10 Quick Exam-Study Tips for Teens in the Thick of Exam Study
Non-crap, specific & actually good lawyer tried-and-tested exam study techniques.
I mean, what else is there to say. Let’s get straight into it.
1. Make an Exam Study Timetable for the rest of your exam study
It doesn’t matter whether exams are two months away or two days away, it’s never too late to take a moment to think about how you’re going to spend the rest of your study time.
I highly recommend that your teen makes an Exam Study Timetable to schedule out their time in the lead up to exams.
Doing well in exams is, to an extent, a game, and getting good at games requires strategic thinking.
Your teen needs to use their study time wisely. Making an Exam Study Timetable is the way to achieve that.
2. Study in accordance with what the subject requires
Maths, Science, English, History — they each require a different approach to studying.
For Maths, teens need to smash out as many practice questions as it takes for each type of question becomes easy.
For English and History, practice essays are in order, and thinking about how the same points can be moulded to answer different essay questions.
For Science subjects, a mixture of study notes and practice questions.
For my complete guide on how to study for different subjects, check out this free study guide for your teen. I don’t mean to brag, but I will. It’s very good.
3. For the love of god don’t study everything
A targeted approach to exam study is what teens should aim for, not a shotgun.
Ya know that thing their teacher said once a couple of months ago? Yeah, I don’t care about that.
What I do care about are all of the big meaty juicy topics your teen has been spending days if not weeks on in class. Think photosynthesis, mitosis v meiosis, electrolysis, forces, algebraic equations, balancing chemical equations, the events leading up to WW1 etc. These are the topics that are very likely to come up in their exams, and be worth the most marks.
Remember, it’s all about strategy. Your teen needs to spend the vast majority of their time engaged in high yield study. This means key topics, not peripheral topics.
4. Take the time to properly understand something tricky
When you try and fudge your way through an answer in an exam, the examiner can tell.
They understand the topic a lot better than you do, and they can see right through when a student is grasping at straws.
So when your teen is studying, and they hit a bit of a road block — as tempting as it is to be like oh yup I get that, sorta — it’s well worth the time to hit pause, go back and make sure they actually understand the fundamentals.
This will also significantly improve their ability to recall the topic in the exam. When we actually understand a topic well, it’s a million times easier to write about it clearly, particularly when you’re under pressure, which you obviously are in an exam.
5. Please please please look at some past exams
If I was to travel back in time to high school again (I’m good), one of the things I would change about my approach to study would be to do more past exams.
They are just the best. The next best thing after a crystal ball for telling you what the exam is likely to be like — what types of questions are likely to come up, how long the exam will probably be, how hard the questions might be.
Even if your teen is behind, they will be much better off attempting a couple of past exams rather than continuing to stuff information blindly into their brain.
This is because, not only do past exams provide a window to the future, they give teens an opportunity to practice applying what they know to exam questions, which is actually a completely different skill to just knowing stuff.
I don’t want your teen to practice answering exam questions for the first time in the exam itself.
6. Forget about grades
Your teen can’t actually control what grades they end up getting.
Even a student who does everything right, studies really hard, is gunning for top marks, could end up really disappointed because they didn’t get the grade they were hoping for.
The exam could have been harder than they were expecting. They might have had an ‘off’ day'. It could be a somewhat subjective subject and they were marked harshly.
The only thing your teen can control is how much effort they put in. And 9 times out of 10, when students actually put in the hard yards, they are rewarded.
So for now, let’s not worry about specific grades. Let’s just focus on getting the work done, and the rest will follow.
7. Get a study buddy
Now, crappy study advice says generic stuff like “study with a friend!”.
Okay, but why?
It’s more nuanced than just “study with a friend to help each other”.
Here’s what you do.
Talking over those meaty juicy topics together can be incredibly helpful for two things:
Making you realise that you don’t actually understand something well enough…
Creating a memory of the two of you discussing how something works that you can recall when you’re in the exam!
I used to do this with my study buddy at uni (now actually my husband, we met in BioSci101 lol), and I distinctly remember being in the exam the next day going omg I know this we talked about it last night!
8. Don’t study all the time
Seriously, no one needs to do that.
Your teen should keep going with dance practice, music practice and whatever else they usually have going on.
Being the dork that I was, I still had music, band and sport practice during exam periods, and they were a very welcome break from my desk.
Having a break from studying is actually good for your study. It frees up space in your brain to shove more information in. And, when you come back to those tricky topics, you’re better able to give them another crack.
9. Hit the heart sink topics first
When your teen sits down to study, I highly recommend that they get into the habit of tackling the subjects / topics that make their heart sink FIRST.
We all know that horrible feeling of dread that hangs over us when we know we have to do something we don’t want to do.
Well when you’re studying, this becomes counterproductive, because it robs us of motivation. And when your teen is studying, they need all the motivation they can get!
Rip off the band-aid and get it done. The momentum you get from the relief of getting it over and done with is fantastic study fuel.
10. Study in a way that works for YOU
I hate generic study advice, because it assumes that we should all study in the same way.
That type of advice is so unhelpful, because actually, your teen’s goal over the course of high school, should be to figure out how to study in a way that works for THEM.
And that process — that method of studying for exams that is tried and tested to work for your teen — is what I call their Study System.
I mean, this gets to the crux of one of the reasons why so many teens bomb out at high school — they’re all treated exactly the same. Read this practice that and then sit this exam even though we’re not going to teach you how to study, and sorry you’re shit out of luck if the traditional school environment doesn’t work for you.
I could rant about this all day, but for the purpose of this post, I’ll keep it simple.
The way that I study might not work the same way for your teen, and there might be study techniques that work for them that don’t for me.
So as is the case for all of my study advice, ultimately it’s a guide for your teen to yes follow, but also to shape, adapt and mould in whatever way works for them.
I want your teen to figure out their Study System, not someone elses.
Your teen doesn’t have to suffer in silence.
If your teen is struggling with any part of studying, I’m only a message away. They can hit me up on Facebook, Instagram, or email (clare@cramlab.org).