Contents
- 1. On the last day, you need to pump yourself up with information to the maximum. Short-term memory will keep her and help out on the exam
- 2. On the last day before the exam, you can’t study at all: let your brain “cool down” a little
- 3. Don’t be too calm before an exam. You need to make yourself nervous: in a state of stress, memory works better, it is easier to concentrate
- 4. To successfully pass the exam, you must write cheat sheets, and by hand
- 5. Before the exam, it is important to follow signs
“How can you learn all this?” — students and schoolchildren ask in despair, opening a thick textbook on the eve of the next exam. “How to pull myself together and not worry? What if I don’t remember anything at all? And really, how to successfully pass the exam and not be exhausted at the same time?
During sessions, transfers, and especially final exams, nervous tension covers everyone — both those who, in general, were interested in the educational process, and those who delayed their acquaintance with the subject to the last. But now the decisive moment has come. How to successfully pass the exam? How to organize your life on the days of exams in such a way as to spend this hectic time with the maximum benefit for business, for your own health and — perhaps — with pleasure?
We collected the most common attitudes and asked cognitive psychotherapist Yakov Kochetkov to comment on them.
1. On the last day, you need to pump yourself up with information to the maximum. Short-term memory will keep her and help out on the exam
This strategy may well suit someone who has a mathematical mindset, good memory and logical thinking. But overall it’s not a very useful setup. Still, the volume of our memory is limited and, unfortunately, it does not obey our direct instructions.
If you fill your head with new information for 24 hours in a row, you risk overloading your memory, and it will play a cruel joke with you on the exam. The information that was “uploaded” at the last moment may not pop up in time. You will see questions — and … remember nothing. Or you will start to confuse numbers, dates, formulas.
In addition, in order to pass the exam, it is very important not to burn out at the start.
If a person spent too much effort on preparation and gave it his all, he may come to the exam devastated, he simply will not have the strength — neither emotional nor intellectual. Therefore, it is better to do no more than three to four hours a day, and not only learn new things, but also repeat the information that was learned earlier.
2. On the last day before the exam, you can’t study at all: let your brain “cool down” a little
In general, this is a good setting, if we assume that a person did practice during the year. And if two or three months ago, fixing a topic, he solved 20-30 examples of the same type, it means that he has already developed the skill of solving and there is no need to repeat this topic.
Although I don’t see any point in giving up completely. Why deprive yourself of the opportunity to read something for a couple of hours before passing the exam?
3. Don’t be too calm before an exam. You need to make yourself nervous: in a state of stress, memory works better, it is easier to concentrate
Often such attitudes arise as a result of ordinary coincidences: a person was nervous the day before — and suddenly he passed the exam brilliantly. And he, noticing this connection, made the wrong conclusion: I succeeded because I was nervous.
But in fact, it would be worth noting something else: that this time he was really well prepared. Whether we like it or not, the stress before the exam will appear against our will, so our task is to reduce it, and not artificially warm it up.
It would seem that in a state of stress it is easier to concentrate, it’s true
But only short, healthy stress, just work excitement, is useful. And with unhealthy, prolonged stress, we feel exhausted and do not have time to recover. And it is very important that the phase of exams does not coincide with the phase of emotional exhaustion. But this does not mean that you need to drink sedatives: they can reduce concentration and slow down mental activity in general.
4. To successfully pass the exam, you must write cheat sheets, and by hand
I agree that the use of different types of memory helps the assimilation of information. Sometimes you can even use musical memory, voice — for example, sing some formulas or phrases, putting them on a simple melody.
Drawing up an answer plan, abstract, drawing diagrams, you structure your knowledge and build associative links between different facts. You don’t need to think that you won’t remember anything without this, but cheat sheets always help.
5. Before the exam, it is important to follow signs
Our «magical thinking» is looking for this kind of coincidence. The athlete says to himself: “I won in this T-shirt, it brings happiness, I will run further in it.” And this T-shirt becomes a talisman, part of an important ritual.
Such signs, ritual gestures help to calm down and focus at the same time, they seem to signal to our brain: “Everything is in order, you will succeed.” But signs only work if you are engaged.