ARTICLE SUMMARY

Learn how to prepare for a test in college and score an A. It is a lot easier than you think it is and once you master a key few skills, you will have no problems getting for exams going forward.

If studying for a college test is a mystery for you, take heart. You have little to worry about. The fact is, scoring an A on a college test is far more easier than you think. The key to getting an A on your next test involves being able to:

1. Assemble a complete set of notes on the course material
2. Sort through the material and identify what is most relevant so that you can focus your study efforts
3. Study, memorize and recall relevant information

In a nutshell, that’s really how to study for exams in college.

Become a master at sorting through information

You are going to have an insane amount of information headed in your direction from all of your classes and the volume of information will be daunting. That said, know that you never get tested on everything. If you think about this, it makes sense. How many questions can you really fit into an hour-long test? If you were a professor, charged with the duty of educating hundreds of students, how might you write-up your test?

Really think about this for a moment…

If you were a professor, I would imagine that you would more than likely focus your test questions on the main concepts discussed in the course. Each course has a core set of concepts that have to be taught each semester and everything above and beyond these core concepts makes up what I refer to as ‘extra material.’

Having said all of this, you may feel those pangs of fear tugging away at you, suggesting that you ought to digest everything, just in case a question comes up on the test as a surprise or a trick… I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you are attending all your lectures, and you’re paying attention, you will already know by exam time what was stressed as very important and what information falls into the ‘extra material’ category. If you can accept the idea that 90% of the tested material will be based upon key concepts, you will not waste a single moment on the ’extra material’ topics when you are studying.

The greatest tragedy is that some students will spend endless amounts of time focusing on topics that could possibly appear on the test (just maybe), when they should be utilizing their valuable time and energy on the material that matters most. Then, what ends up happening is that they burn out to the point that they cannot focus well-enough on the material that will really appear on the exam. Does this pattern sound familiar to you? Try approaching your studies the other way around. Get your ‘business’ out of the way – that is, the key concepts that you know will be examinable. Then, focus on the tidbits for those extra brownie points.

A time management analogy to use when studying…

If you were to liken your studying priorities to different sized rocks being fitted into a container, this is how your time management would look… The big boulders (lets call them A) would fill up the container pretty quickly, and in the process, they would leave plenty of gaps or spaces in between them. The A boulders represent the amount of time you will spend on the relevant material, which will literally make up the lion’s share of all your efforts; say, 75% of it. The next set of rocks (lets call them B) will be smaller so that they can effectively fill in the those empty spaces between the A boulders. You will spend 20% of your time on these rocks and they represent all the extra information that could be examinable, yet it’s not certain. That is, it’s a toss whether this information will appear on the test but it’s a good idea to review it nonetheless. And finally, the third set of rocks (lets call them C) are not rocks at all, but little pebbles; sand, if you will. The sand, once poured over the container, will immediately fill up any remaining holes or crevices between the A & B boulders so that the entire container gets filled up. You will spend the remaining 5% of your time on the sand, which represents extra interest material. If this material appears on the test, it will be in very small quantities and so you really should not spend too much time on it.

So, to recap then, this is what each class of rock represents in actual course materials:

A: 75% of your time
Relevant lecture material

B: 20% of your time
Mostly materials from your assigned readings that is not in your lecture notes.

C: 5% of your time
All that interesting stuff, if you have time for it.

Can you see now where you should focus your time, starting first with A and then moving through to C?

If your professor hasn’t told you what to focus upon, you can always rely on this little formula as a default approach to use the next time you sit down to study for a test. Aside from time management, it also represents the distribution of the types of questiosn you’ll find on your test. That is, 75% of the test will be on lecture material, 20% will be on readings (if that) and 5% could be on the extra materials. Approach your studying with the above formula in mind and you will start to notice an upward boost in your grades!

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