate them specific hours of the week (and day) to study them. But when life and its contingencies began to take their course, the plan became more glaringly ineffective, as things fell apart easily when plans changed even the slightest bit, like moving a morning lecture to be held in the evening instead.

Rather than just "find the perfect time" to study, I opted for the mantra "Just do it." And although I still had a subconscious plan for what to study, it was primarily based on lectures. I simply read whenever and wherever I had the opportunity.

For example, if I have Physical electronics in the morning at 9 a.m., I would get to the lecture room at least an hour earlier to study. If that place wouldn't be convenient for me to study at that time, I would just pick some other place or corner to study a bit. And then I would do something similar after lectures: study with the little opportunity I had. This includes burning the midnight candle too, but only for a short time, say, one or two hours.

Using Active Learning

Taking notes is how I ensure that I am learning and comprehending. When I study, I always take notes, except when I am being lazy, and that never pays. This makes committing things to memory much easier and more efficient. However, there is a difference between writing down what one had just read a few minutes ago and actually creating a "physical mind library."

In my experience, writing what one had seen or read a few seconds ago, or even minutes ago, does not essentially prove that one has that information committed to memory. Rather, one could engage with the material by doing things like summarizing information in one's own words, and practicing problems frequently.

Buckling up

The importance of rest during examinations is often underestimated. And, as much as it may appear that there isn't enough time to sleep when there are topics to cover and all, not getting enough sleep reduces one's efficiency significantly.

This is why the aforementioned points are crucial for examination preparations. They are the preliminary things to be done leading up to the time for the examinations so as to allow one to observe the necessary steps to perform efficiently.

There once was a time that I had deprived myself of sleep for about a week, and then on the eve of an examination, Electrical Machines 1, I couldn't even process anything in my brain. Sleeping was difficult, and reading felt impossible. If it hadn't been for the fact that I had been reading that course for a long time coming, I wouldn't have performed as well as I eventually did, despite the struggle to prepare one last time.

To summarize, exam preparation does not begin the night before or a few days before the exam, but rather from the start of the semester. The little things we do, the atomic habits, determine the future of one's performance.

• Start out early so as to avail one with enough time to cover a lot.
• Keep the mind open to learning, regardless how seeming difficult.
• Life's not straightforward. Just do it whevever you can.
• Actively engage with the materials for efficient learning.
• Do not underestmate the power of good rest.