I may as well go in with one of the main things that affect practically every single teenager in the whole entire world: exams. Wherever you live, the probability of you having to take an exam is quite high, unfortunately, and as much as we all dread them, the best thing you can do is look them in the eye and take them on like you're James Bond accepting a mission, Spiderman taking on the latest villain about town or Noah in The Notebook, choosing to write 365 letters to Ally because he doesn't want to let her go.
Exams are a challenge and should you choose to accept, and I'd strongly advise you do unless you plan on being the next Richard Branson or Star Employee at KFC (no offence meant), you need to make sure you stay afloat on that ship of success instead of sinking further and further into the big blue ocean of failure.
Now I believe in you, and you should believe in yourself too, so lets begin...
Number One- Focus
I cannot stress to you enough that throughout the year leading up to those dreaded exams that welcome us into summer, you need to focus. In every class you have, make sure you are taking some notes, even if it's whilst you chat to your friend about X Factor or the latest X-Box release, or while you pass funny notes to your best friend or pull funny faces at random people as I used to do.
Trust me, you will be so thankful that you did when it comes to revision time, as believe it or not, your teacher is actually not a complete wally and every now and then, they will tell you things that you really need to know if you want to be getting those higher grade passes. Revision guides do not hold all the answers, no these things are not bibles, they are there to remind you of the things you spent all year learning and are there for you to refer to if you need a reminder on quadratic equations or cell structure, land forms or good old Will Shakespeare. So you need to make sure that in class, you have something to show for that hour or two, try and get down something as having something is better than nothing.
Number Two- Ask For Help
If you don't get something in class, don't sit there and doodle or text your friend who's in
technology class. Ask the teacher. Ask a friend. Ask the smartest person in class, or the person sat next to you. Don't tell yourself you're too good, too smart or too cool to ask for help, don't tell yourself that you're stupid or that it doesn't matter if you don't know that topic, because it does matter.
No-one has any idea what could come up; those examiners have been hard at work in that secret lab of theirs, in some rural woodland up north, putting together exam papers that are meant to catch you out. Don't let them do that. Don't let them beat you.
Even if it means asking the teacher, do it. It's better to sort it out quick whilst you still have someone there to help you, instead of sitting alone in your bedroom in May, stressing out majorly, because you never understood respiration or fractions.
Teachers are there to help you, even if they say to figure it out yourself or ask a friend before asking them.
We all know they secretly love showing off how smart they are, so whether it be the end of the lesson, halfway through class, lunch time or after school, go to your teacher and ask them. Trust me, the teacher will do whatever they can to help you understand if you have made the effort to ask them in your own time.
In my experience, teachers I know have helped my friends by drawing chalk diagrams on the floor, making movies, using plasticine and have spent as long as is necessary, helping them until they understand.
So if you don't get something, find your voice and ask for help. You won't regret it.
Number Three- Believe In Yourself
I know that sounds like something off a cheesy Disney movie but it's true. If you don't believe in yourself, how can you expect all the people who care about you to? I'm not saying they won't, but the one person who matters in this is you. You are the only person who can determine if you do well or not, if you fail or succeed, if you try your best or doss around.
So don't sit there and compare yourself to other people, don't let them scare you or make you believe you're not good enough, not smart enough, because you are. When the smartest kid is there, answering every question correctly and wowing the teacher with their abnormal intelligence, don't tell yourself you'll never be as good as that kid. After all, you might be a better cook than them, you might be the next Michael Jackson or you might be the one who got that A in History.
The point is, we are all good at different things, so for you, success in one class might be achieving a B, whereas to another kid, it's an A*, but that doesn't mean you're stupid or worthless. We all have different abilities and you need to focus on yours.
Whether it be that A * or C grade, you aim as high as you can, you tell yourself you can reach that grade because once you start telling yourself you can do it, everything else begins to falls into place. Make sure you're realistic and that it's achievable, don't pile the pressure on yourself. You may not even want to give yourself a target grade and like me, you might just tell yourself to do as best as you can, and as long as you've tried your best, done enough revision, focused, you might just be suprised at what you achieve.
Number Four- The Social Life
When it comes to exams, there seems to be a belief that social life has to go out the window in order to be successful. That is not true. If anything, having a social life will lead to more success overall than not having one; however allowing your social life to be the number one priority is not the way to success.
Nuh-uh sista'/ brotha'.
The key to this is having a good balance between social life and school work. Don't over do either, and you will know you're overdoing it when your social life becomes non-existent or your school work is pretty much invisible to you.
You need to make sure you are firstly keeping up with all your work, doing your homework mostly on time, revising if necessary- especially near exam season, and staying on top of things. Secondly, you need to make sure that you are getting out the house and doing things that are non-school related, or if you're inside, you're taking a break from school things and pushing it to the back seat for a little while.
If you want to go to town, the cinema, your mate's house, a party, you go, or if you want to do some drawing, reading, play video games or your guitar, you do that. However near exam season it is important that social life takes a back seat for a couple of weeks so that you can focus.
Seriously, a couple of weeks of social sacrifice is not asking much considering that when you finish, you have at least six weeks minimum of complete and utter social extravaganza. So don't forget, it's all about balance.
Number Five- Revision
We all hate revision, I know I hate it with a passion, but sadly it has to do be done. So here is how I tackle it throughout the year. Firstly, when it comes to mock exams in December/ January, treat them like the real thing when it comes to revision and preparation. Do those mind maps, those flash cards, read those revision guides and class books, revise online (BBC Bitesize is good), make up revision games, songs, videos, whatever works best for you.
It might take a while to find which way works best, so that's one reason why you should revise for mocks, as you can test all these methods out so that you have a good idea by the time May rolls around. Now as well as figuring out what works for you, in the process you will have created revision aids that you can then look back on in May. Trust me, already having some revision aids to use in May makes things so much easier because essentially, you've already done the hard work , summing up all you've learnt in the year, and all you then need to do is go over it, learn it again, remind yourself.
I find that doing a little bit of revision at Easter helps too because you are beginning to go over things and in May, it means you don't have as much pressure or stress because you don't need to revise as much as someone who didn't revise earlier in the year.
Revision is a pain, but it can be bearable; there are ways of making it less of a chore, such as: treating yourself if you do a few hours of solid revision, combining school work & social life by going out and revising with your mates- I did it this year and it was a lot of fun actually, or doing it during lunch time or after school so that you don't need to as much when you're at home.
So when it comes to revision, the more you fight it, the worse it gets, so like Nike say
'JUST DO IT'. (:
Number Six- Wing it
My motto going into exams is 'Wing it'.
Now when I say that, I don't mean I haven't done all I could possibly do to succeed before hand, like revision, asking for help, doing old papers etc. No, what I mean is that when I get into that exam hall, I know I've done all I could do before hand, or at least I've tried my best to prepare, and once I'm sat in my seat, there's nothing else I can possibly do. Sat in that seat, I know I tried to prepare as best as I can and now, all I can do is wing it, take my best shot, do the damn thing.
Now although this motto mainly applies to taking on the exam and just doing it as best as you can with the knowledge you have and hoping you do alright, it also applies to when you face a question that you don't know the answer to.
If this happens, I strongly advise that you firstly wait till you've finished all the other questions you can answer, and then you go back and answer that question with something; make sure that every single question in that paper is answered, even if it is with complete rubbish that you are sure couldn't possibly be right. I can vouch for this because I have done this in exams, just attempted that hard question with some feeble answer that I swear is wrong, only to get marks that I never thought I'd get.
It's worth putting an answer because you just never know if you'll end up getting extra marks.
Plus, those extra marks could be the difference between a C or a B, A or A*.
And once you've done that exam, once you've winged it like me, given it your best shot, don't even think about it, don't obsess over it or think of what you could've done better; just let it all go, celebrate the fact you got through that exam alive and forget about it completely until results day, when it's okay to worry and be a nervous, sobbing, shaking wreck.
Remember folks, once you've done your revision, all you can do in that exam is wing it.
So I hope these six points help you just a little bit, and if you're expecting results like me, GOOD LUCK, and if you're about to start exams come September, good luck throughout the year and I hope you stay on top of things and do well! (:
-Tee x
