Exams can bea nervous topic for a lot of students, irrespective of whether they arestudying under the CBSE, ICSE/ ISC, IB or Cambridge Board. The good news isthat there are some special tips and tricks that students can use to allaytheir fears and prepare for exams more confidently.
These techniques are also employed by some of the best schools in Gurgaon thatoffer IB PYP, Cambridge curriculum and the IB Diploma Programme. Let’slook into some of them right here:
Focus on what you know and apply it tactfully
Studentsoften focus on ‘learning a lot’ rather than understanding ‘how to apply’ whatthey know correctly. This is not to say that students should only learn alimited amount of their course material – it actually refers to being able touse the knowledge that has been garnered in the most productive and creativeways as answers to questions.
Some of thetop schools in Gurgaon sometimes use a technique called the ‘cardgame’ in order to determine how much a student is able to make use of his or herknowledge. This card game can either be played with the whole class or insmaller groups. There are two piles of cards- one has certain facts andfigures about a topic while the other contains possible questions. The studentsget to pick and decide how they can make the fact fit appropriately as ananswer to a question. This not only encourages them to think creatively butalso challenges them to think actively.
Question the questions
A lot oftimes, during examinations students tend to rush through the question paperswithout giving proper attention to what exactly has been asked. This may proveto be catastrophic because a student can totally skip or misunderstandthe question all together and he/she may end up losing grades even afterknowing all the answers in the first place.
To avoidthis scenario, students should be put into the habit of interrogating orquestioning the questions. They need to be sure that they’ve read the materialcorrectly and then think about the answers that need to be applied. This notonly helps in prepping better but through this method, a student is also ableto determine the subject areas where he/ she might need more revision.
A teachercan also use the ‘pen of power’ approach to deploy this technique. A questioncan be written on the board and the students can be asked to tell about whatthey think the keywords are and why. This technique has also been inculcated bysome of the best Cambridge schools in Delhi NCR and the students haveindeed benefited from it significantly.
Know your facts well
Rememberingkey factual information is very important and there are ways to accomplish thesame. One simple and very interesting method is the ‘Quiz Method’ in which allthe students have a card each with a question and an answer written. The answerhowever is not the correct one to the question on that particular card. Whenthe game begins, one student will read out the question on his/ her card andwhoever has the right answer to that question (on their card) will read it out.Then this second person will read their question and whoever has the rightanswer to that one will read his/ her answer out and so on. This is done untilall the students have their questions and answers correct.
Another wayof strengthening factual information is by making up factual- recall testseither on paper or by using a free online quiz generator or app.
Make use of past and specimen papers as well as study resource material
This is atried and tested technique that students have used for decades. Specimen papersand past examination papers come in very handy for students while they arepreparing for their own exams. These papers help the students get familiar withthe question paper pattern and the style of questions. Practicing the pastpapers as well as specimen question papers within the stipulated time limit (ofthe actual examination) can be a very good practice for the students. Thishelps the students to know how much time they’re supposed to spend on eachanswer on the actual exam day.
These aresome of the tips and tricks that are often used by the best IGCSE boardschool in Gurgaon in order to help its students prepare better forthe examinations and they have undoubtedly borne desired results.
Author bio - The Gurgaon based campus of Amity Global School enrolled its first batch of students in 2008 and has been helping youngscholars imbibe the virtues of education year after year. A tailored approachto academics, sports and extra-curricular activities is the hallmark of theinstitution.
