Your Personal Best Examination
Performance
Get Ready – Exams are Coming
Student Learning Development
Student Counselling Service
Trinity College Dublin
student.learning@tcd.ie
http://student-learning.tcd.ie
Learning Objectives
• Explore ways to prepare
for exams
• Review active revision
strategies
• Build self confidence
• Establish exam prep plan
Examinations as Events
Sporting performance
• Content
– Physical skills - basic
to advanced
• Fitness
– Health
– Strength
– Stamina
– Flexibility
• Event
– Performance
rehearsal
Academic performance
• Content
– Knowledge - basic to
advanced
• Fitness
– Health
– Revision
– Workload
– Tolerance of ambiguity
• Event
– Performance rehearsal
Know Yourself
•
•
•
•
•
What are your exam concerns?
Why do you have these concerns?
What do you do well?
What could you do better?
Have friends developed strategies that
you can use?
• How do you manage your stress?
Get Organised
The keys to your personal best is
preparation and control
• Focus on the subjects you
are sitting
• Remove distractions
• Make a study program and
timetable
• Revision checklists
Learn from the past
• Get detailed information
about what your exam
paper looks like
• Identify and revise topics
you do not know well
• Course handbook and
marking criteria
Where is my exam timetable and
my past exam papers?
Active Revision Strategies
• Condense your notes
– Chunk
– Memorable
– Concept maps, grids, etc.
• Focus
• Answer past papers &
problems
• Flash cards for memorisation
• Test yourself
Develop a Structure for Your
Answers
• Understand what is being
asked
• Only answer the QUESTION
• Do not include material that is
irrelevant to the QUESTION
• Understand the format in which
your answers are required
• Practice and practice
answering previous exam
questions using the required
format
More Active Revision
• Make revision fun
– Use revision strategies where you move
around
– Draw pictures, maps, cartoons, diagrams, etc
– Put key points around your walls
– Teach “someone” else and ask them key
questions (answer the questions yourself)
– Listen to tapes or view video/DVD versions
of the material
• Make exam preparation a social
occasion
Play to your strengths
www.vark-learn.com
Learning and recall
• Two processes not one
• Recall is triggered by physical situations and
emotional states
• Material learned in one physical situation or
emotional state will not necessarily be easily
accessible in another physical situation or
emotional state unless revised in that state
• Conclusion?
Personal Exam Prep Plan
1.
2.
3.
4.
Building Self Confidence
• Your objective is to do your personal best
• Think of exams as an opportunity for you to
show what you know
• Get familiar with the examination space
• Exam outcomes are proportionate to the effort
you put in
• Set learning targets and rewards for yourself
• Compare what you know now with what you
knew at the beginning of the year
Managing Stress
• Read up on stress and time
management on
http://student-learning.tcd.ie
• Establish habits that support
concentration and examination
preparation
• Go to the new Sports Hall and get
involved in stress management
physical activity
Summary: The Keys to Your
Personal Best
• Preparation
– Organisation
– Intelligence/information
– Active revision
– Stay focused
– Structure and content
• Control
– Manage your emotional and physical
responses
– Think positively
• For all your study skills needs:
http://student-learning.tcd.ie