Mastering The Revisions

It’s always a different experience to give exams every time. Whether it’s a professional exam, a school exam paper, a university subject specialization, an interview entrance exam or a competitive exam, all reveal their unique way of preparation and approach it requires. Not because of the way the question paper is drafted but the way it defines the need of mastering the relevant knowledge for that particular stature.

The difference in giving varied exams lies not only in the unique syllabi for each of such exams but sometimes even the same exams given many number of times needs to have a diverse way to prepare them. This is for a simple reason that if a person is not able to get through then either the way he has approached the syllabus needs to change or the technique in which he is preparing needs to be revisited.

Any preparation for exam calls for a sound revision to ensure that the important areas and relevant portions are given the last minute attention they need. Needless to say that the last minute preparations cannot substitute the basic elaborate reading and grasping of the portion of syllabus. Nevertheless some of the techniques of revisions narrated below will help you to enhance your ways of handling your revision better and will reveal to you how a good last minute revision can make a huge impact of giving exams with confidence. Come let’s understand them:

1. Summary Notes: The student makes notes in his own handwriting beside the paragraphs of his book in the margin and at the time of revision only looks at the margin summaries. This technique is useful for those who tend to remember their writings on the books they go through during their first or second reading. It basically gives a comfort and confidence in the last minute and reminders in self handwriting reinstates the topics in the mind of a student. It is beneficial to those who have time for 2-3 readings or less and do not require going in detail for last minute revisions.
2. One Pagers: Every chapter is made to shrink into a one pager so that at the time of revision only so many pages have to be gone through as per the number of chapters or portions. This technique is very useful if the syllabus is very vast with lots of chapters and a lot of coverage in less time is required. The portions which are marked in these one pagers only shall be visited by the student for details in the book. A Student with good grasping memory can opt for this approach and be confident of a vast syllabus which needs to be covered and this will enhance their confidence in the preparation.
3. Overview: This is to understand the charts and tables in a very objective way. An overview is created of the whole portion with specific charts within that overview of the whole subject. This gives the complete idea of which chart is addressed where and the conceptual grasping is very fast. More used for a science prone or statistic prone subjects. It basically helps to understand the overall perspective and connection of diagrams and charts with the theory.
4. Important Markings: This technique basically is very useful if the person wants to very sparingly go through his marked areas within a portion. Rest of the syllabus is not touched at all. This is for those subjects where little theory is part of long practical sums or diagrams. Even when the time is pressing this does amazing coverage and gives a boost to the confidence any which way a student is comfortable.
5. Paper Writings: A brilliant way of revision is to write past papers and solve them in an exam environment, as if you are writing it now. Best suited place is either library or reading zones with a strict instruction to all around that the student will not be disturbed for the duration of 3 hours or till he finishes. This particular way of revision could be factored for professional exams as it gives amazing results and confidence due to lengthy syllabus. Ideal to get some of the papers verified to understand the improvement areas and areas of strength for a student. Typically fifteen days can be kept for this kind of revision once the syllabus is already completely read.
6. Minute Schedules (Minute Makers): This is basically making the minutes schedule to approach the portions. A minute schedule is a combination of overview and important writings to be visited in a minutes. Some minutes can be devoted to specific areas.
7. Past Solved Papers: A good way to revise the syllabus after one or two readings is to see the past solved papers which are normally available for the professional and other important competitive exams.
8. Running Through: This is a fast forward version of first technique, where time is just to quickly see all the pages of the portion and try to recollect the major topics. Basically this is just for those portions where no time was left to revise and you want to still touch base and run through them for a little comfort to attempt them in exam.
9. Approach to Solving: This technique is basically used for the practical exams like accountancy, costing, trigonometry; math based competitive exams to understand the approach of important sums as to how they are solved. Separate time for the theory and practical sums is given and for the sums only approach to solve is visited.
10. Subject Specific Wise: More than one subject exams have to be dealt with a different mindset. Revise the theory or practical in the sequence of what you are good at. Factor and define the timelines for the subjects, crossing which the next subject should be started and then the balance needs to be seen later if the time is left. Chapters bearing more marks should be revised first. Option chapters can be kept for last revisions.