Preparing for Examinations

Exam Preparation and Study Skills

• Good study skills include regular revision. Use past exam papers as revision aids. Try to find questions that are relevant to material the student has just covered in class so that their immediate recall can be tested. Looking through papers like this also helps students to focus on the long-term aims of the work they are doing. Planning and timetables are key to maintaining a programme of regular revision.



• Good study/revision skills also include short bursts of work. Aiming to work for an hour or two without a break is unrealistic. After twenty minutes, even a short break of a minute or two to go over mentally what has just been read, or to get up from the table, or to have a drink, is recommended.



• The past papers should be used to make students familiar with the format of the exams at an early stage. Many students, under exam stress, will misread or misconstrue questions and instructions, and students with dyslexia are more likely than most to do this. Therefore, the student should know how many sections are on each paper, what they are called, how many questions are to be answered, what the time allowance and marking schemes are, and so on.



• Core vocabulary for each subject should be covered: students will need to have the words in their spoken as well as sight-vocabulary. Commonly-used important vocabulary will arise in part from reading through past papers. Students can create their own personal dictionary, with sections of core vocabulary for each subject they are studying.



• An effective reading technique is important to maximise learning. The SQ3RM technique is helpful. This technique is explained in more detail below.



• Use the suggested essay titles on the paper to practise brainstorming and planning out compositions. Mind-mapping and other visualisation techniques can be used to create visual maps of the plan. These techniques can also be used to take notes in class and create revision aids. Further information on mind-mapping techniques can be downloaded here (PDF format).



• Some students find commercial revision guides helpful. Most good educational bookshops stock ranges of these guides covering a wide range of subjects, as well as specific texts in English literature. The main Irish educational book publishers (e.g. Folens, Gill and McMillan, Fallons and the Educational Company) publish revision notes for many of the main Junior and Leaving Certificate subjects. Study notes on various subjects can also be found on the internet (e.g. on www.skool.ie).



• Students with dyslexia can have difficulty with note-taking in class. If a teacher/lecturer is giving a class from notes s/he has made, it would be much more useful to allow the student to listen to what is going on, and then give them a copy of the teacher's own notes at the end. Alternatively, students could be allowed to take a copy of another student's notes (one who is competent at taking them). Likewise, students can have difficulty copying down quickly or accurately work or instructions written on the board. Try, as above, to provide them with printed instructions or a copy of another student's notes.



• Make sure that plays and novels chosen for English courses are available in alternative formats other than print; look for audio or video versions. Read poems onto tape. Other course-work (history, geography) is not commercially available on tape or disc. Parents/family members can help by reading some course material onto tape for the student. This allows the student to listen and follow the text at the same time. An alternative is to use text-to-speech software which will read text that has been scanned into a computer using a scanner. Kurzweil is a programme that will read back any printed material which has been scanned in. It reads at different speeds, in words, sentences or continuously. It will read web pages direct from the Internet. It also gives definitions of words and suggests options. Another such programme is Texthelp. It offers similar features and is more affordable. A list of specialist computer suppliers can be found in the computer section of this website.



• If you are applying for exam accommodations (special arrangements) in your exams, make sure to apply in plenty of time, so that you know what accommodations you will have and can practice in the same format. This is particularly important in the case of doing the exams orally onto tape, as this technique needs practice. But any alternate way of doing an exam needs to be practised; any term or mock exams should be done in exactly the same format as the actual exam.

For further reading, most good bookshops contain a wide range of books on study skills and exam preparation techniques.

Wordswork is a multi-sensory computer programme aimed at improving study skills and learning for students at secondary and further education. It covers topics such as essay writing, exam revision, note taking, time management, as well as many others. A list of specialist computer suppliers can be found in the computer section of this website.

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