Acing your Exams

At this point of the schooling and academic year, the majority of us as students may be feeling anxious and slightly worried due to the approach of the exams. 

Exams are challenging and they need to challenge you! A little panic is perfectly normal! But there are a few tips and pointers that I would like to share with you that will assist and guide you through the exam process- from preparation to academic success!

So.. I’m going to discuss this topic from three angles…

• Preparing for the Exam
• Writing the actual exam
• After the Exam

Preparation is half of success! And in order to succeed in any examination, we need to prepare adequately for that exam. This can be done in the following way:

1. Begin your study session with Dua and asking Allah Ta’ala for help and assistance.
   Amongst the Duas to be read can be:
   1. ربي زدني علما
   2. رب اشرح لي صدري و يسرلي ....

Organise your study space - Create an enabling physical environment to study

• Where you choose to study has a bigger effect on your success than you think. Make sure you choose a place that is comfortable, free of distractions and comfortable
• Research done at the School of Information and Library Sciences, University of North Carolina, suggests the most important things to consider in a study space are lighting, colours, noise and furniture.
• Find a place that has a calming effect on you, and that is comfortable for you.
• Some students can concentrate optimally when they are in uncluttered rooms while others can focus better when they are surrounded by familiar items they associate with feelings of comfort and safety.
• Oh, and put your phone in a locked drawer. Research published in the New Media in Society Journal shows that phones are the worst thing to happen to our attention, ever. Music or TV can easily be kept in the background by the brain, but social media and a constantly beeping phone can’t. Finally, researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute published a study showing that clutter distracts your brain and hinders its ability to process information. 
• Khatib Al-Baghdadi (rahimahullah) has mentioned the following in his book: “Al-Faqih wal-Mutafaqqih” “The best time for memorizing is the time of sehri (early dawn), thereafter the time of mid-day. The mornings are better for memorizing than the evenings, and on the whole the night is better than the day.” He further states: “And the best of places for memorizing are those rooms which are above ground level and all such places where there are no distractions. It is better that one abstains from places of greenery, riverbanks and the roadside because such places naturally distract the mind.

Make a study schedule/plan

• To get all the material in organised, you’re going to need a plan. You need to work out what to revise, how to revise it and how much time to give each part of it.
• Check out past papersto find out what kinds of questions there’ll be in the exam, how long you’ll have to work on each question, whether there’ll be choices of questions.
• Then check course materials, lecture outlines and exam guidance for clues as to which material should be given most attention.
• Now calculate how much time you have to revise.
• Allow time for relaxation and working through old papers.
• Be realistic when planning your revision schedule and don’t panic if things don’t always go exactly as planned. When revising, try your best to understand the material and not just memorise it. Whether you summarise your notes, create lists, make mind maps or use mnemonic tricks (such as a song, rhyme, acronym, image, or a phrase to help remember material), do whatever works for you.

Set goals for your individual and study buddy sessions

A great way to improve your chances in the exams is to form a study group.

When you’re taking notes during a class, you’re really too busy to fully understand what you are hearing, but when you sit down with friends later and actively discuss what you heard in the lecture, you all come to have a deeper grasp of the material.

It is important to speak in turns, to pay attention, to review and amend notes while discussing topics, and to talk about the material until everyone has grasped the concepts. Leave no one behind.    

The sheer amount of reading that needs to be done and concepts that need to be grasped ahead of the exam period can be quite overwhelming.

Having a timetable for each subject as well as measurable goals for each study session can help to lower stress levels and divide your study sessions into manageable parts.

To create a timetable, make a list of all the content that needs to be studied for each subject, then work backwards from the exam date and make sure that during each study session, a piece of that content is covered.

Then, dedicate your study sessions to only the parts you have identified for that day and take a break or reward yourself when you achieve those goals.

It is important to have individual and study buddy sessions to enable you to discuss content you are struggling with. Find a study buddy who is great with content you are struggling with and who can explain it to you, so that you better understand it.

Look after yourself and Make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthy and focus on what makes you feel calm

Two things overlooked during exam time are exercise and diet. Fine tune these two parts of your life and you’ll find your stress levels plummeting, concentration soaring and your memory sharpening up.

Getting 6-8 hours of sleep is important to refresh and energize your body and mind.

Breathing is something we all do naturally and without any real effort. However, focusing on the inhalation and exhalation of breath can help to ease the mind and promote a state of relaxation, especially when under pressure.

Conscious breathing exercises do not have to take up a lot of time and can be done anywhere. Google “breathing techniques for stress relief,” and try a few of the exercises. You can tailor your exercise to how much time you have. It is recommended that you take a break to breathe consciously for 3-5 minutes at least once every hour, just to oxygenate the body and calm the mind.

Eating balanced meals and snacking on fruit with water daily is important to maintain your energy levels.

Use visualisation techniques and Find your ideal learning technique

Often, the very thought of sitting in an examination hall with other learners in complete silence to sit for a final exam can be very overwhelming and can cause stress and panic.

You can reduce some of this stress before you sit the exam, by using visualization (imagining) as a preparation tool.

To do this, close your eyes and picture yourself sitting in the exam hall, try to imagine what you will be experiencing on a sensory level – what you see, what you hear, what you smell, etc. Then, wherever you are sitting, do some hand and leg stretches and take a few deep breaths. Picture yourself being calm, feeling confident and accepting that your best is always good enough. Do this at least once a day while you are preparing so that your mind and body are ready for the big day.

One school of thought proposes that people learn best through varying stimuli – some people are visual learners, while others are auditory or kinesthetic learners.

To find out what your best learning technique is, try a few methods and test what works best for you. If you learn by hearing, then record yourself reading your study notes and play them back to yourself.

If you are a visual learner, create colorful mind maps, flowcharts, bullet-point lists and put them up in the room where you study.

And if you are a kinesthetic learner, try taking a walk or doing gentle movements while you talk yourself through your content. You know yourself best, so study where, when, and how it works best for you.

This is your exam so do whatever works best for you and know that your best will always be good enough.

For the Day of the Exam

1)  Organize all the required or permitted equipment such as pens, rulers and setsquares, calculators and watches, because being well prepared helps one answer the questions well.

2)  Reciting the Du’aa for leaving the house:

“Bismillaah, tawakkaltu ‘ala Allaah, wa laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa Billaah. Allaahumma inni a’oothu bika an adilla aw udalla, aw azilla aw uzalla, aw azlima aw uzlama, aw ajhala aw yujhala ‘alayya (In the name of Allaah, I put my trust in Allaah, and there is no strength and no power except with Allaah. O Allaah, I seek refuge with You lest I should stray or be led astray, lest I slip (commit a sin unintentionally) or be tripped, lest I oppress or be oppressed, lest I behave foolishly or be treated foolishly).”

Do not forget to seek your parents’ Duas, for their Du’aa for you will be answered.

3)  Mention the name of Allaah before you start, as mentioning the name of Allaah is prescribed when beginning any permissible action; this brings blessings and seeking the help of Allaah is one of the means of strength.

4)  Remembering Allaah (Thikr) dispels anxiety and tension. If something is too difficult for you, then pray to Allaah to make it easy for you.

5) Look over the exam first. Research studies advise spending 10 minutes of the exam time in reading the questions carefully, noting the important words and dividing one’s time between the questions.

5)  Plan to answer the easy questions first, then the difficult ones. While reading the questions, jot down notes and ideas which you can use in your answers later.

6) Answer questions according to their order of importance.

7) Start by answering the easy questions which you know. Then move on to the questions which carry high marks, and leave the questions to which you do not know the answers to the end, or which you think will take a long time to calculate an answer or which do not carry high marks.

8) Take your time to answer, for the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Deliberation is from Allaah and haste is from the Shaytaan.” (Saheeh al-Jaami, 3011).

9) Think carefully about the answer

10)  In written exams, collect your thoughts before you start answering. Write an outline for your answer with some words which will indicate the ideas which you want to discuss. Then number the ideas in the sequence in which you want to present them.

11) Write the main points of your answer at the beginning of the line, because this is what the examiner is looking for, and he may not see what he is looking for if it is in the middle of the page and he is in a hurry.

12)  Devote 10 minutes of the time for reviewing your answers. Take your time in reviewing, especially in mathematical problems and writing numbers. Resist the desire to hand in the exam papers quickly, and do not let the fact that some people are leaving early bother you. They may be among the people who have handed in their papers too early.

13) Recite Durood Shareef abdundatly before and after the papers

After the Exam

• Dua is the weapon of a believer – After having prepared and written to the best of your ability… make Dua to Allah Ta’ala for success!