Helping our students learn how to study for exams can determine their success not only in the exams but also in their lives. Examination needs careful preparation if students are to do well. Everyone feels nervous on the day of the exam but with careful revision and good examination technique they should succeed.

This article will help focus on the essential points students need to take into consideration while revising their lessons for the exam, why some of students fail and the right skills they need to develop in order to succeed.

Exams are stressful

Yes, exams can be very stressful. Although a healthy dose of stress can be beneficial, too much of it can have detrimental consequences. To reduce unhealthy stress appropriate strategies must be taken. Students must know the following:

• What are the  important points to take into consideration about exams?
• Why some students fail?
• What affects success in exams?

Important points about exams

Exams are an opportunity for teachers to get feedback from students. The following points are worth taking into consideration while revising for the exam.

• Exams are stressful.
• Some healthy dose of stress may be good.
• Length of exams and time you need to finish answering questions.
• Number of items to answer
• Marking / grading
• Format of the exam questions
• Type of the exam

Exams measure:

• knowledge
• what students can do with this knowledge
• skills, and abilities defined as the learning standards or curricula
• quality of  revision
• time management
• practice in answering questions
• Focus on the exam questions

Failing in the exam

Some students have problems with exams because they fail to revise or manage successfully their exam. These are some reasons for such failure:

• not enough revision
• Little time for preparation
• Too much stress.
• Running out of time in exam
• Students misread the question or misunderstand the requirements of the question
• Students lack  knowledge or practice at type of exam
• learning by heart and failing to apply students knowledge in a new context.

What affects exam success?

There are various points that affect the success in an exam. This includes subject knowledge, exam preparation, exam practice, writing skills, use of time and attitudes towards the exam.

Subject knowledge

The better students know their subject the easier it is to succeed. Kowing the subject will help them:

• Recognize what is significant. Therefore, They will understand what must be included and what can be left out
• Identify links and connections between different aspects of the subject. These associations will help students have a global view of the subject.
• Recognize which points of the curriculum  are relevant to which exam questions

Exam preparation

Nothing can be desastrous for any exam sucess than going into it without preparation even if students have worked hard during the course. This is mainly  because exams are not just about understanding information but about showing and presenting from memory specific aspects of what students know in particular ways (such as essay or short answer) at a certain speed.

Exam practice

Practice makes progress. It is undoubtedly very important for learners to practice a lot in order to do well. Students have to practice in conditions as near to the real exam as possible. They have to:

• Set up their own mock exam conditions
• Practice old exam questions.
• Work under time pressure.
• Check their answers after they finish.
• Learn to work quickly in planning, writing and checking answers.

Writing skills

For all written exams, exam success is affected by:

• Style
  clear, easy to read writing style
• Vocabulary
  students haveto show their knowledge of subject specific vocabulary in their answers
• Organization
  Well structured answers  have an introduction, body (with possibly many paragraphs) and a conclusion
• Evidence
  Support points with definitions, examples, theory and quotes

Use of time

Students must be aware of good timing before and during the exam.

• Before the exam they must timetable their preparation.
• During the exam they must allot enough time for each question.

Attitude

Our cognitive activity to think clearly and logically, is affected by factors such as:

• how calm we are feeling
• level of interest in material
• distractions
• self eteem
• self confidence

Success Tips

Before the exam:

Plan and organise in a calm and orderly way:

• Students make a preparation timetable.
• Set exam and study goals. These must be specific measurable, attainable and realistic goals.
• allot enough time for each subject according to needs.
• Use mind maps, short notes summaries to revise lessons.
• Keep sensible hours for sleeping and relaxation.
• Read old exam papers.
• Students familiarize themselves with all aspects of the exam papers. This includes:
  • format,
  • marking scheme,
  • language,
  • terminology,
  • question styles,
  • types of questions…

During the exam

Reading

Read the entire paper thoroughly. Think about the amount of time you might spend on each section. Next:

• Consider which questions you will answer first.
• Re-read them and think about a strategy one might use.
• Consider options for multiple choice questions.

Answering questions

1. Start planning the most difficult questions, but answer the easier questions first. This often helps boost your confidence and provides clues or prompts for answering questions on other less familiar topics.
2. Adjust your watch to match the clock in the room.
3. Read the instructions carefully and check all the pages.
4. Plan your timing according to the number of questions and marks for each.
5. Attempt all questions.
6. Read/analyse each question carefully – identify instructional or content words.
7. Answer the question – do not simply write everything you know.
8. Use a step approach to both short answer and essay questions.
   • Read and analyse the question.
   • Recall what you know.
   • Select the relevant facts.
   • Jot down initial ideas.
   • Organise into logical order – follow basic essay procedure, i.e. introduction, points,conclusion.
   • Begin writing.
9. Write clearly.
10. Move on after the exam. Avoid post-mortems!

Tips for managing stress

Exams are more stressful than usual. Stress can be positive, helping you to stay motivated and focused. However, too much stress can be counterproductive. That’s why students need to keep things in perspective and find ways of reducing stress.

• Practice deep breathing and relaxation techniques before the exam.
• Students mustn’t let their mind wander into catastrophic thoughts like “I can’t understand this author”, “i’m gioing to fail”…
• They must welcome positive thoughts such as “I am patient and persistent”, “I’m methodical”, “my ideas are good”…
• They shoukd decide on the order in which you’ll answer the questions. It is usually best to begin with the one you feel most confident about.

Most importantly, students must put the exam in its real context.  Students need to know how important the exam is in the scheme of their lives. If they don’t do as well as they’d hoped there are always other options.  It’s not going to dictate whether they are  good or  bad students, or whether they are a success or failure.  Exams can’t measure these sorts of things – all they measure is how well they can present the material asked for by the examiner. Nothing more, nothing less.

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A mind map is a graphical tool used to represent words, ideas, tasks, images or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. In other words, it is a visualisation of  what happens in our minds. It helps people to:

• better analyze
• generate,
• visualize,
• synthesize,
• comprehend,
• recall,
• structure,
• and classify ideas,

It is generally used  in

• study,
• note taking,
• brainstorming,
• summarizing,
• revising,
• organization,
• problem solving,
• decision making,
• and writing.

Tony Buzan, the British popular psychology author,  presents in this video his ideas about mind mapping. He says that the brain is radiant; it thinks centrally and explodes in all directions. It works by imagination and associations. Using mind mapping involves the same process. One must start in the center of a blank page with a central key word and then linking it to various words and images related to it.

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EFL learners have difficulty understanding and interacting with native speakers because the nature of native speakers language differ more or less from the artificial language that we, as EFL teachers, use in the classroom.  That’s why, it would be a good idea to teach slang to EFL students to bridge the gap between the language of the books that we usually teach and the language of  every day life that our learners would be forced to understand and use when facing authentic situations and interacting with native speakers.

The activity

• Ask students whether they have problems understanding conversations in British or American movies.
• Brainstorm the reasons why they may have difficulty fully understanding native speakers language.
• Explain that slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker’s  language.
• Give examples of slang language for students to study in groups. (See bellow.)
• Students do a matching exercise to get expalnations of the slang vocabulary items in the examples given earlier. (See bellow.)

Examples

1. What an awesome sunset today.
2. He had to barf because he drank too much alcohol.
3. Your ideas about politics are all wet.
4. You cannot get a girlfriend if you act dorky.
5. Shut up! You are such a big mouth.
6. Her ex-boyfriend was dirt / a dirt bag.
7. The whole idea was a bust.
8. He’s an ace reporter who always gets a good story.
9. This is a really cool place to work.
10. I need more time to cram for the test.
11. If you make another boo boo like that, you won’t have a job.
12. He is really a chicken.
13. He has a really cushy job.
14. Investing in the stock market can be dicey.
15. At the wedding he had a flashback of his old girlfriend
16. More than twenty companies in the district went bust during the last three months.
17. That guy is a zero
18. The company received a kickback from the politician during the recent elections
19. His salary is thirty grand
20. Do you want rice or spuds for dinner?

Matching task

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This slideshare gives your students some starting points for their own research and study. It will lead them into learning how to learn and tries to answer particularly these issues:

• How should our students study?
• Why should students know their own learning style?

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In this activity students are encouraged to do a resarch and write a biography about a prominent woman who made history.

The activity

• Ask Students when the International Wome’s Day takes place.
• Ask about what the celebration stands for.
• Students read a text about a prominant woman. This is a list of websites providing interesting material about women. More links can be found at Larry Ferlazo.
  • Children’s Encyclopedia of Women
  • Women Who changed the world
  • Fight for Women’s rights
• Provide a form for students to fill (see the form bellow.)
• Ask students to do a research about a famous woman.
• They write a biography about the famous woman they did a research about.

The form

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Although lesson plans constitute a major part of being a teacher, they are dreaded and sometimes their importance underestimated by some teachers. Some teachers even advance the unpredictability of some events in the classroom to discredit any attempt to provide any strict planning of what occurs in the classroom. Although this might be true, it should be noted that a lesson plan is a project of a lesson. It’s not (and cannot) be a description of what will exactly happen during lesson delivery. It provides, however, a guide for managing the classroom environment and the learning process.

Reasons for lesson plans

To have some hints on the importance of lesson plans on the teaching process, consider these reasons:

• Clarity
  Lesson plans help to be clear about what you want to teach.teachers need to make wise decisions about the strategies and methods they will employ to help students move systematically toward learner goals.
• Unpredictable Events
  Lesson plans may also include a room for unpredictable events. This helps teachers to be ready to cope with whatever happens.
• Framework
  Lesson plans give your teaching a framework, an overall shape.
• Reminder
  Lesson plans may also play the role of a reminder for teachers when they get distracted.
• Commitment
  It suggests a level of professionalism and real commitment .

In addition to the above reasons, it is worthwhile mentioning that lesson plans will have positive impact on both the teacher and the learner.

• For the teacher
  • They don’t have to think on their feet.They don’t lose face in front of their learners.
  • They are clear on the procedure to follow.
  • They build on previous teaching and prepare for coming lessons
• For the learner
  • They realize that the teacher cares for their learning.
  • They attend a structured lesson: easier to assimilate
  • They appreciate their teacher’s work as a model of well-organized work to imitate.

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This is the third of a series of posts about how to create blogs. The platforms that I chose to give tutorials about are Blogger, Edublog and WordPress. These are the links to the different tutorials:

• Blogger Tutorial
• Edublog Tutorial
• WordPress

Here is how you can set up a blog using the WordPress platform:

Creating a blog with WordPress

This is how you can create a blog using the WordPress platform:

• Go to WordPress website
• Click on “Get a WordPress blog now”
• Provide a username, email address, agree on the terms of service and check  “gimme a blog”
• Click “Next”
• A new window will open wher you need to
  • choose domain name
  • provide blog title
  • Choose a language
  • Check “privacy”  if  you want your blog to be public or uncheck it if you want it to be private
• Sign up
• Go to to youy mail inbox and  activate your account
• You will be directed to your WordPress page containing your blog information – username, password, etc…
• Use your username and your password to login to your account
• You may want to edit your profile or go to the dashboard to start posting

Here is a video which shows the basics of creating a blog with a Wordpress:

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This is the second of a series of posts about how to create blogs. The platforms that I chose to give tutorials about are Blogger, Edublog and WordPress. These are the links to the different tutorials:

• Blogger Tutorial
• Edublog Tutorial
• WordPress

Here is how you can set up a blog using the edublog platform:

Creating a blog with Edublog

This is how you can create a blog using the Edublog platform:

• Go to the edublog website.
• Sign up – provide a username an email address and other detail and agree on the terms of use.
• Click next and a new window will open where you can fill your blogs details -  tiltle, address, blog type…
• Then sign up
• Go to your email to activate the account.
• You will be directed to your page on edublog.
• Type your password
• You are ready to use your blog:)

Here is a video which shows the basics of creating a blog with a edublog:

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There is no doubt in my mind that technological tools, such as blogs,  will be at the heart of  education in the 21st century. Teachers will be able to set up blogs either as a personal development tool or as a professional means of instruction. Here is the first of a series of posts about how to create blogs. The platforms that I chose to give tutorials about are Blogger, Edublog and WordPress. These are the links to the different tutorials:

• Blogger
• Edublog
• WordPress

I will start by a tutorial on how to create a blog with Blogger.

Setting up a blog with blogger

Blogger is an easy platform that offers free hosting with space and customization options. To set up a blog using blogger you need to follow these steps:

• Create a google account if you don’t already have one.
• Go to www.blooger.com and sign in.
• Click on  “create a new blog”
• Create a title and an address
• Enter the random word that appears on your screen.
• Then click “continue
• Choose a template from the library (You will be able to change the template later if you want)
• Your blog is ready to add your first post
• Click on “start posting”
• A window will open with a text editor which you can use to write a post for your blog.

Here is a video that covers the basics of  setting up a blog on blogger.

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• Why is lesson planning important?

• How is lesson planning important for the teacher? For the learners?

• What do you take into account when you design a lesson plan?

• What constant components are there in your lesson plan?

This slideshow tries to answer these issues:

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