Exam hack

Here are 7 shortcuts that will make the path to success significantly easier. ​ As you’d expect from me, they're all backed by robust science and psychology, and battle-tested by generations of real students. ​ Read them slow, act on them fast! ​

 1. Pull information out, don’t push it in ​ it’s worthy of repeating: making yourself recall information is a ridiculously effective way to build memory. ​ Testing yourself isn’t just for checking what you know: it’s also the absolute best way known to science to get stuff learned. ​ Smart students use the majority of their learning time on this “retrieval practice” strategy: flashcards, quiz questions, practice exam questions, scribbling it out from memory.

 ​2. If you’re spending more than 25% of your exam-prep / revision / review time re-reading, highlighting, or making notes, you’re doing it wrong. ​ This goes with the last point. It’s fine to start by reminding yourself of the course content, but move on ASAP. ​ Don’t wait till you “feel you know it” to start testing yourself, OK?

 ​3. Re-reading isn't effective, but can be improved by pre-testing: try answering some practice questions before you re-read the topic, or just dump whatever you can remember (however little) down on a blank sheet. ​ It’s like ploughing the fields of your memory to make the seeds of knowledge take root way more easily. ​

 4. Know when to zoom out and when to zoom in ​ Sometimes a topic is hard because we don’t understand the details. Focus intently on the vocab you don’t understand, or a specific action in a math(s) solution – isolate the individual problems and fix them. ​ Other times, it’s the big picture that’s the problem – create a visual map for the topic that lays out the big building blocks clearly, so you understand how the different details relate to the whole. ​

 5. Work shorter hours with deeper focus: if you’re religious about monotasking , you’ll be able to focus intently (hopefully on your “retrieval practice”!), and get a tonne of work done in a short space of time. ​ Far better to work intently and smartly for shorter hours than doing long hours of low-value work. ​ Enjoy all the extra free time 😊 ​

 6. Don’t say “I can’t”, say “I can’t YET”: More than anything else, I wish I’d known this one when I was a student. ​ I’d aced high school, but entrance exams are brutally hard . If I’m being honest, I was guilty of giving up, because I didn’t understand what we psychologists call “growth mindset”: the idea that our brains can literally grow and change and rewire to get better at things, with the right kind of practice. ​

 7. Harden yourself to the stresses of the exam: there are a million things that can go wrong on exam day... ​ ​ But start by forcing yourself to take high-stakes mock exams in stressful circumstances. Do it in a silent study room / library reading room. Time it. No notes. Even find a partner to mark it for you, and pre-commit to telling close friends / family what mark you get. Get used to operating under conditions of stress and pressure before the big day, and the big day will feel way easier by comparison. ​ OK, it’s crunch time... ​ ... what’s the one thing YOU want to do differently? ​ There may be lots of things you want to do – but pick one to start with, and put it to work the very next chance you get.