Academic texts

Exams
 Developing a positive attitude
 Formulating clear goals
 Making a study timetable
 Getting the best out of your revision
 On the day of the exam
 Reading time
 Essay exams
 Multiple-choice exams
 Open-book exams
 After the exam
 Further reading

Note: Check the exam preparation workshops available on your campus

Developing a positive attitude

Like sport, exams require knowledge, skills, practice and a positive attitude. Having the right
attitude towards your study is very important. Your goal is to perform at your peak on exam day.

Being well prepared boosts confidence. Preparing well means starting early in the semester,
having clear goals and organising your time. All this will help you to develop a positive attitude and
to perform at your best.

Part of having the right attitude also means coming to terms with the fear of not doing so well.
Negative self-talk, such as, 'My life will be ruined if I fail' will not help you. Instead, try to imagine
that you are in the exam situation and feeling confident and terrific. Success!

Formulating clear goals

To clarify your long-term goals ask yourself why you are doing this course and what you want to
achieve. This then leads to more medium and short-term goals. For example, if you decide that
you are doing a management course because you want to set up your own business (a long-term
goal), your medium term goal might be successful completion of a particular unit or assessment
task. Your short-term goal might be to summarise a topic in preparation for an exam.

Making a study timetable

Being organised and managing your time is crucial, and having a timetable is particularly
important as exams approach. Although revision should start early in the trimester, it is never too
late to start.

Use a trimester planner to map out what tasks have to be completed. You need to be sure of the
important dates when assignments are due and when your exams will be held. You could also
include major personal events in your life that will impact on your studies, such as weddings,
holidays and so on.
Next, consider what your commitments might be in an average week. Your weekly planner
should include work, sleep and family commitments. Don't forget to allow for hobbies and
recreational activities. Over the trimester, you should allow an average of ten hours a week for
each subject you are studying.

You need to consider what tasks are most appropriate for each of the times you have available.
For example, reading a difficult text might best be done when you are mentally alert. Leave
simpler tasks to study periods when you work less effectively. For each study session, ask yourself
what you want to achieve.

Getting the best out of your revision

There are principles of effective learning that apply to revision. You need to commit information
from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. In order to do this you must revisit your
material many times. You also need to be actively engaged with your material in committing it to
memory - just reading or highlighting material is too passive for effective recall.

We remember best the things that are meaningful for us. So, always place what you are studying
within the overall context of the subject. Become familiar with the unit outline early in the
trimester. Try to develop an overview of the subject from your study guide and identify the
patterns and structures in the subject.

If you regularly review throughout the trimester, by exam time much of the memory work will
have been done. Clearly, getting information into your long-term memory will take time, so start
early. Leaving all your revision to the end of the trimester means that you will cram. Information
will only go only into short-term memory and will be forgotten.

Psychologists have studied how people remember (and forget!) things; some of their findings can
be of use to us. Research has shown that we can recall only about 20% of new information within
24 hours of learning it but this goes up to 60-80% if we review the information within 24 hours.

Download copies of old exam papers, if available for your unit, from the Deakin Library website or
DSO. This will give you an idea of the types of questions usually asked. Practise answering exam
questions under realistic time constraints so you become familiar with how you will have to
perform on the day.

On the day of the exam

Have a good breakfast; exams do not have coffee breaks. Wear comfortable clothes. The weather
is changeable and the exam room may not be heated or cooled. Check that you have several pens
and everything else you are allowed to bring with you into the exam.

Re-read your summaries, but don't try to cram new information. Leave home in plenty of time so
that you will arrive early and avoid last minute panic.

Expect to feel a little nervous; nobody is immune from exam anxiety. Some adrenalin can be
useful if it can be channelled into a drive to get you through an event.
Reading time
Use your reading time profitably. Get an overview of the structure of the paper. Read all
instructions very carefully. Be clear on what sections, and questions are compulsory. Read all of
the questions carefully and select the questions you will answer.

Plan the amount of time you will spend on each question. The time should be proportional to the
allocated marks. For example, if a question is worth 30% of the marks, you should allocate 30% of
your time.

Decide on the order in which you will answer questions, making sure that you do not leave
compulsory questions until the end. Answer easier questions first as these will boost your
confidence and may even allow you to pick up some extra time that you can spend on more
difficult questions.

Essay exams

Lecturers comment that when students do not do well in essay exams it is because they do not
answer the question, and their answers are not well structured.

When answering essay questions you are usually expected to provide more than just the facts. You
may also have to give an opinion, develop an idea, or discuss a position. You need to explain your
ideas clearly and produce specific examples.

Before writing, make a quick plan, as you would for an assignment essay.

It is important to:

 answer the question precisely and concisely

 present your arguments and ideas clearly - your assessor
is not a mind reader.

Multiple-choice exams

In multiple-choice exams the chance of getting an answer correct by guessing is not very high.
Your best strategy is to know your material well.

 Read all the alternatives, even if you think the first one is
correct.
 Eliminate answers you know are wrong.
 Sometimes it is preferable to think about what the correct
answer might be before looking at the alternatives.
 Eliminate answers that contradict common sense or are
illogical.
 Answers you cannot understand are likely to be incorrect.
 Be wary of options that include absolutes such as
'always', 'never', 'all', 'none' - they will often make a
statement false.
 Be especially careful of negatives, i.e. questions which
include phrases like, 'Which of these is not...?', 'All of
these except ...'.
  Watch your time very carefully. Do not spend too much
time on one question. Move on.

Open-book exams

Open book exams can be a trap because they can lull you into a false sense of security. You need
to be thoroughly prepared. You do not have time to read your textbook in the exam nor to find
new information. Texts can be a handicap unless you know your way around them very well. Be
very familiar with the texts and know where to find sections that you will need to refer to.
Coloured post-it stickers are very useful for this purpose.

After the exam

After the exam, take some time to reflect. It is important to build on your strengths and learn from
mistakes.

 Were you able to keep to your exam timetable?

 As you revised, were you an active learner?
 Were you surprised by the type of exam questions on the
paper?
 Did you manage your time in the exam efficiently?
 Did you answer the questions asked?