When the end of the semester rages, there are courses that you simply don’t have time to review in advance.
Preparing for an engineering exam can be a very stressful experience, especially at the end of the session where work, intra-exams and courses intertwine. Unfortunately, this excess of things to do often makes study time very limited, and many students take their exam without even having taken the time to study !
Are you in this situation? To help you, here are some tips to apply to study as best as possible… five minutes before an exam!
Relax and stay focused
This is advice that may seem elementary, but is nevertheless essential. Panicking before an exam has never helped anyone do better.
So take deep breaths and clarify your thoughts. You only have a few minutes to process a lot of knowledge into your heads, so there’s no point an exam adding to your worries. See exactly how much time you have to revise and adapt.
Remind yourself
Remember your last lessons, and try to target the aspects that are important for the exam. Eliminate parts that you are sure will not make it onto the exam.
Once you have remembered the important points, make a quick list of topics you should have reviewed. If you paid attention during your lessons and understood the material your teacher was teaching, you have a better chance of getting a good grade than if you remember your lessons without really understanding them.
Use your time well
There are some exams where you will arrive a little early and have a little more than five minutes to study. Use this time correctly, and avoid chatting with your friends around you just to tell them that you didn’t have time to study!
Choose wisely what you review
Engineering exams mainly consist of problems to be solved. Once you have made a list of the important parts to review, prioritize the types of problems, procedures, terms and essential formulas that you need to remember. Sometimes you will be able to find the solution to a problem simply without even understanding it; all you have to do is apply the course formulas!
Use mnemonics
If you don’t have a mark sheet for your exam, create mnemonics for the formulas and terms you need to memorize to make them easier to remember and not forget during the assessment. You can even write them down somewhere on your paper at the start of the exam so you no longer have to memorize them by heart.
Ask for help
If you need to, you can ask a classmate or friend to lend you their notes to make sure you haven’t missed anything important in your revision.
When all else has failed
If you really haven’t been able to implement any of the previous tips, all is not lost. Take deep breaths, and try to remember as much as possible. Start with the problem you are most familiar with, and do your best.