Exam Preparation

1. Exam Preparation Damian Gordon

2. The Purpose of Exams

3. The Purpose of Exams • Exams test: • The amount you can write in a given time • Whether you understand the exam question • Whether you can cope with exam pressure • Your ability to apply knowledge • Your understanding of key concepts and theories • Whether you can argue a point of view • Your ability to criticise and analyse

4. The Purpose of Exams • In addition, examinations provide lecturers with a guarantee that the work being assessed is entirely the student’s own work. • NB how well you do in exams is up to you! • Even when students have studied a course thoroughly they can fail to do themselves justice in the exam through: • inadequate/ inefficient revision • poor exam technique

5. Revision

6. Revision Plan • For each module, list the topics you need to cover • Estimate how much time you have left to revise • Assign topics as either topics you enjoy or do not enjoy • Divide out your remaining time better these topics • Alternating between topics you enjoy, and those you don’t • Create a master timetable – BE REALISTIC • Take into account all your other commitments e.g. employment, family etc. • Tick off the topics as you complete them • Pat yourself on the back frequently by looking back on what you have already covered.

7. Revision Tips • Reading stuff is NOT helpful • Try to be active in your revision • Vary the methods you use to revise, some examples ahead…

8. Revision Tips • SUMMARISE • A good starting point is to summarise the notes you have on each topic: • Try to reduce your notes to key words and phrases. • This will form the basis of your revision notes. • Reduce your notes further so that information fits on one side of A4 or an index card (portable).

9. Revision Tips • FLASH CARDS • Get a bunch of index cards (different colours) • Write down one key idea per card • On one side write down the TITLE • On the other write down the points associated with it • Use different colours for different themes

10. Revision Tips • COVER CARDS • As you are revising from your book, read what you are trying to memorise. Use the cover card to conceal what you’ve just read. Try reciting, or reading facts from memory. Check until you are sure you have mastered the facts.

11. Revision Tips • SONGS, RHYMES • Use songs, rhymes, mnemonics and acronyms. Making up catch phrases or rhymes can help you with crucial bits of information

12. I remember normalisation as; “the key, the whole key, and nothing but the key, So help me Codd” Revision Tips

13. I remember normalisation as; “the key, the whole key, and nothing but the key, So help me Codd” Which means 1NF: Identify primary key 2NF: Identify partial dependencies 3NF: Identify Non-key dependencies BCNF: Candidate key dependencies Revision Tips

14. Revision Tips • DIAGRAMS • Use diagrammatical notes if you memorise material more easily in a visual form. • Use colours, highlighting and/ or different coloured paper to make the notes distinctive.

15. Revision Tips • MINDMAPS

16. Revision Tips • CONCEPT MAPS

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18. Revision Tips • SQR3 – ACTIVE READING • Survey - Here you are attempting to gain an impression of the material.

19. Revision Tips • SQR3 – ACTIVE READING • Question - before you begin to read, draw up a mental list of questions to try to answer during reading

20. Revision Tips • SQR3 – ACTIVE READING • Read - at this point the aim is to understand what the text is saying. Try to assess the writer’s viewpoint, what the main idea is in each paragraph and how the content is structured. Keep making connections between the information in the text and what you have read in other texts or have heard about in lectures. Take note of all cross-references that you come across.

21. Revision Tips • SQR3 – ACTIVE READING • Recall - the next stage of the process is to close the text and try to remember what you have read and then note the key points. This is the longest stage.

22. Revision Tips • SQR3 – ACTIVE READING • Review - the final stage involves checking your notes against the text. Spend some time filling the gaps and correcting errors.

23. Revision Tips • QnA • Divide a page into two columns • Write down questions on one side and answers on the other

24. Revision Tips • RECORDERS • Consider using digital recorder or tape to help remember key facts.

25. Revision Tips • ACRONYM • Acronym is a word formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a name or phrase. • Example: • ROY G. BIV = • The colors of the rainbow, in order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

26. Revision Tips • ACROSTIC • Acrostic is a series of lines from which particular letters (such as the first letters of all lines) from a word or phrase. My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas = Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

27. Revision Tips • ACROSTIC King Phillip called out fifty good soldiers. i h l r a e p n y a d m n e g l s e i u c d u s r l s i o m y e m s

28. Revision Tips • IMAGERY • Imagery is used to memorize pairs of words. An image is formed as a result of each word given, and then two images are joined through mental visualization. • Example: • Piggy bank = + =

29. Revision Tips • KEYWORD METHOD Spanish word: lapiz (keyword) pencil (meaning of lapiz) trapeze

30. Revision Tips • KEYWORD METHOD Spanish word: patio (pronounced pot-o) patio duck (meaning of patio) pot

31. Revision Tips • RHYMES • A rhyme is a saying that has similar distinctive sounds at the end of each line. • Studies have shown that rhyming makes things easier to remember because it can be stored with acoustic encoding. • Example: • In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. • 30 Days has September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31, except February. • "i" before "e," except after "c," or in sounding like "ay" as in "neighbor" or "weigh."

32. Revision Tips • THE METHOD OF LOCI • The Method of Loci is a mnemonic device that dates back to Ancient Greek times. They would use this to assist them when memorizing a speech. • Example: • You have to imagine a place that you are very familiar with. Then you imagine all the possible locations in that place, or all possible situations. It could help if you put everything in a specific order. • Say you were telling someone about a house. You would have to be very familiar with that house and everything in it. And in order to make telling someone about this house easier you would have to think about it in some kind of order. You could start at the basement, then move up to the main floor, and then move to the second floor.

33. Revision Tips Death Star Yavin IV Alderaan Hoth Dagobah Besbin Tatooine

34. Revision Tips Death Star Yavin IV Alderaan Hoth Dagobah Besbin Tatooine

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42. Revision Tips • PEG-WORD SYSTEM • The Peg-Word System can be used for memorizing an ordered list of words or the specific numbers associated with the words. • Example: • 1.bun • 2.shoe • 3.tree • 4.door • 5.hive • 6.sticks • 7.heaven • 8.gate • 9.line or shine or vine • 10.hen

43. Revision Tips • NUMBER-LETTER SYSTEM • The Number-Letter System is very similar to the Peg- Word System, because it, too, is a method of association. The only difference is that this method allows you to remember things by associating them with similarities of the number it is at. • Example: • 1.= t (there is one downstroke in the letter t) • 2.= n (there are two downstrokes in the letter n) • 3.= m (there are three downstrokes in the letter m) • 4.= r (the last letter in four is r) • 5.= l (the Roman number 50 is L) • 6.= sh (the word six has begins with an x) • 7.= k (the number seven can be turned around to look like part of the letter k) • 8.= f (a cursive f looks like an 8) • 9.= p (a p flipped looks like a 9) • 10.= z, s (think of zero)

44. Revision Tips • CORNELL NOTEMAKING

45. Revision Tips • CHUNKING • Breaks down information into smaller bits so that it is easier to remember • Can you remember this number? 1066007200601642

46. Revision Tips • CHUNKING • Breaks down information into smaller bits so that it is easier to remember • Can you remember this number? 1066007200601642 • What about now? 1066 007 2006 01642

47. Revision Tips • MOCK EXAMS • Set yourself questions from your revision notes to answer. • Check your answers by using the original notes. • Fill in forgotten facts with another colour pen. • Repeat the process until all the gaps have disappeared.

48. Revision Tips • STUDY BUDDY • Teaching and learning from (and with) someone else can be very effective

49. Try to understand it first Create a hook (picture, pattern, rhyme, story) Link it to something you already know Don’t bite off more than you can chew (don’t overload your brain) Get emotionally involved (personalise it) Engage as many senses as possible Smell the roses (absorbing your environment helps with later recall) Sleep on it (review before bed and when first awake) Use it or lose it (access it, think about it, apply it – soon and often) Quiz yourself periodically (like excercising a muscle) Ten General Keys for Memorising • No right or wrong way – only general rules and tips • Work at it and develop personal strategies

50. Before the Exam