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Guide to preparing for examinations: Part III: During examination

-Nitin D Parekh, CA, CFA, MBA (IIM, A)


Executive Director, Ashima Limited

The preparation for examination requires dedicated and concentrated efforts


coloured with burning desire to achieve something of interest. We have seen that
a well chartered out plan and different action strategies are required for effective
preparation for examinations. There are a number of tips to be applied for exam
preparation. Some students have asked me whether such tips really benefit the
students. My response is that you would not get benefited form them if you do
not have patience to read and understand them and also tenacity to follow them
religiously.

The preparation for examinations during examinations is discussed in the


following paragraphs.

During examinations

At home: The students who have worked hard through out the year also get little
nervous during the days of exam as there is so much to read in so little time
available for revision. Some important issues cropping up during this period are
discussed as under:
1. What to read?: We have already discussed earlier about the type of material
to be read. During the days of exams it is never possible to read everything
and none should aspire to do that. However this does not mean that you
should not glance through everything. The students are advised to read
completely answers to most expected questions and go through highlights or
main points of all other questions. It is especially important to go through all
formulas for mathematics, statistics, physics and other subjects involving
formulas or rules. Don’t try any new reading material during the exams which
you have not read earlier unless it is must. Don’t get into cramming anything
at this last hour unless something is absolutely must. Use the techniques of
speed reading during exam days.
2. What to do if you feel sleepy?: You are at the most critical time and cannot
afford to sleep when you are yet to go through your study materials. Certain
techniques which are all employed by me in my career are:
a. Read while standing. You would find this little uncomfortable but don’t
worry about the same. When you stand, stand in the middle of the
room with out any support of walls.
b. Read while walking: You may find this even more taxing but you need
to do whatever required to get you out of sleepiness. For sometime
you may not be able to concentrate on your reading. However after 15
minutes or so you would be alright and will be in a position to read and
remember.
c. If you fail in both these methods then you may ask your brother/sister
or friend to read for you and you should listen to the same. You should
sit on a chair which is not very comfortable one and advise the reader
to keep an eye on you every ten minutes. In my studies my brother
Dilip and sister Varsha have helped me in this strenuous task.
d. Listen to the recorded tapes if you have prepared the same. Please
make sure that the recoded tape must have the same information
which you would have otherwise read.
e. You may also start writing something relevant to your exams rather
than only reading as writing will keep you awake.
3. Other points:
a. You should be very clear on the venue and structure of exam, duration
of exam and coverage of syllabus for exam on hand.
b. Make doubly sure as to which is the subject of exam on a particular
day. Make it a point to affix the timetable opposite your reading desk.
Keep others in your family informed about the same.
c. The parents are advised not to create unnecessary tension by
constantly asking their children to study hard and take a lot of care in
the exams. Now allow the students to be on their own and don’t create
last minute tension.
d. The family members should help the students in collecting together all
material supplies for the exams like pen, pencil, eraser etc. My wife
Rupa had helped me a lot in my CFA exam in this respect.
e. The parents should take special care of health of students. The
students should not eat outside food. Overeating is not advisable. Take
a balanced meal in days of exams.
f. The students should not pass the days without proper food. They
should take at least 7-8 hours of sleep everyday.
g. When you come back after one exam paper, don’t spend time in
deciding how you performed. You should concentrate on next day’s
exam paper.
h. Ensure that you will wake up at the target time in the morning
especially when you have early exam or you intend to wake up early to
complete some revision. Use two alarm clocks with five minute
difference in timings. Ask your family members or friends to call you up
to ensure that you don’t fail to wake up at the required time.
i. You must be able to willingly and enthusiastically ready to face the
exams. If you bored and in the haste to finish the same as fast as
possible, you are not likely to put up your best performance.
j. Wear clothes which suit the climate at a point in time. Do not wear
clothes where the same will interfere in your speed or concentration.
k. Before you go to the test centre tell yourself that you have prepared
well for the exam and you would do well in the exam.
At the examination centre: The following points should be remembered:

1. Go to your exam centre the previous day and inspect your seating place in
terms of comfort, ventilation and availability of air depending on season.
Check whether there is any clock in the exam room and if yes, verify the
correctness of the timings as compared to your watch.
2. Depending on the season and temperature you should wear the clothes
which would be comfortable. The annual exams are normally conducted in
summer and thus it would make sense to wear cotton clothes.
3. Reach to the exam centre well in advance. Start from home early keeping at
least 30 minutes of contingency time if anything goes wrong with your vehicle
or you encounter much hectic traffic than expected by you.
4. You may not carry any reading materials with you for reading between your
home and exam centre if you are satisfied with your preparation and do not
want to have last minute tension.
5. Don’t reach at exam centre too early otherwise you will become more anxious
or nervous.
6. At the exam centre outside the class you may find some students engrossed
in reading or discussing what would be there in the question paper etc. Avoid
talking to them as they would create anxiety and stress in your mind.
7. Don’t get into discussions with your friends and colleagues as to what you
have prepared and what they have prepared, till what time you read and they
read and what do you think would be level of difficulty in question paper. More
specifically avoid talking to those students who are considered to be very
intelligent and hard working as you may unnecessarily get disappointed
thinking that you have not prepared well for the exams. You may try to relax
and remain cool in this most trying period.

In the examination centre: The tips for exams in the centre may be divided in
general tips and specific tips. The general tips are discussed in this article and
specific tips will be discussed in the next article:

General tips:

1. Go confidently to your examination room and visualize yourself confidently


answering all the questions in an excellent manner.
2. Take your seat well in time. Avoid thinking about what will be asked in the test
paper.
3. Relax and don’t think about the exam. Take deep breaths and relax your
hands by stretching. Perform some religious ‘Mantra’ if you have faith in
religion or at least to be away from the exam anxiety. I used to speak ‘Navkar
Mantra’ which is the most powerful mantra for the Jains.
4. When the test papers are being distributed maintain cool and calm position
with out getting nervous or anxious.
5. Read all instructions of the test paper carefully before starting any answer.
6. Read entire question paper before starting any answer. While you read the
questions also judge the question paper in terms of length, difficulty level,
type of questions etc.
7. While reading all questions of the test paper also analyse the type of test
paper in terms of essay type questions, short-notes, fill in the blanks, true-
false, multiple choice questions, reading comprehension, charts etc.
8. While glancing through the entire test paper start paying attention to the total
number of questions and the amount of time which will be required to
complete the same.
9. Read directions for all questions and understand what are the optional
questions, if any. One of the biggest causes of loss of marks is not reading
instructions or not interpreting the instructions correctly. Pay special attention
to words like ‘and’, ‘or’ etc. to understand the options. Many students have
wrong habit of staring the answers without complete reading of question
paper.
10. If your supervisor gives any instructions at the beginning of the test in terms
of any corrections in the questions or marks etc., pay special attention to the
same and immediately make the necessary corrections in your question
paper.
11. While going through test paper, if you are provided options, mark with pencil
the questions which you would like to attempt.
12. It is necessary to make correct interpretation of options given to you. For
example if you are given question number (1) with sub questions (a) and (b)
and the alternative question number (1) with sub questions (a), (b) and (c ),
you may get confused about sub question (c ). In such case look at the marks
allotted to each of the sub questions to understand whether (c) is to be
attempted only for alternative question (1) or for both the alternatives.
13. If you are not specifically told about how many questions are to be answered,
you should assume that all questions are to be answered.
14. If you do not understand a particular question you may ask the supervisor or
instructor to explain you. It should not be assumed that the supervisor would
really do it. This is only to attempt the interpretation.
15. Decide the order in which you would like to attempt the questions. While
deciding this you may keep in mind how well you are prepared to answer the
questions, what is the time allocation required and what are the marks allotted
to them.
16. You may also circle the questions which are most difficult and you would like
to attempt at the end.
17. You should break-up the difficult or complicated directions into smaller
sentences to make correct meaning out of them. Underline the specific words
which are important in making interpretation so that you do not forget the
same when you attempt to answer the same.
18. For multiple choice questions, understand how the answers are to be marked.
Whether you have to make tick mark or you have to circle the correct answer
must be understood clearly.
19. Understand the allocation of time to different questions based on total time
available and time required to be allocated to some specific difficult or essay
type questions.
20. You may do quick listing of some formulas or points related to questions
asked while reading the questions if you apprehend that you may forget them.
21. If you are provided with any sample question-answer understand clearly from
the sample as to what exactly you are supposed to do. In such cases it is
hardly important that the sentences which may emerge are factually true or
not.
22. Now do your own time budget for different questions and develop your choice
of questions to be attempted, if you have any options.
23. The allocation of time need not be in proportion of marks only. For example
you may allocate less time for objective type questions and more time for
essay type questions in the tests of knowledge. If it is a test of accuracy like in
the competitive exams you need to allocate more time for difficult questions.
24. After going through the entire test paper and before starting any answers, you
may give rank numbers to questions in the order in which you would like to
attempt. For example you may decide to attempt question number 5 which
may be of multiple choice first, followed by question number 3 which may be
on short-notes and you may decide to attempt question number 1 as the last
which may be on essay. This would save time of making best choices every
time you are through with one answer.
25. Fill in the necessary details in the question paper and in the answer book like
your identity number, roll number or any other information which you may be
required to write down. Never take chance that you would complete these
details at the end.
26. Before you begin your first answer you may think of outline of all the answers
which you are required to answer.
27. Start with the easiest but best answer first. You may decide to answer all
objective type questions first. These may be completed in relatively lesser
time so that you have enough time to answer other questions.
28. Your first answer should be well presented in a legible handwriting and must
be the best possible from your side. Your first impression should work out
well. This does not mean that you would not do better in other questions too.
It only means that you at least do not spoil your impression from the first
answer itself which may become detrimental.
29. It is quite common for many students to give disproportionately more time to
first question. This happens as you have just started. To avoid this start with
budget time adherence from the beginning by not concentrating too much on
good handwriting.
30. Start every new question on a separate page of the answer book. If the
question relates to a chart or graph it would be better to put chart on the left
side of the answer book so that it becomes easy to write on the right side of
the page without every now and then turning the page to understand and
interpret the chart or graph.
31. Even if you have read the entire question paper at the beginning you are
advised to read the question again thoroughly before you start answer to a
particular question.
32. Constantly keep your eyes on the watch so that you don’t spend
disproportionately more time on any questions.
33. Pay particular attention to the expected length of the answer. For example if
you are asked to answer the question in 10 lines, do not give answer in 5 or
15 lines. This shows either inadequate knowledge or carelessness on the part
of students.
34. Decide the length of the answer and time to be spent on the answer based on
the allocation of marks to the question.
35. Use all supporting materials which are allowed to be used in exam. For
example if you are allowed to use calculator you should use it for all difficult
calculations rather than entirely relying on your mental calculations. When
you can use your instruments for drawing a circle in geometry there is no
need to try with your free hand drawing skills.
36. Mark or circle all the questions and sections of the questions which you have
already attempted to make sure that you do not forget to attempt any one and
also to avoid spending unnecessary time to check many times what is
attempted and what is pending.
37. If you do not know the right or full answer to a particular question, make it a
last choice to attempt. If the same happens to be a section of the question
which you have already attempted, leave enough space to respond to the
said section later after you can complete the entire test paper. It is not
advisable to spend too much time on one difficult question at the cost of not
being able to attempt some other questions where can score better marks. Do
not forget to mark completed questions so that you are able to spot this
uncompleted section later.
38. If you are not very clear about the answer and are in two minds, concentrate
on the key words in the question to get some clues to the correct answer. This
may be especially true for multiple choice questions, wherein you may look at
the grammatical parts like tense, singular-plural or other clues to get the
correct answer.
39. You may re-read the directions to ensure that you have attempted all the
questions required to be attempted.
40. If you find the test paper very difficult genuinely or in comparison to your
expectations do not get nervous. Do not think of quitting and do not spend
time in looking at what others are doing. Collect yourself to the most important
task of your career and bring all energies to make excellent attempt at
producing best possible performance. You should think that if the test paper is
really difficult it would be difficult for others also. In any case in most exams it
is the relative performance which is more important than the absolute
performance.
41. If at all you get diffident and find things not working out to your expectations,
quickly gather your strengths, remember your career goals and get to the
work again. Believe that this is a necessary trying and testing period to reach
your ultimate career goals.
42. If you feel nervous in the exams do small relaxation exercise like stretching
your hands and legs and close your eyes for half a minute taking deep
breaths.
43. You may take a glass of water during the exams. If allowed in the exams and
you really feel like taking you may drink a small glass of fruit juice.
44. Keep full concentration on your test paper. Don’t look at or think about what
others are doing or which question they are attempting or what part they
would have completed. Tell your mind every time, ‘I am here to perform to the
best of my abilities based on excellent preparation made by me’.
45. If you get stuck up in answering a particular question or get memory loss half
way through your answer, try to recall your memory by taking deep breathing
and relaxing for 30 seconds. If you do not succeed do not get panic, leave
space for the answer and go to next question. Try to save time to come back
to this question later on. While answering other questions you may keep on
thinking subconsciously about the answer to the left question only if it does
not come in the way of answering other questions. If it is not possible
concentrate on all other questions for the time being without thinking at all
about the left question and come back to the same at the end. You may also
ask yourself if you were to answer the difficult question anyway what is the
best possible answer you would have given.
46. If you find the situation where in spite of all best efforts, you have spent more
than required time on some questions; you may re look at your choice of
questions for remaining questions so as not to miss any question.
47. If you find that you are likely to miss one or more question for want of time, it
is advisable to shorten your answers in terms of length rather than allow
some questions unanswered. For example in any descriptive subject in case
of two questions each of 5 marks, if you are faced with choice of one
complete answer and one question to be missed vs. two half summary
answers the second choice is better. It is obvious that this logic can not be
applied to number problems.
48. If at all you are in a situation wherein you are going to miss answers to one or
more questions you may only write the outline answer and mention that
though you know the complete answer you have not been able to do the
justice for want of time. It is not to convey that this will allow you to get full
marks but it will definitely help in maintaining your good reputation and can
work in your favour.
49. If you leave the space when you are not able to recall particular information at
a point in time it is alright. However do not leave space for the sake of it as it
creates bad impression.
50. When you use particular type of serial numbers and sub-serial numbers, use
them uniformly in the entire test paper. For example, if you use 1,2,3 etc as
the main points and a,b,c etc as the sub points follow the same pattern
through out the test paper. This is also a testimony to your attribute of
consistency in smallest things.
51. There are several ways of making a presentation of answers to create an
impact. You may use the quotations of well known authorities on the relevant
subject and create a strong positive reputation as a learned student with
additional reading then a stereotype answer which can be found in the
answer sheets of many students.
52. Whenever you intend to highlight the headings/titles of your answer you may
use the system of putting the heading/titles in rectangular box to catch the
attention of the examiner.
53. If you are allowed to use colour pen/pencils or highlighters, highlight the
headings of your answers. In number problems highlight the final answer only.
54. Request for a supplementary sheet when you have at least one page to write
down so that by the time you get the supplementary sheet in your hands you
do not have to wait and waste your valuable time.
55. Don’t forget to write down all required particulars including supplementary
number and your identification number and other details on all supplementary
sheets.
56. Don’t forget to tie up main answer sheet and all supplementary sheets. You
may use strings as well as stapler pin if allowed.
57. You must plan your test paper in such a way that you save at least 10 minutes
to make complete revision of your answer book.
58. Make complete revision of your answer book. Be sure that you have written
what you desired to write and have not forgotten anything and have not
written anything incorrect to the best your knowledge.
59. Use total time available for exam. Even if you have completed entire test
paper to your satisfaction there is not need to leave the exam room before
total time is over. This is very crucial and important period and it is advisable
that you make revision once again and you may find that some answers
require correction.
60. As regards attempting optional questions I would advise that the same may
be resorted only after making complete revision of all the answers given by
you. Again you may attempt the same if at all you are less confident of your
answers.
61. When you come out of exam room tell yourself that you have given best
performance based on your capabilities and you should expect good results.

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