 Have you thought about why exams cause so much anxiety even to those who have already studied thoroughly? A lot of our fears are based on wrong beliefs about tests in general, and these myths unfortunately prevent us from faring well. Explore the following myths about exams and see if you agree:
1. If you fail, you have wasted your time.
If you've tried your best, nothing is wasted. A lot of exams are graded subjectively and there's no reason for you to punish yourself over it. In addition to it, you have retained valuable information while studying and you can always take the exams again, that time with more knowledge on what will be taken up.
2. The exam could out you as a phony, exposing gaps in your education.
Do you think that examiners are going to pick your answers apart? But most likely not; in fact, they understand the pressures that an exam-taker goes through and usually go out of their way to deliberately seek out what's good in the answer you have given.
The more essential thing to remember is that the person checking your paper would be pleased with a show of effort, so even if you don't know the proper procedure, try your best to put together all the principles you've learned and come up with an educated guess and an evident effort to attempt a solution.
3. You should have studied everything.
Before the exam, there's no use worrying about what you weren't able to cover. Besides, it would be too late to cram too much stuff in your head. But with the remaining time that you have, choose the material for last-minute revision wisely. First of all, don't bother reading on the subject matter that hasn't been taken up – that won't be included. Secondly, clear up the things that are more likely to come up on the exam.
How would you know what these are? Read some clues:
– Try to recall subject matter which your professor has mentioned more than once.
– Read about topics he has assigned as homework.
– Take note of items he has written on the blackboard, such as terms, names, formulae, or dates. They're likely to be included, if they were written down.
– If your teacher tells you that a particular topic will be included in the exam, there's a 99% chance that it will.
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