Section 6.3 How to Prepare for Exams
Start preparing for an exam on the FIRST DAY OF LECTURES!
Come to all lectures and listen for where the instructor stresses material or points to classical mistakes. Make a note about these pointers.
Treat each chapter with equal importance, but distinguish among items within a chapter.
Study your lecture notes in conjunction with the textbook because it was chosen for a reason.
Pay particular attention to technical terms from each lecture. Understand them and use them appropriately yourself. The more you use them, the more fluent you will become.
Pay particular attention to definitions from each lecture. Know the major ones by heart.
Pay particular attention to theorems from each lecture. Know the major ones by heart.
Pay particular attention to formulas from each lecture. Know the major ones by heart.
Create a “cheat sheet” that summarizes terminology, definitions, theorems, and formulas. You should think of a cheat sheet as a very condensed form of lecture notes that organizes the material to aid your understanding. (However, you may not take this sheet into an exam unless the instructor specifically says so.)
Check your assignments against the posted solutions. Be critical and compare how you wrote up a solution versus the instructor/textbook.
Read through or even work through the paper assignments, online assignments, and quizzes (if any) a second time.
Study the examples in your lecture notes in detail. Ask yourself, why they were offered by the instructor.
Work through some of the examples in your textbook, and compare your solution to the detailed solution offered by the textbook.
Does your textbook come with a review section for each chapter or grouping of chapters? Make use of it. This may be a good starting point for a cheat sheet. There may also be additional practice questions.
Practice writing exams by doing old midterm and final exams under the same constraints as a real midterm or final exam: strict time limit, no interruptions, no notes and other aides unless specifically allowed.
Study how old exams are set up! How many questions are there on average? What would be a topic header for each question? Rate the level of difficulty of each question. Now come up with an exam of your own making and have a study partner do the same. Exchange your created exams, write them, and then discuss the solutions.