Free Study Printout: The Effective Exam Study Process

That Any Teen Can Follow to Get Consistently Better Results

Jan 07, 2024

TL;DR — To make sure your teen gets the results they’re actually capable of this year I’ve got a brand new Printout for your teen’s bedroom wall.

It’s going to guide them through the 3 fundamental phases of exam study, and keep them on track when they’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed.

Click the button below to download this Printout and share it with your teen

Download Printout

The button will take you to cramlab.org/free-downloads — it’s the first one on the page.

Even if your teen doesn’t have exams for ages, you can help them start 2024 on the right foot. It’s never too early to have a plan for how your teen is going to get the results they’re actually capable of this year.

Any teen can learn my Study System

What I’ve realised over the 20+ years since I started to develop my own Study System, is that it is just that — a system.

It’s a system with clear methods, benchmarks and goals, which means any student can replicate it.

This of course doesn’t mean that every student who applies the system is going to get straight A’s (or whatever benchmark your country goes by!), but it does mean that every student can approach their exam study with a plan that will provide structure, direction, and focus, and therefore — better results.

I mean that’s why I started Cram Lab (and The Study Gurus in 2011`) — because I couldn’t just sit back and watch as thousands of students fell short of their academic potential not because they were dumb, but because they didn’t have the right study tools.

All that potential wasted. All those opportunities gone.

That’s just too f***’n tragic.

But I do have a study system that I have honed over 3 years of high school exams, 3 years of a science undergrad, 1 year postgrad and 3 years at one of Australia’s top law schools.

So now I consider it my duty to share that system, so any teen can get through their exams without the usual stress, anxiety and disappointment.

I’ve thought about what made my own exam study process so effective at getting consistently good results, and the thing that stands out to me is that it’s incredibly simple.

My 3 Phase Study System

The essential parts of exam study can be boiled down into three steps:

Planning
Execution
Strategising

My brand new Printout is a friendly memory jogger for your teen to remind them of how simple the exam study process is. When they’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed by exams, I want them to remember these three phases, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Here’s the link gain to download the Printout for your teen: https://www.cramlab.org/free-downloads

How Does the System Work?

If you want a fuller run down of the three phases, here it is.

1. Planning

It is impossible for any teen to get the results they’re actually capable of unless they have some kind of study plan. Without one, there’s no direction, no focus, no milestones, no results.

In the Planning Phase your teen needs to understand what they need to study. The more specific the plan is the easier it will be to follow and the better prepared your teen will be.

My favourite planning method is to make an Exam Study Timetable.

Your teen can simply follow the instructions and fill in my free template — download the PDF from cramlab.org/free-downloads. And this post takes a more detailed look at all of the amazing benefits of using an Exam Study Timetable.

The other thing I like to do in the Planning Phase is make Subject Maps. These bad boys pay huge dividends on a little time investment up front. Again, you can grab a free template for your teen over at cramlab.org/free-downloads.

2. Execute the Plan

Then it’s time to execute the plan.

This is the part where your teen needs to do the showing up. The Study System is simple, but there are no short-cuts for the fact that the more study your teen does, the better their results will be.

The execution phase of exam study should take up the bulk of your teen’s study time, because it’s during this phase that your teen needs to absorb, process, and retain all of the information they need to stuff into their brain.

Your teen needs to wrap their heads around everything they need to know for their exams, particularly the key topics.

The types of study techniques your teen might put to use could include some or all of the following:

Making study notes
Looking at past exams
Answering practice questions
Using online tools like Khan Academy and Quizlet
Writing practice essays

3. Strategising

Sitting an exam well is a game, and playing a game well requires a strategy.

The thing that makes sitting an exam a game is time-pressure. Your teen has only a brief amount of time to answer a lot of questions. This means they have to use their precious time as wisely as possible.

My favourite study technique for making sure I used my exam time as efficiently as possible was to make an Exam Strategy.

It only took a couple of minutes to make but became an integral part of how I achieved consistently strong results.

Even better, an Exam Strategy is inanely simple.

All your teen needs to do is think about (and even better, write down) how much time will they spend on each question / section to ensure they finish the exam and scoop up as many marks as possible (e.g. 2 minutes per question? 30 minutes per section? It depends on the exam).

Using precious exam time wisely also requires a targeted approach to studying, especially in the week leading up to an exam. The majority of marks are going to come from what I call high yield topics — the big juicy topics your teen has spent the most time on at school.

It’s better to understand and be able to demonstrate they know those topics really well, rather than have a half-baked understanding of everything.

If the exam is fast approaching and your teen is running out of time, it’s too late to know absolutely everything, and they don’t need to know everything to get a good result. Remember, sitting exams is a game.

Once again, to download this brand new Printout for your teen head to https://www.cramlab.org/free-downloads — it’s the first one on the page .

Does your teen have exams coming up in the next few months? What are they most worried about? What’s likely to be their biggest study hurdle? Let’s talk it out in the comments.