Matric exams preparation guide:
A month before:
• Carefully read through the exam timetable and work out whether your exam is a morning or afternoon slot. • Take a calendar and copy over the exam dates and times. • Set aside an hour each night just for revision of work. Start with the earliest exams and work logically from there.
Matric exams preparation guide:
A month before:
• Carefully read through the exam timetable and work out whether your exam is a morning or afternoon slot. • Take a calendar and copy over the exam dates and times. • Set aside an hour each night just for revision of work. Start with the earliest exams and work logically from there.
Two weeks before:
Develop a nightly routine that enhances your learning time, for example: • Eat dinner, spend time reading through study notes, bath time and then bedtime. • Aim for at least seven hours of sleep a night (you need a minimum of three uninterrupted hours for your brain to create serotonin). • Limit your socialising over weekends (do you really need to go out both nights of the weekend?) • Limit your cellphone time (is it so vital that you answer your message at 3am?) • Increase your revision time so that you are focusing for at least three hours at a time. Remember, most of your exams are between two and three hours long.
The night before – this is it – the final countdown:
•It is too late to cram all the facts into your head as your brain will just not hold them all. • Keep to the same routine you have developed in the weeks leading up to the exams. • Read through your study notes, draw pictures if needs be, sing out lines of poetry, chant dates and places – anything to refresh your memory.
The day of the exam:
• Eat breakfast – preferably something with protein, to keep you going throughout the day. • Make sure you have two pens and any other stationery you need to write the exam, as well as your ID book/passport and letter of registration. • Leave enough time to get to school well before the start of the exam. • If you are nervous, try to stay away from others who may cause you more panic. • Enter the exam room in a calm manner.
* Nadia Czeredrecki is a teacher at Victoria Girls' High School
