“Exams are my favorite!” said no one ever.
The internet goes out during the test, your computer runs out of battery—everyone has their pre-exam nightmares. Whether you simply dislike taking tests or you completely dread them, there is help for you!
University of Nebraska High School (UNHS) Academic Adviser Debby Bartz gives some advice to help you ace your next test.
- Read all assignments.
Learning the material has to start somewhere. To gain a solid understanding of the information, you must take your time to actively read and comprehend the information. "Actively" is the key word—take your time, look at all accompanying graphs and charts, and review the information once you finish. - Complete all practice that is offered throughout the course.
You know the saying, “Practice makes perfect”? Well, it applies to exam-prep! The more practice and repetition, the more likely you are to convert the learned information and skills to long-term memory. Some teachers may even base their tests off of practice questions and exercises. - Take notes that answer the course goals and lesson objectives.
All assessments and lesson content (including UNHS objective evaluations, written project and self-check tests) are carefully matched to both course goals and lesson objectives. Understand these to make sure you are on the right path. - Re-study the content of guessed and missed answers on unit evaluations.
One of the best ways to learn is from mistakes. Look at what content you missed our guessed on to make sure you are confident of the correct answer. Think not only about what the correct answer is, but why the other options are incorrect. - Rank all test questions from easy to medium to hard.
Answer the easy questions first—ones you know you can get right. Then answer the medium questions—ones you can get right if you spend more time. Finally, answer the hard questions. Building on success will give you confidence and a positive outlook as you go. - Cover the distractors, then read the test questions.
Distractors are answers that are unrelated to the topic in the question. Cross them off first. Try to eliminate choices until you have only two remaining and then choose the best answer.