Four Weeks Before Exam Period

4 WEEKS BEFORE THE EXAM
Regardless of how well you went with your semester study plan, now is crunch time. Be proactive and organise
your information, identify gaps in your knowledge and find a strategy to address the gaps.
Make a plan…. What to do ……

1. Be informed • Check the latest draft of the examination timetable.
• Contact AccessAbility if you require modification of exam conditions.
• Check if a bilingual English translation dictionary is allowable for those students
whose English is an additional language.
• Contact the Counselling service if you have experienced exceptional personal
circumstances which may affect exam performance.
2. Gather all materials • Overview your study material from each subject: texts, lecture notes, readings,
practical notes, lab books, feedback on assessment tasks…
• What sort of material can you gather for each subject? The subject calendar will
have a list of core topics/concepts covered over the semester.
3. Refine your study • Create a new study planner for the final 4 weeks to ensure all assessment tasks are
schedule completed and sufficient time is planned for revision.
• Maintain reading, lecture and tutorial activities, as well as time to study for exams.
• Rearrange work or family commitments to minimise distractions that might impact
on your exam performance.
• Access strategies for specific types of exams like multiple choice or open book
exams which do require different preparation and practise.
4. Create a topic list of • Write a topic list for each subject (your subject calendar will help).
what you need to • Review your lecture notes and identify anything your lecturer has emphasised.
know • By start of study week you should have streamlined all the content and now be
ready to study strategically.
• Organise the content into sections forming the basis of study for the next 4 weeks.
5. Intensely review • Look at the content sections you have compiled. Identify what you already know
topics on the list and understand about a topic and then identify what you need to work on. For
example, look at each section and give each topic a rating out of 10, with 10
showing excellent knowledge and 1 showing least knowledge. Refer to this scale
throughout your study prep to help prioritise how much time you will need to spend
on studying each of the topics.
• Revisit and alter your ratings as you progress.
• Write notes, make up index cards, and draw diagrams.
6. Test yourself under • Testing yourself under exam conditions is a useful strategy.
exam conditions • Time - how long is the exam?
• Format- short answer, multiple choice, essay?
• Allowable materials - what can you take into the exam?
• Topics examined – check subject calendar, your lecturer, past exams.
Useful strategies:
• Summarise notes even further - make time in the final week before the exam to fine tune your
understanding of the topics and concepts. One way to do this is to develop an overview of your
course by reducing your notes to a summarised version.
• Allocate more time for study - if you have started late, then allocate more time and effort between
now and the exam than if you had started earlier.
• Set study session goals - write them down before you begin the session; this helps you begin the
session quickly and avoid procrastination:
- goals need to be measurable and achievable.
- examples of study session goals could be
o I will work through five equations
o I will read and summarise chapters 3 and 4
• Study the topics you know least about first AND when you are most alert (in the morning).
• Aim to study for a set time - fifty minutes of study with a ten minute break is thought to be ideal –
but it has to work for YOU!
• Keep a revision checklist for each subject so that you are clear about what you have done and what
you still need to do.
• Use targets and rewards for motivation.
• Join a study group –Talk through concepts to clarify understanding and test each other.
** Active Study Strategies https://www.jcu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/202711/Active-Study-
Strategies.pdf
Useful links:
• JCU Exams and Results https://www.jcu.edu.au/students/exams-and-results
• JCU Exam Timetables https://www.jcu.edu.au/students/exams-and-results/exam-timetables
Other links:
Monash University has a detailed module on exams that includes preparation hints, strategies, types of
exam questions and a number of interactive quizzes which test your knowledge of the topics covered and
provide feedback.

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4 WEEKS BEFORE THE EXAM

Make a plan…. What to do ……

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