There are two kinds of students in the world – students who don’t mind exams and students who completely hate them. If you’re the first kind, this guide isn’t for you. If you’re the second kind, read on.

Do you go to pieces writing essays in exams?

It’s not a trick question…Examiners aren’t trying to catch you out. This might come as a bit of a shock to anyone who’s ever been caught out in an exam, but it’s true. So, if you’ve had one too many nasty surprises in your exam papers, you probably want to know how to avoid it in future. Here’s a few ideas:

Look at past papers – there should be loads in the library, or ask one of your tutors where you can get hold of them.

Look at your old essays – what kinds of questions did you get asked? Can you see a theme emerging?

Review your lecture notes – and look back over the lecture timetable – again, can you see themes or patterns? They don’t just do lectures for no reason, you know – most likely, the topics covered reflect the sorts of areas that will be covered in the exam.

They’re there to help you – and it’s in their interest for you to do well in your exams. Tell them your ideas, get their input.

Have a chat to your course supervisor.

Well, you could start off by trying to plan four key mix-and-match essays. Look in the course handbook at the overall goals for your course – there’s probably not too many of them. Now look at the really good bits of the essays you’ve written over the semester. How do they relate to the course objectives? You should start to see some connections – those are your revision topics.

Once you’ve got your revision topics, you’ll be amazed how a little bit of fancy footwork can change one essay into a completely different one.

Look at some questions from past papers – can you see how you could change what you’ve written for one essay to fit a whole different question?

If you can, good – if not, let’s try a different approach…

Mix and match

Four key essays

Maybe you’ve done all that and the list of possible questions is just huge.

You can’t see a way you’re ever going to be able to remember it all – and even worse, how could you ever plan an essay around so much information?

Have you ever drawn a spider chart before?

It’s just a sheet of paper where you jot down all the ideas you have around a subject, then join up the ideas that are connected. You normally end up with something that looks a bit like a spider.

Spider-man

What’s important here is to get an idea for the big building blocks you’ll be using to put together essays. This will give you a bird’s eye view of your subject, and you can tackle any question that gets thrown at you.

So, have a look at the work you’ve done over the course of the term, and write down all the headline topics. Join up the ones that are connected – soon you’ll find you’ve got around five, six or seven themes that start to emerge. Then for each of those themes, write down the top five most important things. Then go back to the past paper questions, and think about how you could use those ideas to answer them.

CLICK HEREGet more essay tips at: ukessays.com

Thanks for the memories

First of all, don’t panic. Have a look at all the questions and decide which one best fits what you’ve learned. Then write down all the ideas you can remember that you can use to build an essay. Have a think about how they relate to each other, then think of a few headings. Bingo! You’re nearly there. Just write to each of those headings and you’ll have the start of your essay.

Now you’ve got a broad idea of the chunks of work, start thinking about what you’ll need to remember. If you’re studying anything where you can use quotations from whatever source (a book, a play, a magazine, a critic, a journal article) that can be a great place to start. In fact, if you can remember four really good quotes for each of your topics, you’re onto a winner – all you need to do is make sure you use them in your exam.

When you’re in the exam

Write down questions (or answers, or both) on bits of paper and leave them around your house. After a while you’ll get so used to seeing them you’ll remember them without even thinking about it.

Just memorise a few things, then go out and do something else. A bit later, test yourself. You’ll be surprised what’s gone in.

Make flashcards for yourself and get your friends to test you.

There’s lots of ways to memorise things, too. If you find your memory lets you down, try some of these tricks:

CLICK HERE

How to Plan y

our Revision

Plan Your Own

Revision

Timetable CLICK HERE