Exam/Study Tip 32 - A Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing for the Exams

Sep 20, 2026

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A step-by-step study guide explaining how to reduce exam stress while improving results through a structured plan. It outlines how to create an examination plan by prioritizing factors like the quality of revision notes, effective learning and practice, exposure to strong resources, and using marking schemes. It also provides practical guidance to start early, invest 15–30 hours per subject per term, build learnable notes without wasting time, and rely on active techniques such as exam-style questions and verbal recitation to boost retention and efficiency.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Formulating an Examination Plan

Factors Affecting Examination Results

Factors Making Exams Stressful

Step 1: Get Started ASAP

Step 2: Prepare a Comprehensive Set of Notes from Which to Learn

Step 3: Design an Efficient and Effective Exam Study Timetable

Step 4: Use Effective & Time Saving Learning Techniques

The Effectiveness of Different Learning Techniques

Exam/Study Tip 32: A Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing for the Exams Examinations are a great source of stress for most students, but it doesn’t need to be this way! With a little organisation, motivation and a solid study plan, students can greatly reduce stress, cut down on how much time they spend studying and greatly improve examination marks! Formulating an Examination Plan When formulating an examination plan, you should first identify what actions will have the greatest impact on examination marks, as well as the factors that are primarily responsible for making examinations so stressful, and then integrate these points into your overall plan. The factors that have the greatest impact on examination results include: 􀁸 The quality of your exam revision notes. 􀁸 How well information is learned and put into practise. 􀁸 The techniques used to learn and revise materials. 􀁸 The number of times materials are revised. 􀁸 The number of examination papers you have worked through. 􀁸 The degree of exposure to quality resources. 􀁸 A knowledge of the tricks and traps that could appear in the exams. 􀁸 A strong understanding of the marking schemes that apply to each subject exam. The factors primarily responsible for making exams so stressful include: 􀁸 The time it takes to prepare a solid set of notes. 􀁸 The time it takes to actually learn materials "off by heart". 􀁸 The lack of time available to work through past examination papers. 􀁸 Finding time to prepare for examinations while simultaneously juggling homework and SACs. Keeping these points in mind, what’sthe best way of approaching the exams? Step 1: Get Started ASAP In order to obtain the highest possible marks, you need to invest between 15 and 30 hours per subject, per term, to complete preparations for the exams. How much time is ultimately needed depends upon how often reviews have been undertaken, the difficulty of each subject and whether students have a comprehensive set of notes from which to learn. Irrespective of this, students need to start their exam preparations as soon as possible if they are wanting to reduce stress levels and workloads in the weeks leading up to the exams. Starting exam preparations earlier will also save significant amounts of study time. During periods of high stress, our body produces a hormone known as cortisol, which impairs how well and how quickly information is processed in the brain. Those students who leave their studies to the last minute will not learn as effectively, and will need more time to prepare for the exams! Step 2: Prepare a Comprehensive Set of Notes from Which to Learn The majority of students will start their learning sessions by preparing a solid set of notes. They spend countless hours condensing information from all of the resources available to them, and as their learning progresses, spend lots of time re-writing materials to produce summaries, and even summaries of summaries! Although it’s important to have a comprehensive set of notes from which to learn, spending large amounts of time preparing such materials as part of the exam preparation process is a detrimental waste of time. Writing or reading silently doesn’t engage many parts of the brain which means that it’s easy to think about unrelated matters – impairing the amount of information being input into the brain. The writing process is also quite time consuming, cannibalising how much time is available to commit information to memory and to work through past exam papers. It’s the actual learning and practising of questions that has the biggest impact on examination marks – not writing andre-writing notes and summaries. Furthermore, leaving tasks such as writing up notes/summaries until the weeks immediately before the exams will take more time than if you had written these materials as you learned them i.e. when the knowledge was fresh in your mind. There’s also the stress component to deal with – nothing eve

FAQs

How should students start exam preparation to reduce stress?

Students should begin as early as possible. Starting earlier lowers overall workload in the weeks leading up to exams and helps avoid the reduced processing efficiency associated with high stress.

Why is preparing notes considered both helpful and potentially wasteful?

A comprehensive set of notes supports learning, but spending excessive time rewriting and repeatedly summarizing can waste time. The guide emphasizes that learning and practising questions drive the biggest mark improvements.

What learning techniques are most effective for exam performance?

The guide recommends active learning—working through exam-style questions and using verbal recitation. These approaches deliver higher retention rates and can reduce study time while increasing the amount learned.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Cart