• Question: when you did your exams were they difficult and how did you concentrate?

    Asked by to Mark, Matthew, Mike, Paul, Sabina on 12 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Matthew Malek

      Matthew Malek answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Hi Joanne,

      I grew up in the United States, so the school system was a bit different to how it is over here. I still had to do exams, though, just different ones.

      The most difficult exam I ever took was required to go from being a Masters student to a PhD student. It was called a “comprehensive exam” (or “qualifyiing exam”) and it was nine hours long! That’s VERY comprehensive!

      We didn’t do it all in one day; it was three hours a day for three days. But, still, that’s one big exam!

      To be honest, I didn’t think I could pass. There was so much material on the exam — how could I possibly learn it all? You asked how I could concentrate when revising? The answer isn’t glamorous — it was pure terror! Seriously, I was so nervous about the exam that I revised all day every day for nearly three weeks before the exam. I tried my hardest to pass, but I starting thinking about alternative career choices in case I simply couldn’t do it.

      The week after the exam, the results were posted publicly. I was soooooo nervous waiting for them to be posted. Everyone ran to see if their name was on the pass list. My name was there… but with a star next to it.

      A star? What did that mean? Almost no one else had a star. Was this some sort of conditional pass? Did I need to re-take part of the exam?? My mind raced.

      I found the answer to my question at the bottom of the page. There, a small note read:

      * = Pass with Distinction

      Let me tell you — I was so happy I ran out of the building skipping and screaming. Literally!

      So, yes, my exams were difficult… but the story still has a happy ending. 😀

    • Photo: Mike Lee

      Mike Lee answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      During school and university, you get exams for each subject. This helps break up the work load, and you can concentrate on each individual subject. Some subjects I found much more easy to learn, mainly because those were the ones I enjoyed. So some exams were a real battle, where I was desperately trying to solve a problem, without knowing a good strategy, while others were fine. It also depends on the questions you get asked, and I remember getting really lucky in a particular exam as I had prepared for one question and it came up. Other times you are unlucky in exams, but on average you get what you deserve. To help concentrate, I usually took a few minutes at the end of each question to relax and look around, calm down if I needed to or drink some water. This helped me feel comfortable which helps with concentration.

    • Photo: Sabina Hatch

      Sabina Hatch answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I hated exams at school, I was always so nervous. Sometimes I would panic and forget things.
      Some exams were harder for me than others, French was the worst for me!

      I don’t know if you mean concentrate during the exam or revising or them.
      It is easy to get distracted when revising for exams, nowadays it is probably more so because when I did my GCSE’s I didn’t have my own computer or a smart phone. I would say it might be a good idea to remove anything that may distract you firstly, and maybe tell people that you live with that you don’t want to be disturbed. If that is difficult then maybe head to a public library.
      What I found most helpful to concentrate is to give myself a timetable. I would set myself break times and say that I had to work for at least 2hrs before I could have my break. Do not underestimate breaks because your brain needs to rest and digest the information. I found that doing exercise on my breaks helped clear my head.
      So summarise
      1. Remove distractions,
      2. Set a work timetable with set breaks
      3. If you can, exercise and eat healthy. Eating fatty foods can make the brain sluggish.

      If you find it hard to concentrate during the exam then I would say go through each question and start from the easy ones. I found that once I started I relaxed a bit more and it was easier to focus on the more difficult ones.

    • Photo: Paul Coxon

      Paul Coxon answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      My exams were quite hard. I enjoyed some of them, but always preferred doing coursework or practical projects.

      One good tip I learned when revising was about how to retain information from my class notebooks.

      It’s believed by some that your brain remembers:

      5% of what you learn just sitting listening to a lesson in class.
      10% of what what learn by reading over your revision notes.
      20% of what you learn from audio-visual.
      30% of what you learn when you see a demonstration.
      50% of what you learn when engaged in a group discussion.
      75% of what you learn when you practice what they learned.
      90% of what you learn when you teach someone else.

      So I spent a lot of my time trying to explain what I was studying to my parents or dog! I’m not sure any of them properly understood A Level physics but it really helped me remember things during the exams 🙂

    • Photo: Mark Jackson

      Mark Jackson answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      I drank a lot of coffee (for more information about what type, see http://goo.gl/XKqhvD).

      Yes I found exams very difficult. I was usually not the smartest in the class and had to study very hard. This can often be boring, because you want to get out there and “really do it”. But I just kept reminding myself that I was learning tools to solve cool problems. The great thing about science is that there is a correct answer: if you got the correct answer there is a reason why, and if you got the wrong answer there is a reason why. This immediate feedback is very useful in gauging how well you understand something. It’s like climbing a mountain: when you get tired at least you can look back at all the progress you have made and feel good about that.

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