From Stress to Success: My Exam Preparation Step-by-Step Guide

Exams..

One word, a thousand feelings.
Before it: anticipation, fear, anxiety, stress, fatigue, insecurity ..
After it's over: relief, excitement, satisfaction, more anticipation (for the grade), freedom

I am about to enter my 'exam mode' and in this post I will share my strategy.

What do I do to deal with an upcoming exam?
How do I prepare myself, and how do I handle my time during the exam?

Please note that this is the strategy that I follow each time.
Feel free to adapt it in your style and improve it :)

(Image created with Bing)

Before the Exam

It is important to have adequate time to prepare yourself. But that is not always the time. I am doing a DL (Distant Learning) course and I also need to do other things in my life. (Family, working, blogging etc). So time is of the essence.

• Write down any pending issues that need to be resolved
  I try to find time and complete any work or other related issues that I have. I do not want anyone to annoy me when I will be studying.
  For me, it is helpful to write everything down and erase it when completed.

• Start gathering your course/study material.
  Depending on if it is an open or closed book exam, you will need time to organize all your material. Pdfs, articles, books, anything that will be helpful. Download it in a special folder, use proper file names to know how to find something easily.

• Writing down the sub-chapters
  It helps me to have a note book where I have written all the themes. This will give me a quick guide of where to find info I am looking for.

• Use AI to create questions/answers
  You can upload the pdfs and ask AI to create a set of questions and answers based on them.
  ATTENTION! DO NOT copy the answers of course when you write the responses in the exam. Use them as reference, but of course make sure they are correct. There are plenty of times where AI is wrong, especially when it comes to education topics.

• Find old exam topics
  Try to search for old students, ask them about what topics they wrote about.
  Teachers tend to recycle their themes :)

• Study
  Study, study, study.
  Read, Understand, Keep notes if you have to.
  Try not to care so much about what you eat. Sleep when you are tired and keep your mind free of bad thoughts.

• Make sure you have checked the time.
  Check the opening/closing time and if needed convert it to your own time.
  Check twice.
  Check again.

• Decide the time you will take the exams
  Make sure that you define the time you ll take the exam, so that noone will bother you. No phones, no doorbells, no company etc.

Starting & During the exam (online)

• Make sure you are not hungry or thirsty.
  Go to the WC, have a glass of water and everything you need near you.

• Reboot your pc
  You dont want it shutting down or anything else during the exam

• Have a clean desk/keyboard

• DO NOT open anything else than the exam page.

• Make a prayer :)

• Go to WC once more

• When you are ready, breathe in, out (do you have your lucky charm with you?) and open the exam page

• Stay cool.

• Read all the questions, start with the one(s) you feel more comfortable with.

• Write with clarity, what comes to your mind. You can always correct something if you need to.

• Try not to leave anything un-answered.

• When you are done, make a last check that you ve left nothing empty.

• Submit.

• Make a prayer again :)

Breathe out, you are free again!!

Nothing more you can do, so rest and wait for the grades.
You did your best

(If you can, write down the themes so that you can give to the new students!)

That's it!

Do you have any tips to share?
Let me know!!

The next days I will be in 'exam mode'
So, I will be posting mostly images, I will come by every day to say hi too!

See you soon!

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