How To Pass Exams - in 3 easy steps

"When you're prepared, you're more confident.
When you have a strategy, you're more comfortable."
Fred Couples

Has this ever happened to you?

You are sitting in the waiting room of the testing center, waiting to be called and shown into the exam room. As you are sitting there, focusing on breathing to keep the panic away, along waltzes this guy. You notice him by the reception, leaning over the bench as if he owned it and catch words of what you conclude has to be a joke he is sharing with the staff.

You conclude he must be an employee and take your eyes off him so you can focus on breathing again. But no. He comes and sits in the waiting room, puts his leg over his other knee and picks up a magazine softly whistling to himself. By this time you figure he is one like you, there to sit the exam and you starting darting him an evil eye.

How can he be filled with confidence when you are sitting there wiping your sweaty palm on your pants every few minutes?

How dare he be so confident?

He is because he prepared and so will you.

Someone once said, "Every minute you plan saves you an hour in execution".

How to pass exams, first step...

Know how you read your material but then when someone asks you a question about it you can't put it in words? That's because you are learning parrot style. Practice exams give you the opportunity to actually think about the material, in many ways. Practice exams are worded in such a way to confuse you. This is a great thing. Makes you think.

So passing exams are easier when you subject yourself to many ways that something can be asked.

How to pass exams, second step...

Give yourself plenty of time in the exam room to go through the test more than once. 2-3 times is a good number.

First: go through all the questions very quickly. Answer the ones you know. Go with your instinct on the ones you are unsure of. Guess the ones you don't have a clue about.

Second: now go through the exam again. This time at a slower pace. We want to go through the exam a second time because further down the test there may be clues to questions we couldn't answer right off. Read each question thoroughly, read all possible answers thoroughly. Then check if the answer you selected is the right one. Be careful not to start second guessing yourself if at first you believe the answer to the correct. There is a fine balance here.

Third: go through it again if you have time. Use all the time you are given. You don't need to finish the exam in 30 minutes if you are allocated 90 minutes. Stay the 90 minutes and make sure you give your best. By the third time around, you will feel more confident. you have answered all the questions and now are taking leisure time in reading through it again. Change something that doesn't feel right but in most cases, you would have done this in step two.