What to do when you forgot to study for that exam or test the following day?

We have all been there. You have stalled, come up with excuses, did everything you could but o study. Now it is the morning before that all important test or exam. What to do? Don’t worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train.

STEP 1: SUMMARIZE

• Don’t Re-Write your Textbook,
• Only learn what you don’t know already
• Keep it Short but precise
• Make it Fun.

It’s hard enough to page through hundreds of pages in your Textbook and not get confused, even depressed at the sheer volume of work. What we suggest is quite simple. Take one A4 page, and summarize a chapter on that one page (use the back also if it is a long chapter). For 10 chapters, you would therefore have 10 x A4 pages

Here are the rules:

• Only dot down the most important facts
• Use creative writing
• Make it easy enough to read, and remember
• Use colour and shapes
• Write in an abstract way, e.g. write skew, write sideways, up and down, whatever helps you to remember the fact

STEP 2: KEYWORDS

• Keep it Simple
• Keep it Colourful
• Don’t use Abstract words

You should not have really any space left for on your A4 page at this stage to write down your Keywords, so we suggest using a highlighter and highlight the relevant Keywords in every sentence.

Generally speaking, choose keywords as follows:

• Generally a Noun or a Verb
• One word that explains the whole sentence
• If you can’t form a mental picture, then you have the wrong Keyword

STEP 3: READ & ASSOCIATE

At this point in time, summarizing your chapter content would have taken up at least half your day, so here is how you would spend the other half:

• Read through your hand-written notes at least once, a second time if you feel you need to
• Start reading your Keywords next and start forming a picture, linking the Keywords together
• Now start to focus all your attention on linking the Keywords together and forming a storyline in your head

Rules of Association:

• Keep the storyline simple and short
• Keep it flowing
• Keep it relevant

STEP 4: PAST EXAM PAPERS & EXERCISE QUESTIONS

Never underestimate the power of past exam papers. Up to 30% of questions will come out of past exam papers, or even the questions at the end of the chapters in your Study Guide or textbook

At this point in time, you shouldn’t have more than 3-4 hours left in the day at the most. Use this time to read through the questions in past exam papers, and also the questions in your text book or study guide.

Herewith the method to use:

• Round 1: Read through all the questions 1-by-1 and answer them as you go along
• Round 2: Eliminate the questions you answered correctly and focus in the next round on the questions you answered incorrectly.
• Repeat Round 2 until you feel you are able to answer at least 80% of the questions correctly

At this point you would have been busy studying for at least 8 – 10 hours. You should have a pretty good foundation for the Exam the next day.

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