It’s been a stressful year? You have been pulling out all stops to make it to your A*. You know, sacrificing your favorite hobbies, and having your head in your books while everyone else partied. Or maybe you didn’t ditch the social gatherings or your hobbies, but still worked your best. But, here’s the thing, at the end of the day, regardless of the amount of work we put in, we all are worried. How would we know if all the hard work you have done till now will take it to your desired grade or your aspired goal? Would it really work?
Whether you are heading for your IGCSEs or SATs or university exams, here are some signs to pacify your racing heart and soothe your tangled nerves:
YOU PRACTICED PAST EXAMS WITH TIMER ON:
If I were to say, past exams are important to get a nice grade, it’s an understatement. Past exams are essential, extremely important! They not only make up your mind as to what to expect in the exam, they also help you determine where you stand and what grade to expect.
But! They need to be done the right way!
If have just been lazily dozing off while just leafing through and making mental notes periodically, stop it right away!. Practice them by creating an environment as like the actual exam as possible. Set the timer, give yourself no concessions!
And make sure to check with the marking scheme and grade yourself as fairly as possible.
If you have done that all, well, congratulations, you are one step closer to your aspired A*.
ENSURED THAT YOUR SYLLABUS CONTENTS ARE COVERED?
So many misguided students stumble from book to book, ensuring they covered this topic or that one, or the one their teacher marked important. But always remember, the ultimate guide is your syllabus. It’s always the syllabus, no matter your degree level, your board or school. It’s neither the books nor the teacher’s remarks, that the examiner will be making the exam from. It’s the syllabus contents!
So get yourself a hard copy of the syllabus, tick off every topic and sub-topic. Make sure you miss nothing. Work off on your weak topics. If there’s something budging you about certain topic, go back and give it one more thorough reading.
If you already did that, and are confident about every single topic, well, I wonder if you can’t already see the A* looming up ahead?
YOU ARE THAT PRO-EXPLAINER OF THE CLASS
We all have that knight in shining armor in class who rescues the grades of his peers by explaining the contents on the last day or the beeping last hour to your exam. If you have found yourself in one of those spots, explaining concepts to your fellows pretty well, here’s your cue to know that you are going to pull off a very find grade.
YOU RECOGNIZE THE INDEX TERMS OF YOUR TEXTBOOK
If it’s a day before exam or perhaps a week, and even though you have revised well enough but that jittery feeling in your stomach! Man… Would you pull it through?
Here’s how you know you would. If opening your textbook and going through the index brings not only a familiarity to all the terms but you can actually go through each one of those sub-topics in your brain just by looking at the main topic. It’s like seeing the topic of ‘The Mughal Empire’ in your history textbook brings to your conscience the whole string of the sequence the chapter starts, proceeds and the main questions you think can be designed from this topic. Does it? Well! Great… You are definitely going to make it.
YOU HAVEN’T SKIPPED TOPICS IN HOPE THAT THEY WON’T COME UP
Well.. we all have been there and done that. Where that damn question your guts told you has as much chance of turning up in the exam as you making eternal peace with your younger sibling. And you believed your guts and guess what? There the question stood in the exam paper staring right at you with that triumphant expression. Killed.
If this time, you were wise enough not to believe in those hoaxes of your brain and carried on your preparation, through the rough and tough questions, no matter how ugly. You, my hero, have grown up! And are definitely heading for that glamorous A*.
YOU DIDN’T TRICK YOURSELF WHILE ATTEMPTING PAST PAPERS
You know those moments where you read through past papers, get confused, have a sneak peak at the answer and tell yourself “OF COURSE, I WAS TOTALLY GONNA WRITE THAT”
Well, well, well, you totally know deep inside your heart where you lie. You always do but you keep pretending you are fine.
If you have been attempting past papers with all honesty you can master, checked the marking scheme with the right purpose to mark your grades, and graded yourself, you will already have declared yourself to an A* bearer and surely you will secure it!
If all the above signs coincide with your stars and you can already feel the grade coming your way, wait wait, let’s not celebrate before anything’s achieved. Keep your hopes up, your goals high but never let your over-confidence ruin it all for you. That nerd of your class might have gone through another revision, or perhaps a relaxing yoga session while you have been reading through signs that your grade is coming your way, with your adrenaline running up and high.
Remember, the key is the right balance between your levels of confidence and anxiety. A little anxiety will keep you motivated and running but too much will make you collapse. And same goes for confidence.
So, keep that attitude of winners, stress your mind just enough to keep yourself going but waste no more time. Get to work. Revise more, relax more and keep your fingers crossed.
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