Preparation for Your Personal BestScience Exams

Dr. Tamara O’Connor

Student Learning DevelopmentStudent Counselling Service

Trinity College Dublin

student.learning@tcd.ie

http://student-learning.tcd.ie

896-1407

Objectives

• Explore a framework for managing exams

• Learn about active examination preparation strategies

• Rehearse performance at your personal best – exam taking strategies for science & problem-solving exams

Examinations As an Event

• Sport– Skills development

– Fitness training• Strength

• Stamina

– Performance rehearsal

• Academic performance– Learning new material

– Revision• Understanding

• Memory

– Performance rehearsal

Personal Best Performance

By managing:

• Planning = Game Plan

• Revision = Fitness training

• Practice = Performance Rehearsal

• Exam Taking = Performance Event

• Performance Anxiety

Game Plan - Preparation

• Know yourself

• Familiarise yourself with exam

• What topics to revise?

• Skim all materials to determine what to cover

• Overview work to be done & schedule time to do it

Know Yourself

• What are your exam concerns? Why?

• What do you do well?

• What could you do better?

• How do you study?

• What strategies do you use to prepare?

• How do you manage your stress?

Learn from the past

• Get detailed information about what your exam paper looks like

• Identify and revise topics you do not know well

• What works for you?

Organise an Active Revision Program

• Know your learning styles• Make revision fun

– Use revision strategies where you move around

– Draw pictures, maps, cartoons, diagrams, etc– Put key points around your walls– Teach “someone” else and ask them key

questions (answer the questions yourself)– Listen to tapes or view video/DVD versions

of the material

• Make exam preparation a social occasion

Revision – Fitness Training

MCQ Exams recognition & accurate knowledge

Short Answer knowledge & understanding key ideas/facts at basic level

Thus for revision:

• Think vocabulary, words, terms, concepts, systems

• Make flash cards & test yourself

• Recite for precision

• Verbal & visual strategies to check mastery

• Create summary sheets, diagrams, charts, tables, mind maps

Go! Conditioned Reflex – MCQ Practice

• Read each question carefully

• Circle key words or negatives

• Identify modifiers and qualifiers (e.g. only, never, sometimes)

• Read all options before making choice

• Anticipate answer before looking at options

• Check before marking answer

The following are all bones of the skull except:

a. Parietal bone

b. Temporal bone

c. Tarsal bone

d. Frontal bone

The function of dendrites is to:

a. slow down nerve impulses

b. provide myelin coating for nerve

c. synthesize neurotransmitters

d. pick up nerve signals

Go! Conditioned Reflex –Short Answer Practice

• Deconstruct the question

• Think in own words

• Find and use key words

• Show what you know: Define key words, concepts, theories

• Complete sentences

• Stay relevant

Outline the structure of fats OR carbohydrates

• Choose question

• What are they looking for?

• How would I answer this?

• How would I revise in order to be able to answer this?

• Practice answering this type of question, varying topic

Outline and briefly discuss the three main approaches to understanding and defining stress

• Stress – what is it?

• 3 main theories

• Compare & contrast – definitions, causes, etc.

• Examples

Revision – Problem solving

• Use active learning strategies

• Develop a range of strategies– Compare textbook & notes– Similarities & differences between problem

types & solution methods– How apply different situations or data– Try to solve the problem as far as possible

Revision – Problem solving

• Practise problem-solving without your notes!

• Work with others

• Work problems ‘out of context’

Rehearse performing at your personal best

• Practice by anticipating questions• Practice by answering old exam Q• Mark your own answers • Practice – un-timed and timed• Simulate exam conditions

Simulating Exam Conditions

• The key to both intellectual and emotional preparation for exams is simulation

• The closer a simulation is to the actual event, the more likely it is that preparation will be effective

• A simulation engages

both intellectual and

emotional responses

Rehearse Techniques for Personal Best Performance

• Visit the exam venue and get comfortable in it

• Use photos, sketches, etc to bring the exam venue into your study space

• Mentally place yourself in the exam venue when you are rehearsing

Visualisation• Every athlete’s PB is in their mind• Visualisation is a vital part of performance

preparation• Only ever visualise performing at your best

Keys to Your Personal Best

• Game Planning– Organisation– Learn from the past

• Fitness training using active revision strategies

• Performance rehearsal using practice and simulation

• Emotional and Intellectual preparation