Studying is a 24/7 job because students can never make the bold claim that they have over prepared for their exams because there is always more to learn! Having said that, students need to get ample rest to be in a clear state of mind when answering questions during exams.
In my years of teaching H2 Chemistry tuition classes, I have seen how hard students work preparing for the exams but end up not doing well for their exams because they do not have a clear strategy of tackling the questions during the exam. I will share some tips that will be helpful for students who are taking A level Chemistry or H2 Chemistry.
Tip 1: When You are Stuck, Move On
Students find themselves stuck when working on certain questions and many of them do not want to skip the questions for fear of losing precious marks. The fact of the matter is that students need to skip the questions they can’t answer if they find themselves spending considerable amount of time on it. Sometimes, students just face mental blocks in their repeated attempts at the questions and coming back to the question at a later stage will help them look at the questions from a different perspective.
Tip 2: Focus on answering the question and not be influenced by the mark allocation
Some students have the habit of using the marks allocated to the question as a gauge to determine how in-depth their answers are. That is a fatal mistake because students should focus on answering the questions as well as possible to address what examiners want and not focus on mark allocation which marks assigned may not be correlated to the length of answer.
Tip 3: Check, check and check
Some students finish ahead of time and feel that they can either leave the exam hall or rest after they have checked their answers. Never waste the time to leave the exam early or rest unless you feel that you have marks to burn! You should always check your answers again and again to prevent losing marks due to carelessness. Most students will commit careless mistakes due to time and exam pressures and hence, spending time to check your answers is a must!
Tip 4: Don’t Rush Through the Paper
In general, if students do not have time management issues, do not rush through the papers because rushing through the paper when answering results in unnecessary careless mistakes to be made. Hence, it is better to be slow and steady rather than to be fast and shaky!
In summary, it is important for students to manage their own performance during exams else it will be a waste of their hard work leading to the H2 Chemistry exam. I know it is a tough journey for most JC students. Hang in there, guys!