Techniques Useful in the Article “What to Do Before the Test”

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Chapter Review Question for this chapter – List three techniques you found useful in the “What to do before the test” article and explain why they will help you in the future with your test taking abilities.
Grades are an essential part of the contemporary education system. Ideally, grades are used to evaluate a student’s progress and provide feedback. This way, instructors can have specifics to communicate to the students on their coursework performance, which they may want to strengthen. From an instructor’s point of view, grades help assess skills, information, and concepts in which learners are either struggling or proficient. This kind of information provides a basis for shaping not only lesson plans but influencing curriculum as well. From a student’s point of view, however, grades mean more than just an evaluation of the educational process. They influence the student’s overall performance, may impact the final course grade, and therefore, has an impact on the possibility of getting a job. Thus, tests have a far greater meaning than evaluating students’ understanding of course material and content. This is why students need to prepare properly to have good grades and avoid the anxiety that comes with tests when someone is underprepared. In the book Becoming a Master Student, Ellis (2018, p. 203) highlighted several things students should consider doing to prepare for tests. Among these, the ones that stood out included finding or creating practice material, scheduling practice or study sessions, and forming a study group.
In terms of finding or creating practice materials, students should be responsible for creating their own questions or finding copies of past exams. The process of creating own questions, in itself, is a form of learning. This is because one must interact with content and material before considering questions. In this case, they assume the lecturer or professor position, allowing them to think about tricky questions they could ask students. Creating or finding past papers is ideal for two core reasons. Firstly, while doing the created questions, the practice helps remember and reinforce the information in the memory and reveals areas in which the student might still be weak. As a result, the student can revisit the course material and even expand research on the questions they struggle with. Secondly, finding past papers exposes the student to subtle yet important information. For instance, the student can begin to understand the language nuances, question structures, twists & tricks within questions, and what is expected of the student. Past papers can also help the student practice against time to finish the actual within the required period. This technique will help me in the future because it provides almost a holistic experience in which existing knowledge is reinforced, familiarization with typical test questions is undertaken, and expansion of current knowledge takes place.
However, gathering or creating practice material is irrelevant if there is no time to practice. This means the cre...