Exam Review

Exams aren't easy, and that is by design.  That little bit of extra stress is neurologically valuable to writing long term memory.  Everyone who has ever crammed for a test (so, you know, everyone) knows that you do not hang on to memories that are learned quickly or only visited once.  Exams are meant for students to revisit, integrate, and deepen the learning that happened over the semester.

What is the best way to review for exams?  Here are a few helpful hints.
1.  Think like your teacher.
     If you are taking an exam in middle or high school, you have known your teacher for several
     months.  If you have have been doing your job as a student, this means you know what they care
     about.  You know how they give hints.  You know their test writing style.  You know if they tend
     to pull questions from the book or not.  You know if there some concept they find incredibly
     important.  My students, for example, should know that I care very much about the First Law of
     Thermodynamics and that the short answer questions will be based on things that are simply too
     complex to be asked about as a multiple choice question.  They know that if I have repeated
     something several times, written it in capital or bold letters, or have said, "This would make an
     excellent test question" that it is something I find important.

2.  Use your old tests as a guide.
     A good teacher is NOT copying and pasting their exam questions from your old tests, but they are
     still your most valuable source of study, especially if your teacher does not provide a study guide.
     For one thing, the teacher thought something was important during the chapter, they will still find
     it important now.  More importantly, if they didn't think it was important enough to ask about it  
     on a test, it is unlikely they will suddenly find it so important that it must be on the exam.  Also, it
     gives you some idea of how the teacher might ask about an objective.  It may not be the exact
     same question, but it will likely be somewhat similar.  If you do have a study guide, take each
     objective on it and look for questions on your old tests that align with that objective.  Then, see if
     you can write a similar question.

3.  ASK QUESTIONS!
     Over the past ten years or so, many students have stopped asking questions.  The number one
     piece of advice I give in parent-teacher conferences is that the student needs to ask questions
     when they are confused by something.  The parent usually tells me that the child is embarrassed
     to ask questions in class.  I tell my classes that kids their age used to go off to war, so they should
     get over being afraid to ask questions in front of their friends.  It boils down to the choice
     between being embarrassed to ask questions and being embarrassed by your grade.  Even if a
     student comes to help class or e-mails the question to me later, nothing replaces the value of
     asking the question AT THE TIME they learning the material for the first time.

4.  Practice healthy habits.
     I hate to make anyone's parents right about something, but there that your parents insist on your
     bedtime.  There is a reason that your grandma used to say that breakfast was the most important
     meal of the day.  There is a reason not to eat a doughnut for lunch.  There is a reason why
     cramming for a test doesn't work.  These reasons are neurological, so they aren't personal to you.
     Eating breakfast provides energy to everyone's brain and gets their metabolism started for the day.      Getting a good night's sleep restores chemical balance to your brain.  There's a lot of waste
     neurotransmitters left in your brain when you go to bed at night after a day of constant stimulation.      Sleep allows those to be disposed of and dealt with without creating more.  This allows your brain      to process more quickly and more accurately.  That's why an all nighter really isn't going to help
     you the way you think it is going to.  Your brain cannot retain what is crammed into it all at once
     because it isn't a trash bag to be filled.  It is an organic machine with needs and processing speed.
     Giving your brain what it needs is the way to ensure that it gives you what you need.  You ask a
     lot of your brain, so you need to take care of it.

5.  Prioritize.
     It may be more fun to study for your favorite class, but let's face it.  The one you need to study for
     is probably your least favorite class.  Even within a course, you can't treat all information equally.      Figure out what topics are likely to be focused on and focus your study there.  Recognize that
     there are classes in which your grade can take a small hit so that you can really try to do well on
     the exam of the class for which you have a lower grade right now.  Scheduling time will help you
     to set those priorities rather than trying to cram.  Have I mentioned yet how bad an idea cramming
     is?

There are other pieces of advice that I could give you, but you need to go study.