So you’ve decided that since exams are coming up, it might be time to do some studying. Those past papers are sitting in a dusty corner of the internet (well, the NZQA website, if we’re being accurate here) and you’re purposefully ignoring them, because they sound both boring, and terrifying. You’re probably thinking about excessively highlighting your notes instead, right?
First of all, we’re here to tell you that you should definitely stop the excessive highlighting, and start doing some practice questions. Secondly, past papers are the most effective way to prepare for your exams. While they might be more confusing than the practice questions you get in class, the best way to prepare for those types of questions, is to practice them.
With that being said, here are all the reasons why you should open some past papers. We’ve broken past papers down so that you don’t have to – and you’ll be able to save time, and study effectively, so that you can ace your exams, and enjoy your summer.
Create a Realistic Time Pressure
The next tip we have is to time yourself. Doing the past paper under exam conditions means you’re essentially “taking the exam” with everything that’s in your brain at the time. This is a great way to see how much you actually know, rather than thinking that you know it all, and finding out later.
You might think you know all the definitions, but under time pressure, you might find yourself getting distracted, or taking too long to remember what they’re asking you about in the first place. Practising under the exam conditions, with a realistic time pressure, means you’ll eventually be able to sit your actual exam without worrying about the clock.
This is great practice for the real thing, because the best way to get better at exams, is to actually do them. Crazy, right?
