Difficult One. The First Thing

¶ … difficult one. The first thing to do would be to relax as much as you can before the test, that is, not attending all the classes and not completing all the assignments which could be stressful and difficult. It might also be a good idea to sleep as much as possible and study little so that your brain might be perfectly rested and relaxed. Attending too many classes and studying too much will make you too tensed and you won't be able to focus in the exam. Study for short periods of time and do anything else in the interval. Start as late as you can to prepare for the exam to save the energy for the test itself.

The second thing to do before the exam is to skip as much as possible from the course bibliography and only get some basic information about the topics for study. The books and the bibliography can be very long and tiresome and the best idea would be to skip them all together and just use the notes you have made during the classes. Do not worry if these notes are incomplete or even inaccurate, you can just skip the information in the notes that you are doubtful about. Preferably, you should use the internet and look for loose information and summaries, without going to books or other type of academic sources as they can take up a lot of your time. Do not read more than the strictly necessary because you will only load your memory. Any handout or handbook should be ignored as they add useless information.

Be as superficial as you can and do not make efforts to understand the topics. Memorize everything without wasting time on trying to understand or make your own judgments of a certain subject. Be sure to rely only on your memory not on your logic as well, it is safer this way. Do not ask your teacher for further explanations or elucidations as it will appear as if you didn't understand the course. Do not review anything you have learned as it might be possible to forget everything on a second reading.

Do not practice for the exam and do not test yourself on what you have learned as you will want to keep your mind as clear as possible. Whether the test is an oral or a written examination it will be a good idea not to insist on the format and just use a neutral form of study. Do not look for any key knowledge in your subject and do not structure your material before learning, as it can be confusing. Try to memorize a minimal amount of facts and never attempt to have a broader picture of the importance of the subject. It wouldn't be a good idea to try to anticipate what the exam will be like or to prepare yourself for it. The best thing to do is to spend as little time on anticipation as possible.

Another important step in your preparation would be to skip anything that may seem difficult in your process of study. Each time you encounter difficult material that requires some time to pore over, pass on to another part of the course. You can start learning at any part of the course and ignore the parts that you don't like.