Chapter 5: Academic Strategies
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How Exams are Arranged
Exams are generally thought of as big tests and often makeup between 20 to 40 per cent of your final grade.
Many courses will have midterm exams, approximately halfway through the course, that will cover all of the material you have learned to date. A final exam may cover all of the material you’ve learned or may have a heavier emphasis on what you learned since your midterm exam.
It is important to use your exam dates to help plan your studying – how much time do you have between exams? Are they well spread out? Can you study for them one at a time? Or are your exams close together or perhaps you even have two on the same day, in which case you will have to be more careful in managing your time.
Test Anxiety
While test anxiety is not a clinical diagnosis, it describes the phenomenon in which students feel under pressure during tests or exams and struggle to remember what they’ve learned or studied or find themselves “blanking.” In some cases, test anxiety is connected to other anxiety diagnoses that an individual may have; for others, it may happen just during these high-stakes situations.
Video: How to Overcome Test Anxiety
Watch the video ” How to Overcome Test Anxiety” [5:18] to learn a little bit more about test anxiety and what you can do to combat it.
Preparing for Exams
There are numerous study methods out there and different learners benefit from different study strategies. You may already understand how you study best and know how to properly prepare for exams based on your learning style, or you may be a bit unsure as to how to approach exam preparation. It is your responsibility to try out different methods of studying to see what strategies give you the best results!
Here are some general tips for successful exam preparation adapted from Humanitas University:
- Give yourself enough time to go through each week of content.
- Once you know when your exams are taking place, create a plan to study small chunks of course material per day leading up to the exam date. Check out the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s tips for creating an effective study plan.
- If visual representations of information resonate with you, you may benefit from turning your content into diagrams, mind-maps and flow charts.
- If you enjoy listening to information, you may benefit from reading your notes out loud or explaining concepts to others.
- If you are drawn to written information, you may benefit from rewriting your course notes in a condensed form with the use of comparison charts, bullet points and numbered lists.
- Practice old exams. Many institutions have an exam bank, which is an electronic library of past exams. By searching for a particular course code, you can access and download any exams from previous years that have been stored. Your instructor might also provide old exams or sample questions to use as practice.
Types of Exams
Different programs and courses also have different types of exams. Knowing the type of exams you are expected to write will help you with your studying. These include:
Multiple choice
Successfully answering multiple-choice questions involves carefully reading the entire question and every answer option, using the process of elimination to rule out blatantly incorrect choices and making educated guesses when you aren’t totally sure of the correct response.
Check out Trent University’s additional tips for writing multiple-choice exams: https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-study/prepare-and-write-exams/writing-multiple-choice-exams
Written essays
To do well on an exam with one or more essays, you must be able to critically analyze, apply and connect the concepts taught throughout the course as the questions will typically be broad and open-ended. Aim to be as concise as possible in your written responses by succinctly stating your points, providing supporting proof/evidence and explaining how your evidence connects to your points.
Although you can’t plan out your responses as thoroughly as you would in an essay assignment, it’s always a good idea to devote a few minutes to create a rough plan and outline to help organize your ideas and develop a coherent structure.
Check out Guelph University’s additional tips for writing essay exams: https://guides.lib.uoguelph.ca/c.php?g=697429&p=5011761
Labs
Lab exams are typically more tactile and hands-on compared to other written exams. You may be asked to do a bell ringer. These consist of multiple stations with a task at each one. You’ll be given a limited amount of time to complete each station’s task. Once the bell rings, you need to switch to the next station. Some examples of tasks you might encounter are filling out a chart or identifying a specimen through a microscope.
Check out Guelph University’s additional tips for completing lab exams: https://guides.lib.uoguelph.ca/c.php?g=697429&p=5011756
Take home
As the name suggests, a take-home exam is written outside of a typical exam room and can be completed anywhere. You will generally be given a few days to submit your exam. Because you do have access to your course notes and won’t be facing the pressure and time constraints of a typical exam, the questions will be more complex and multidimensional and will require you to spend more time developing a compelling response and citing specific sources in your supporting details.
Check out Trent University’s additional tips for completing take-home exams: https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-study/prepare-and-write-exams/preparing-and-writing-take-home-exam
Online
Online exams can have a variety of formats. Some may be open-book, take-home and will be available for a few days, while others may resemble a traditional in-person exam and have a specific time allotted for you to complete it. Online exams that require you to sit down and write it during a specific time may be proctored, which means that a member of staff will be monitoring you and your device’s screen as you complete your exam to stop you from accessing course materials or writing the exam with others in the room.
Check out the University of Toronto’s additional tips for completing online exams: https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/task/online-exams-and-tests/
Getting Ready for Exams
During the lead-up to the exam (or midterm) period, different departments and services at your institution will often run exam prep workshops. These workshops are great for learning more about the exam process and study tips and strategies. They cover topics like dealing with test anxiety, time management and prioritizing questions.
