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First, of course, make sure you have read
and done all of the suggestions under listening, memory, note taking,
organizing,
text book marking, text
book reading, time management,
studying, vocabulary,
and thinking. |
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Next, you're ready to prepare your brain and
body for the test.
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The night before the test, stop studying
around 7:00pm or 8:00pm. Rather than putting more information into
your brain, you need to give it time to relax and continue to
assimilate all of the information you have studied.
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If you allow your brain to become
overwhelmed, you could panic or go blank during the test.
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Get a good night's sleep. Remember
that most people need between 8 to 10 hours of sleep, but most of us
get 4 to 6. You need some good quality sleep so that your
brain can assimilate the information you have learned and also to
re-energize your body. During sleep, your body will also get
oxygen to your brain.
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Eat breakfast. Just as a car need
fuel, so does your body. When your car is full of fuel, it
operates at its optimum and runs smoothly. When your body is full of fuel, it operates at its
optimum. Food is one way of
getting fuel to your body. You don't want to just "get by". Yes, you may
be able to walk around and remember a few things, but not as much as
if you were well stocked on sleep and food.
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Do not study the day of the test. Your
brain is already "full" from the information you have learned.
Again, overloading your
brain this way could cause you to panic or go blank during the test.
If you continue to put more information into your brain, "barriers"
could form around your long-term, working, and short-term memories,
overwhelming your brain and preventing any information from getting
out.
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When you go to your classroom, don't
talk with your classmates. Just relax.
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If you talk with your fellow classmates,
they may say something such as, "Boy, I've got this aced!"
This remark could bring down your self-confidence and may cause you
to think, "Well, I thought I had everything covered, but maybe I
don't."
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Or, they could say, "I just know I'm
going to fail! I don't understand a thing." Again, this
type of remark could undermine your self-confidence and cause you to
think the same thing.
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Even if the person is just talking about
shopping or their family, his or her remarks could bring you down in
some way, right when you need to keep your self-confidence up.
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If people ask why your not talking, just
tell them you're concentrating, or take earphones, but don't plug
them in.
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Once in the classroom, be sure to listen
to the instructor's words. He or she may tell you to skip
question 26, but if you don't listen, you may spend a lot of time on
the question and lose time better spent elsewhere.
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Also, once you receive your test, read
the instructions. The instructions may tell you to do every
other question. If you do every question, you will lose a lot
of time and probably do poorly on the test.
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Next, scan the test. By this, I
mean look over the whole test getting a flavor for what type of
questions are on there and where they are. Doing so will warm
up your brain and prepare you for testing.
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Not only that, but scanning will let you
know which questions to do first. Always do the easiest
questions first. At least you'll have that many correct.
In addition, you will can time. Then, do the next easiest, the
next easiest, and so on.
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If you cannot answer a question in a
finger snap, quickly move on before your mind becomes fixated on it
and you become frustrated. Once you become fixated, you won't
want to move off a question until you have answered it.
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Once you have answered all of the "easy"
questions, go back and answer the ones you could not answer before.
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By now, your brain is warmed up and in
"math mode, or English mode, or science mode." By working
other questions, you may have remembered how to do harder questions.
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When you are through with your test,
double check it. Make sure you did not skip any questions.
This step is especially important if you are using a scantron.
It's not always wise to second guess yourself, but sometimes after
you brain gets into "test mode," it can see errors that you made
when your brain was still "cold." However, don't start
questioning yourself on everything; you'll just cause your brain to
go into a panic, and you might change questions that are correct.
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Once you have begun your test, write
down on scrap paper or your test paper everything you can remember,
such as formulas, etc. Doing so is not cheating as long
as you do it AFTER the test has begun.
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On a true/false test, if the question
contains the words "always" or "never," the answer is usually false
because those words are too finite.
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On a true/false test, if the question
contains the words "sometimes" or "usually," the answer is usually
true because those words are open ended.
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