Exam preparation is both an art and science. It can be learned and modelled and it is dynamic and it involves discipline which would make your studying habits sharper than before. With 1 month left to the mid-year examinations, you might be feeling the jitters to cram studying for all your subjects and revision to earn a decent score. If you are struggling with basic concepts such as Electrolysis, or doing some last-minute cramming for Chemistry tuition, this is the article that you must read. If you have been religiously studying, you will find several useful tips in this article too! Mr Lim from Seb Academy is here to share some tips with you on your exam preparation.
- Plan your time wisely.
If you do not have a timetable planned out, and live everyday rushing homework, you should be very worried as the exam preparations would be nearing very quickly as days pass by without proper accounting. If your internal alarm has gone off by now, you need to sit down immediately after reading this article, and plan a timetable to sort and allocate time for work, play and rest. We all have 24 hours a day. If we do a peer comparison, why do some of our friends have it all together? They do it all – cramming Chemistry tuition, homework, while juggling CCA. One of the secrets of successful students is to allocate time wisely. For example, if you have regular CCA commitment weekly and several tuition sessions weekly, you need to set aside time to plan your time to finish your schoolwork, have time for consultation, and even transportation from school to home too!
In addition, a timetable helps you to study multiple subjects in a day and to ensure that you have sufficient breaks in between studying to maintain maximum efficacy. These are two factors students tend to neglect while revising. As such, you would have time for completing that Chemistry tuition homework you have been putting off for some time as well as complete differentiation review and maxima minima stationary points too! Without a timetable, it is very easy for you to procrastinate and you would postpone work for exam preparation till a later date as you will believe that there is still time. Remember everyone is allocated the same time every day. It is what you do with your time that makes a difference.
- Take short breaks in between revision sessions
Many students tend to focus on one core subject per day, i.e. today is Physics DC Circuits and electricity day, but do you know that it is actually easier for our brains to learn, absorb and retain information if they are of different subject disciplines? It is pointless having a straight 12-hour exam preparation marathon if your brain is already saturated. You can only fill a glass if it is not full. Simple. It is just like your computer RAM. You have to clear it to store new memory for exam preparation. A break is not time wasting but it a is short refuel to help you propel to greater heights. Now get going from studying for Diplomacy and Deterrence to Chemistry mole concepts!
- Religiously practise questions from the ten-year-series (TYS)
What if I told you Chemistry Paper 1 MCQs have a very high chance of being repeated? At our Chemistry tuition sessions, I will highlight the exam questions repeated and marked out by examiner markers to ease your exam preparation! Over the years, I have compiled many questions and sorted them by difficulty. I can assure you many of the questions that come out for your papers are similar to those in the TYS. The examiners like to test the same concepts albeit a different phrasing. You should set time to practise your TYS for the O levels. Also, do you know after the new syllabus change, the questions are geared more to data handling? Practising these questions from the TYS instead of assessment books would help you pick up the skills for it! Nonetheless, for complete repertoire of data handling questions rest assured we cover that very well in our 13-week Prelim Prep course at Seb Academy. Many questions have been prepared to help you conquer this. Let’s do it together!
- Seek Consultation
What do we do in our exam preparation in doing TYS if we keep getting stuck? After attempting the questions and if you do not understand the steps behind the solution, you should seek consultation immediately from your teacher for help. For example, students at Seb Academy constantly Whatsapp me to explain the concepts they have in their homework! This is why Chemistry tuition here is precious, you get instant help with accuracy to check your steps! Arrange a Zoom consult today too! You know I’m always available to all of you to zoom me!
- Make Mindmaps
Mind maps are useful for both everyday uses and for just before the exam preparation. Have seen the question for the third time but you still cannot remember the formula to solve that question? You answer to this question is to create mind maps and cheat sheets. Throughout your current study period, write down any formulas like the ratio of mol/dm3 to moles or definitions you find difficult to remember. As you do so, you can always spend a short 5-10 minutes a day reading through this sheet of paper and into your memories. (Thank God our chemistry tuition provides the Chem Bible which is a concise booklet for you to revise your materials!)
- Join a crash course!
Although you may have a fair understanding of the subject, understanding about 60-70% of it, it might be useful for you to join a crash course where you can consolidate your knowledge, resolve the common queries in your weak topics, and learn how to answer exam questions in the shortest time frame possible. Crash courses can be extremely intense. However they are effective as they focus on popular exam questions and their solutions, common misunderstanding of concepts, examination tips, and sometimes even provide predictions of O levels questions. You can see why they are so popular nowadays. Seb Academy Chemistry Tuition provide crash courses in March, June, September and December holidays! So do join one if you feel that you need an extra boost.
Remember, the race is not to the swift, nor to the strong. Time and chance happen to them all! You can do it! Start planning your time properly, practice your TYS sums, consult and review weaker topics through crashcourses! Your exam preparation habits will form better and you will start to see results in the fruit of your labour. You can also find out more secrets in doing well in this article.
