Test Taking Strategies to Bolster Your Confidence

As mid-term exams are fast approaching, below are a list of some test taking tips that may help lessen your anxiety as you tackle those challenging test questions:

• In order to ensure that you divide your time wisely, do a quick preview of the exam before you delve into answering the questions. Circle the questions that, intuitively, you think you can answer quickly and take note of the ones that you will allot more time and attention.

• Answer the questions that you can answer quickly and save more time for the ones that require more time and critical thinking. The latter questions may require that you outline or pre-write to inductively arrive at the correct answer.

• Look for clues from the questions you answered first as a guide for the ones that you do not automatically know the answer to. Answering these questions may also jog your thinking and memory to more quickly answer the questions that you were initially stumped on.

• Pace yourself according to the amount that each question is generally worth. Reserve some extra time at the end of the exam to review your answers. Think carefully before changing your answers and verify in your mind that the answer makes sense. For instance, avoid changing an answer from “c” to “b” just because you selected choice “b” for 3 answers in a row. Make sure the answer choice itself is an appropriate answer to the question.

• Allow yourself enough time to think through and process in your mind what the question is asking. Avoid rushing into answering the question based merely on what you assume could be the answer. Have a place to jot down notes and key words where appropriate to help you arrive at the correct answer.

• Pay particular attention to key words that cross over material from course lectures, lecture notes and textbook readings.

• Turn phrases that contain double negatives into positives to reduce confusion. For example, turn “not lacking” into having or “not none” into some.

• To fine tune your ability to answer particularly difficult questions, look for inconsistencies in grammar, phrasing and styling as a way of eliminating answers that are not correct and selecting the most plausible choice.

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