This article is culled from The Excel Guidebook for Students: how to excel in exams, based on ethics compliant principles (Fourth Edition). The Excel Guidebook for Students is published by Exam Ethics Marshal International
This article is a continuation of the previously featured series.
Genius is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. No student succeeds without hard work irrespective of how brilliant.
To excel, you must prepare very well for your exams. You must follow your plans. If you work your daily plan religiously, you will achieve the weekly plan. If you achieve the weekly plan regularly, then the plan for the term and session would have been automatically covered. It’s as simple as that. The difficulty lies in deciding what “working hard” means.
Work hard in the right direction.
Let us assume that you are a student of government and questions for the paper will be based on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If you spend all your time studying the constitution of the United States of America, you cannot possibly pass the exam. If you are a student of literature and you are required to read Cyprian Ekwensi’s “No Longer at Ease” and you concentrate your time and effort on reading “Things Fall Apart”, you are bound to fail. In each example, you have worked hard but in the wrong direction. Be sure that you are working with the right materials including
– The correct syllabus
– The recommended texts
– Correct materials for practical.
During revision, refer to past question papers. Make sure you understand the marking schemes as well as the history of students’ performance in past exams.
Attend Classes.
Some students do not attend classes and yet they expect to pass. Regular attendance to class is part of hard work. In the class listen attentively to your teacher, ask questions to clarify foggy points or concepts and jot down the main points.Teachers give away examination topics or questions with phrases like:
Most importantly…
The major point is…
The central issue is…
The essence of …
Take careful note of
The essential points are…
The essential topics in the book are…
If you don’t attend class, you will miss out on the areas of emphasis.
Revision.
Do not wait till the last weeks to start your revision in a frenzy. It does not work. You only end up burning yourself out. Have a plan of revision that runs through the whole session. And work your plan.
