How to learn

How to prepare for an exam

Preparation starts not with the textbook but with two lists: what will be asked and which of it you do not know. Everything else is sharing out the days between the items on the second list. The order below works the same whether the exam is a month away or a week away.

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List what will be asked#

Take an official source: the course syllabus, the list of exam questions, the specification and sample papers if the exam is a standardised one. Copy the topics into one file as a numbered list. A list of forty items is frightening only until it is spread across days — after that it becomes a schedule.

Next to each topic note the format of the question: an oral answer, a problem, a multiple-choice test, a case study. Preparing for a problem by reading theory is pointless, and the other way round too.

Take a practice test before you study, not after#

The most valuable thing on day one is to work through a whole sample paper without opening your notes and get an honest result. It is unpleasant and useful: you learn the format and the timing and, most importantly, your real gaps instead of the ones you imagine.

Go through your mistakes and give each topic one of three marks: know it well, shaky, do not know. Topics you know well are not studied any more — you only review them right before the exam.

Set priorities by two signs#

The order of preparation comes from where two things overlap: how often a topic appears on the exam and how badly you know it.

  • Asked often and you do not know it — this is where most of your time goes, the first third of the plan.
  • Asked often and you know it shakily — second in line; here you only need problems.
  • Asked rarely and you do not know it — taken on if time is left.
  • You know it well — only a short review the day before.

The natural temptation is to start with a favourite topic you already know. It is pleasant and useless.

Spread the topics across days#

The rule: one or two topics a day and a compulsory problem or question on each the same day. A day ends not with "I read it" but with "I solved it without hints" or "I explained it out loud". The last two or three days of the plan get no new topics — they are kept for reviewing everything and one more practice test.

A one-month plan looks like this: three weeks of topics in priority order, then a final week of practice tests and going over mistakes. A one-week plan is the same thing compressed: five days of topics, a practice test on the sixth, the weak spots on the seventh. If there are more topics than days, deliberately leave part of the list out — that is more honest than spreading yourself thin and learning nothing.

Study so that it comes back to you in the exam#

Rereading your notes creates a feeling of readiness that falls apart in the exam room. The opposite works: close the material and reproduce it from memory, in writing or out loud — the technique is covered in active recall. Second, come back to topics you have covered instead of doing each one once; the review pattern is described in spaced repetition.

For an oral exam, practise the answer itself: answer a question out loud in full, standing up, in three minutes. Knowing a topic and presenting it under an examiner's gaze are different skills.

The last day#

The day before: skim the summaries of all topics, solve one typical problem for the most frequent questions, pack your things and documents. Take on nothing new — a new topic the day before the exam almost always pushes out what had settled well. The night before is for sleep, not cramming: a tired person loses more on careless mistakes than they gain from one more chapter.

Common mistakes#

  • Preparing from someone else's notes instead of the exam syllabus.
  • Studying in order from the first topic to the last without looking at gaps.
  • Reading theory where you will be asked to solve problems.
  • Leaving the first practice test for the last day.
  • Trying to cover everything on the last night. If time is very short, it is better to master the three most frequent topics properly than to touch twenty superficially.

Step-by-step plan

  1. Day 1 — topic list and practice testTopics from the official syllabus; one whole paper without notes.
  2. Day 1 — marks and prioritiesEvery topic gets: know, shaky, don't know. Order by frequency and size of the gap.
  3. Main part — one or two topics a dayEach topic ends with a solved problem or an answer out loud without hints.
  4. Every few days — go backA short review of earlier topics before new ones.
  5. Second-to-last days — another practice testA full timed paper, going over mistakes, fixing weak spots.
  6. The day before — summaries and sleepSkim the summaries, start nothing new, get a good night's sleep.

Start learning this in your own space

The plan goes into your repository: tick off stages, keep notes — the change history shows how far you have come.

Start the plan

Sources

  • Khan AcademyFree lessons and practice for school and university subjects
    free
  • AnkiFlashcards with spaced repetition for facts and definitions
    free

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