The Trick I used to Prepare For My Examinations.

You cannot move to the next phase or stage if you fail an examination. Being examined as a student in a school is like an evaluation to check whether what the student had been taught has been understood, and the inability to meet some criteria in the exam will lead to failure. This may delay such students from entering a new class or level.

The reason I used "may" in the context is that there are people who would pay their way crossing over to a new class or level if they have what it takes to do that. This is where we have what is called "sorting" in the University where lecturers are being bribed to pass a student even when it's obvious such an individual failed.

The examination is conducted in different ways. It depends on the authorities or the one handling it. There is the oral examination which involves an individual facing a jury or examiner who asks questions and the said person or student replies in spoken words, while the written examination is done on paper.

In a school setting, we have different students with unique styles of reading in preparation for exams and it is funny to see some people reading a day before the examination because they aren't used to reading ahead and preparing for what could take months to arrive. They see it as time wasting while they engage in other things.

When it comes to getting prepared for an examination, we have students who engage in one or two of the following;

• Creating a group reading
• Going for night classes
• Attending tutorials
• Visiting the library
• Reading all alone indoors
• Plugging earphones to music while reading
• Chewing gum, eating snacks
• Drinking energy drinks and those that contains caffeine like coffee, nescafe, just to stay awake.

Most students cram while others read to digest and pen down in the way they understood the topic, unlike the crammers who pour everything down as they have loaded in their brains. We call this style "la cram la pour" meaning as they cram all line by line, they give back to the lecturer the same way he or she has been taught.

For these kinds of people, they are too careful with what they allow around them because when someone who has crammed all in his or her brain gets distracted, that information may disappear and they find it hard to retrieve back when in the examination hall except they found a cue which triggers the brain to bring everything back again.

With all these aforementioned, I have my style of reading and getting prepared for examinations because I wouldn't want to be disappointed or fail a course or subject. When it comes to this stage, I am always focused and deal with anything that may distract my attention or make me lose focus. I call this moment a delicate one that requires my full attention.

We all have our unique ways of preparing for exams and failure to identify yours may lead you to confusion and in the end, you might miss such a course which will make you repeat a class or carryover a course. During my time in the College and University, I found a style which I stick to till I graduated and it helped me greatly.

There was a day I followed a colleague to read in school; though it was a good style, I didn't get used to it because it was unpleasant for me. I returned to my usual norms of preparing for exams.

I love revising a course after the lecture has ended for me at home. Making Google my friend was a great way to understand a particular topic in the simplest form because, at times, there are topics that I find hard to grasp when the lecturer is explaining. This has helped me a lot not to stress myself when reading for tests because of my preparedness for them.

Library wasn't my thing when reading in preparing for exams because, during that period, there are students who would come to patronize the place and noises everywhere make me lose focus on time. I am a person who would read a line of a sentence hundred times when there is noise or music in the background as my mind will only be focused on them rather than what I am reading. This is why I made the night my companion for reading.

My best time for reading was from 11 pm till 3 am or most times until I have covered 80% of the course before I could sleep. By this time, students and everyone around would have slept or might be reading and everywhere would be calm and quiet. This is the best time to read and assimilate with nothing disturbing me. During the day, all I do was to jot some things down in my Jotter while I just skimmed through the pages so as to get prepared for the main job in the night.

The only thing I do after then is to revise all I have read and if my friends are around, we organize a little time to ask questions based on what we have read. This makes it easier for anyone of us to recognize which one we haven't touched and we quickly go through it. After then, we head straight to the examination hall where we are left to put down all we have read and understood.

I love writing down in my own words except if the lecturer handling the course wants something else because we have some of these lecturers who would prefer giving them back the exact way they have taught you while others would prefer writing the way you understand the topic. I think the latter is the best.

Just like I said, my trick in preparing for exams is by reading from 11 pm which I consider the best time to start when everywhere is quiet, so that I could have enough sleep after then.

Thanks for your time on my blog.