Conquer Your First College Exams With 4 Test-Taking Techniques That Work
Your ACT prep courses weren’t a waste of your time, though they felt like a nuisance in high school. Even if you struggle with test anxiety, you can conquer your first college exams. Using test-taking strategies can drastically improve your grades and provide peace of mind.
After spending days studying for your exams, you would hate for all your hard work to go down the drain simply because you didn’t make smart test-taking choices. When headed to your college exams, use these 4 test-taking techniques that work.
4 Test-Taking Techniques That Work
1. Look over the entire test before beginning.
Many college freshmen rush through their exams. They grab the paper, quickly scribble their name and ID information, and rush through the test from question #1 to the end. Whether it’s anxiety or just wanting to be done with the semester, they foolishly skip one important step.
Before you put pencil or pen to paper don’t forget to look over your entire test. Notice the different section headings and instructions. Identify what kinds of questions will be asked—multiple choice, true/false, essay, etc. Also identify the point-values given to each section. From what section do the majority of the points come?
Also take note of the information covered too. You may find that a chapter you forgot to study is covered somewhere, and it’s better to find this out at the beginning than with 15 minutes left.
You may wonder why noticing the overview and length of your final is so important. If you take the 2 or 3 minutes it requires to look over your test, you may notice a back page you would otherwise miss. You may also use your time better, knowing which sections are worth the most points.
For example, if you grab your test and go, scribbling down answer after answer, you have no real plan other than getting out the information. You may unintentionally start making sloppy mistakes. You spend way too much time on the beginning of your test and are forced to rush through the last half. The bell rings and you still haven’t finished, but it’s too late. Your teacher grabs your final and it’s over. Not exactly the picture of exam-taking success.
Avoid panicking or scrambling by taking a few minutes at the beginning of the period to look over your final.
2. Follow general principles for different types of questions.
Your college professor can use any or all different types of questions—essay, true/false, multiple choice, matching, etc. Each type of assessment comes with a unique challenge. Do you know how to conquer each?
Essay is not a typically used on every high school test, but in college your professor is much more likely to use this format to test your knowledge. Before you begin to write out information, read the instructions carefully. Do not move on until you understand the question.
Look at the verb used in the instructions. For example, if your English professor asks you to describe a character’s development from a specific work, know what that teacher means by “describe.” Your teacher doesn’t want you to compare the character to another character or evaluate if that character is good or evil. Your teacher wants you to give a detailed description of specific instances that show the character changing throughout the work.
If your history professor asks you to compare and contrast two different rulers from a similar time period, your professor is asking for an entirely different type answer. You should think about the similarities and differences between those characters. Don’t be afraid to create a short outline or chart on a scrap piece of paper. Fully develop your answer with specific examples. Be careful not to embellish any details with your personal ideas or opinions. Keep it factual and accurate.
True/false questions are not unfamiliar territory to you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t despise these sections. One big reason for hating them is the 50/50 chance of getting them right or wrong. If you think about it, that 50/50 chance actually helps you more than it hurts you.
Many freshmen overthink their answers to true/false questions. Don’t overthink but instead remember these few tips. First, if any part of the sentence is wrong, then the answer is false. Only if 100% of the sentence is true should you put true. Second, carefully read the sentence looking for certain words. If the sentence uses absolute words (e.g. always), the answer is probably false. If the sentence uses relative terms (e.g. often), the answer is probably true.
Matching sections are probably familiar to you as well. Before matching up the answers, stop to look carefully at the instructions. Notice if all the answers are used, most of them are used, or some of them won’t be used. If they are all used, are they used more than once? Understanding the instructions helps you eliminate wrong options.
Begin matching with what you know, not by going from top to bottom. After completing the ones you know, use process of elimination. As you go along, don’t forget to cross out choices you’ve already used.
In the end, you may have to guess on a few, and that’s perfectly fine. However, don’t leave any questions blank. You still have a pretty high likelihood of getting your answers right if you put something down.
Multiple choice is a type of testing you expect, but sometimes it can seem more difficult in college. Your teachers will probably no longer give you absurd options. Most of the choices will be possible answers.
As you answer questions, try to think of the answer before even looking at the options. Then look at your options. If your mental answer is not one of the available options, choose the next most likely answer.
If you get stuck try this process. First, read the directions again. You may have misread or misunderstood something. Second, eliminate answers you know are just entirely untrue. Cross them out. Third, logically narrow down your options to one answer.
If your professor includes “all of the above” or “none of the above,” don’t panic. If more than one of the answers is correct, then “all of the above” is your best answer. If none of answers are incorrect, then “none of the above” is your best answer.
If you have a teacher that includes “multiple multiple choice,” don’t allow yourself to get frazzled. Use the same process. Eliminate the untrue answers one by one. Then choose the answer or answers left.
Don’t be afraid to ask your professor a question during the exam, but at the same time don’t expect the answer or an obvious hint. Your teacher will be more than happy to help if possible.
3. Use your exam time wisely.
Few college freshmen actually have a strategy for their exam time. They don’t really think about time until they have hardly any left. This is not the way to get good grades. Please don’t do this!
Instead, be conscience of your time throughout the test. Allot an appropriate amount of time for each section. Be mindful that your essay section will probably take the most amount of time. Keep careful track of the time and adjust when necessary.
Create a process by which you answer questions. You don’t have to begin with question #1. You may find a process of answering questions that works well for you, but if not try the following process that worked well for me.
First, complete questions that are hard to remember. If you had to memorize a formula or dates, put these answers down first. I find that if I delay answering these questions, I struggle to remember them when I need to.
Second, answer the easy questions. These are the questions you have no problem answering. You know these without any hesitation. Good! Get them out of the way, so you can move on to the more challenging questions.
Third, go to the questions that you are unsure about. If you truly don’t know the answer, circle the question and come back to it later but don’t sit there stuck. You don’t have enough time to ponder one question for 15 minutes.
Fourth, double-check your answers. Many students unwisely skip this step. Because nobody is perfect, even the best student might miss something the first time through a test. Always double-check your answers. When you go through, don’t change your answers unless you are 100% sure your answer is incorrect.
Fifth, go back to the questions to which you did not know the answer. Hopefully, this is only a handful of questions. Eliminate incorrect or bad options and choose your best option. But do NOT—I repeat—do not leave answers blank. You will automatically lose points if you refuse to answer, but you have a chance of earning some points if you choose an answer.
4. Stay until the end of the exam slot.
For some reason, college freshmen rush out of the room as quickly as possible. This is ridiculous, because they can’t accomplish much with an extra 15-20 minutes. At the most they’ll cram for an exam they should’ve studied for days ago.
So, don’t rush through your test. Not only can you make costly mistakes, but you also waste precious and scarce energy by running on adrenaline. It’s better to pace yourself. Don’t allow yourself to panic or shutdown. Be the tortoise, not the hare. Steadiness, not speed, wins As.
If you use your time well throughout the exam time, you will probably be in the lecture hall or classroom until the end of the exam slot. Because you hear people gathering their belongings and leaving the room, you may feel pressure to leave. Don’t allow this peer pressure to persuade you to finish too quickly.
Everybody works at a different pace, and that is completely fine. Your test-taking speed isn’t necessarily a sign that you didn’t study or are less intelligent. Don’t leave too soon just because you hear others doing so. Work at your own pace.
Be smart about studying and test-taking. Refuse to go into your test blindly filling in answers left and right without any plan. Instead carefully plan how to spend your time on the entire test. You can conquer your first exams with these test-taking techniques that work!
