Exam prep secrets: Things I wish my students knew.

Written by Infinite

After many years of teaching, I have a few useful insights into how one should prepare for an exam. Let’s go through some of them in this blog post!

Revisit lecture notes. Particularly the first lecture and the last one.

As someone who used to give the lecture, I tend to put my most important points, i.e. outlines and summaries at the beginning and end of my slides. These are usually the things I want students to take away with them, as part of my learning objectives. The same goes for the first lecture and the last. The first lecture generally outlines the learning outcomes and objectives, and the expectation of the course of knowledge. The last lecture summarises what you have learned throughout the semester. What’s better than having these resources that you can quickly go through without starting from scratch again?

If only revisiting lecture notes
can look as happy.

Pay attention to key learning objectives in your syllabus.

Ah…the syllabus. The holy grail of each of your papers but it is also the most under-utilised resources by students. It’s time to dig it out from the bottom of your bottomless desktop folder(s) and revisit some of the key learning objectives. Once you know what they want you to actually learn, it is easier to grasp what they will try to test you. It is as simple as that!

Time to read those assigned readings that you have pretended to have read all semester.

Assigned readings are important. They informed most of the learning objectives and teaching directions. It might be good to read those COMPULSORY readings that we’ve assigned because we took forever to find the right ones for you to peruse. Chances are we will also look through those for inspiration.

           Someone ordered some new
reading material? No?

Make those terminologies your best mates.

Not sure what those specific terms mean? You better start catching up! Course-related terminologies are important not just for your learning, but they are an easy source for potential exam questions. Go through some of those key terms and learn them. You will thank Joe later.

At Infinite Academic Consulting, Joe helps clients to prepare for their exams. If you don’t know where to start or find yourself struggling with the process, book a consultation with Joe and make your exam prep a breeze!