SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING YOUR PERFORMANCE ON EXAMS

The following suggestions come from Dr. David Horner, Cal Poly Pomona, Department of Psychology and Sociology.

The following advice comes from 9 years of my own undergraduate and graduate school experience, and 10 years of teaching undergraduates and graduate students. Please accept these ideas as suggestions only: If you think they will work for you, use them, and if not, ignore them. I do not promise good or bad results: They are intended only as suggestions from someone who has spent a lot of his life in school.

How to read the textbook:

To perform well on exams you must understand what you read at a deep level. Understanding something at a deep level means you have thought about it in a highly meaningful way. Understanding at a deep level requires you to take new information (new stuff) and relate it meaningfully to stuff you already know about (old stuff). For example, let's say you want to remember some new stuff that you have just read: bananas are grown on the Canary Islands. You might "link" the new stuff with old stuff in the following way: bananas are yellow (old stuff), and canaries are yellow (old stuff), which helps to "link" bananas with the Canary Islands (new stuff). In addition, let's say you also know that bananas are a tropical fruit (old stuff) and that the Canary Islands are located in the tropics (old stuff), which again helps you to "link" bananas with the Canary Islands (new stuff). The more ways you can find to link new stuff with old stuff, the deeper you are processing the information, and the better you will understand and remember the information later. If you can somehow relate the new stuff to yourself or someone you know well, this also serves to deeply process the information. For example, if your best friend (old stuff) just returned from the Canary Islands and brought you some bananas, this will help you to "link" bananas with the Canary Islands (new stuff).

The difficult part about deep processing is that it is time consuming: It requires you to stop reading and think for awhile, before reading any more material. This will obviously slow down the pace of your reading. But, it will also increase your comprehension and your ability to remember the new stuff later on. I usually tell students to read a couple of sentences or a paragraph (depending on the difficulty of the material) and then stop and think about it before reading any further. This is what I must do when I am reading a journal article. In fact, to read some articles, I must read a single sentence and think about it for awhile before moving on.

Understanding at a deep level is different from reading the text and believing that you understand it; rather, it involves one or more of the following (and the more the better):
- Thinking about the meaning of the new facts or ideas
- Thinking about how the new concept relates to what you already know.
- Thinking of examples of the new information.
- Creating new examples to illustrate a new concept.
- Explaining the new information to someone else.
- Writing down an explanation of the new information.

How to take notes in class:

Usually students have devised their own strategies for note taking by the time they get to college. Here are some additional pieces of advice. The first key to taking good notes in class is to read the book before coming to class. By doing this, you will have a better understanding of what I am saying in class, and you will use your note-taking to deepen your understanding of the topic rather than recording stuff you have heard for the first time, perhaps without full comprehension. The second key to taking good notes is not to write down every letter in every word. Instead, devise your own type of "short-hand" that you will understand when you read your notes at a later time. For example, if my college professor had said, "Freud proposed that people who experience anxiety use a variety of defense mechanisms to eliminate or reduce their anxiety," I would have written:

Freud: peop who exper. anx. use def. mech's to reduce anx.

The third key to taking good notes is to find time as soon after class as possible to review your notes and clarify any ambiguous or missing information. Use a different colored pen at this time so you know which notes were class notes, and which notes were added afterwards. This usually takes relatively little time and may have a big payoff later on, when you are trying to de-cipher your notes while studying for the exam.

How to study for exams:

In addition to your own strategies for studying, here are some suggestions. Studying for an exam should take place during the weeks before the exam, that is, on an ongoing basis, rather than “cramming.” As mentioned above, read the material to be covered during the upcoming class session before coming to class. Read all of the material to be covered on an exam at least twice, with as much comprehension as possible each time you read it. Every time you read, think deeply about the material. There is a direct relationship between the amount of time you spend processing material deeply and how well you will comprehend and remember it. Finally, one problem with psychology is that some of it seems "intuitively obvious" and students feel they know the material well until their knowledge is tested more deeply on an exam. You may need to really work with the textbook and classroom notes to get a good grade. The study aids you produce yourself are the most important for learning.

How to handle poor exam performance:

Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, some students still do poorly on the first exam. Don't wait until after the second exam to seek my assistance if you feel you need help - see me as soon as possible. Sometimes poor exam performance is unrelated to studying, but is due to factors beyond control – I call these factors “life intrusions.” Life can interfere with studying in many ways. Some common distractions from studying include such things as personal illness, job-related stresses, stressful home environment, or the death of a close friend or relative. Obviously, exam performance may improve only after resolution of these kinds of difficulties.

However, in terms of controllable factors, such as how one studies, the two most common mistakes that students make are trying to cram for exams, and not reading the book closely enough. Although there are many possible reasons why students do not perform well on tests, students often fall into one of four categories:

1. Students experience life intrusions (as mentioned above)
2. Students are pretty good at taking tests, but fail to study productively.
3. Students study productively, but are not good at taking tests.
4. Students neither study productively, nor are they good at taking tests.

If you fall into category 1, exam performance is best improved by removing the intrusion or finding a strategy for adapting despite the intrusion. If you fall into categories 2 or 4 you need help with study strategies, and this handout is for you. If you need further assistance, see me for additional suggestions. If you fall into categories 3 or 4 you may be experiencing one of various forms of exam anxiety. The "symptoms" may include such things as extreme nervousness, difficulty in thinking clearly, or "blanking out" while trying to answer questions. To reduce exam anxiety and to allow more time for taking the exam, some students find it helpful to take the exam in the Learning Center on the bottom floor of the library, and this option is available to all students. Students who select this option must begin the exam in the Learning Center at the same time as students taking the exam in class. If you wish to take an exam in the Learning Center you must notify me at least a week before each exam.

Miscellaneous Study Tips From Former Students:

1. "Don't miss class - class really helps you to understand the material better."
2. "When I spent more time reading the book, I did better on the exams "
3. "Make a schedule for reading the book and studying and stick to it."
4. "Don't be bashful about asking questions - What you don't understand is sure to be on the test."
5. "Don't wait until the week of the exam to study - go over your notes everyday"
6. "Questions are mostly applied or conceptual - be sure to understand the material - memorization won't work"
7. "Follow up on exams- get the correct answers, look at the questions you missed and why you missed them, look at the types of questions included on the exam. The same styles of questions are used on all tests."