How to Prepare for an Examination
Some time ago, a student asked me how I prepared for my own examinations, since (to this student) I was obviously an example of someone who had been successful in examinations. I thought about it for a while, and then decided to come clean.
I've never been particularly solidly prepared for an examination. There are, however, two exceptions to state and then put aside.
Firstly, I have always been prepared for practical examinations by virtue of being interested in the details of praxis. That is, I pay attention to things that need to be done and how the results are processed where material objects and actions are concerned. I'm good with lab work. I once scored a near-perfect score and topped my batch in it, while still being crap elsewhere.
Secondly, I have often been well-prepared (relative to others) for examinations requiring an ability to solve problems from first principles without having to study a lot of material. The kind of questions you have probably found in this blog, questions like, "How would you run a school?" tend to appear in these examinations. So too do all the questions in a typical Theory of Knowledge Prescribed Essay Titles list.
Those two exceptions aside, I've always prepared for examinations in three inter-related modes: chemical, biological, psychological.
Essentially, you wake up and remember that the body needs glucose and glutamate (more or less) in order to think. You also need a good circulation and metabolism to get things going. Caffeine is good for this, and has never shown any provable negative side-effects as long as you keep intake (very approximately, and subject to things like your natural metabolism and fat percentage) to less than 200 mg per 60 kg body-mass per day (that's about three normal-sized cups a day, or four if you have a mass of 80 kg). So snack healthily, and maintain good fitness.
You need to do some running or aerobics or something. The brain needs oxygenated blood, or else all the other stuff doesn't quite work.
You need to programme your brain to handle text and conceptual diagrams. This means you should NEVER play video-based games or watch television while preparing for examinations, unless you intend to do transition programming in between sessions. Transition programming is like warming down; it's like switching from full video to CNN to newspapers before studying textbook material or notes, and it takes quite a bit of time.
That said, never study for more than an hour at a time. Your brain has a 20-min warm-up cycle, a 20-min warm-down cycle. It is independent of your conscious desire to study. Some people have an 'iron backside' which enables them to work for hours apparently without ceasing. This is possible, but has a detrimental effect on sanity. The best textbook learners also tend to be despotic, unstable and of peculiar psychological tendencies in social situations.
Don't study for less than 30 minutes either; it will never be profitable unless you are doing the mental equivalent of anaerobic respiration — i.e., the last minute short-term cramming just before a paper, which takes 10 min, lasts 20 min, and is forgotten totally within 24 hours. My advice to you, if you are taking an examination which uses a data booklet, is to become very familiar with the data booklet and thus remove much of the need for certain kinds of memory work.
When it comes to literature and the humanities (or the inhuman social sciences such as economics), it is best to study while walking around and/or drawing little diagrams. This is because these domains of knowledge are uncertain and shifty; you can score by writing answers from one perspective and also score by writing answers from a diametrically opposed perspective in some cases.
You therefore need to loosen up your brain so that in can handle ambiguity, and the best way to absorb the impact of ambiguity is through subconscious subcontracting out to the rest of your body. Watch a person twirling his pen one way, and then another, during an English paper, and you will get what I mean. Dancers and gymnasts have an advantage here, since their performances require physical flexibility, and that allows extension of mental flexibility.
If you can keep this up for about five days, you will have studied at least 40 hours profitably. I know this because I plan such schedules for people who can't do it for themselves. Heh heh...
I've never been particularly solidly prepared for an examination. There are, however, two exceptions to state and then put aside.
Firstly, I have always been prepared for practical examinations by virtue of being interested in the details of praxis. That is, I pay attention to things that need to be done and how the results are processed where material objects and actions are concerned. I'm good with lab work. I once scored a near-perfect score and topped my batch in it, while still being crap elsewhere.
Secondly, I have often been well-prepared (relative to others) for examinations requiring an ability to solve problems from first principles without having to study a lot of material. The kind of questions you have probably found in this blog, questions like, "How would you run a school?" tend to appear in these examinations. So too do all the questions in a typical Theory of Knowledge Prescribed Essay Titles list.
Those two exceptions aside, I've always prepared for examinations in three inter-related modes: chemical, biological, psychological.
Essentially, you wake up and remember that the body needs glucose and glutamate (more or less) in order to think. You also need a good circulation and metabolism to get things going. Caffeine is good for this, and has never shown any provable negative side-effects as long as you keep intake (very approximately, and subject to things like your natural metabolism and fat percentage) to less than 200 mg per 60 kg body-mass per day (that's about three normal-sized cups a day, or four if you have a mass of 80 kg). So snack healthily, and maintain good fitness.
You need to do some running or aerobics or something. The brain needs oxygenated blood, or else all the other stuff doesn't quite work.
You need to programme your brain to handle text and conceptual diagrams. This means you should NEVER play video-based games or watch television while preparing for examinations, unless you intend to do transition programming in between sessions. Transition programming is like warming down; it's like switching from full video to CNN to newspapers before studying textbook material or notes, and it takes quite a bit of time.
That said, never study for more than an hour at a time. Your brain has a 20-min warm-up cycle, a 20-min warm-down cycle. It is independent of your conscious desire to study. Some people have an 'iron backside' which enables them to work for hours apparently without ceasing. This is possible, but has a detrimental effect on sanity. The best textbook learners also tend to be despotic, unstable and of peculiar psychological tendencies in social situations.
Don't study for less than 30 minutes either; it will never be profitable unless you are doing the mental equivalent of anaerobic respiration — i.e., the last minute short-term cramming just before a paper, which takes 10 min, lasts 20 min, and is forgotten totally within 24 hours. My advice to you, if you are taking an examination which uses a data booklet, is to become very familiar with the data booklet and thus remove much of the need for certain kinds of memory work.
When it comes to literature and the humanities (or the inhuman social sciences such as economics), it is best to study while walking around and/or drawing little diagrams. This is because these domains of knowledge are uncertain and shifty; you can score by writing answers from one perspective and also score by writing answers from a diametrically opposed perspective in some cases.
You therefore need to loosen up your brain so that in can handle ambiguity, and the best way to absorb the impact of ambiguity is through subconscious subcontracting out to the rest of your body. Watch a person twirling his pen one way, and then another, during an English paper, and you will get what I mean. Dancers and gymnasts have an advantage here, since their performances require physical flexibility, and that allows extension of mental flexibility.
If you can keep this up for about five days, you will have studied at least 40 hours profitably. I know this because I plan such schedules for people who can't do it for themselves. Heh heh...
Labels: Examinations
etched with acid at 10:04:00 am
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