PART 4: TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND EXAM READINESS

This section can be summed up in two words: “PRACTICE QUESTIONS”.

I always thought I could bypass practice questions after studying thoroughly. This is not the case. Practice questions are equally important as the study materials. Let me give you 2 reasons:

1. Testing your understanding

Practice questions reveal your knowledge gaps. There are times when I could swear I had reviewed a chapter 3 times and understood its concepts - until a practice question revealed a blind spot.

In testing your understanding, don't worry too much about the time you take to answer. Your primary focus should be on understanding why the options are correct and why the other options are wrong. Don't focus only on the correct answers!

2. Exam readiness

Knowledge cannot be applied correctly if you don’t first conquer your emotions -Hayford O.A

Each exam comes with its format, time limit and difficulty level. You need to take a timed mock exam to test your emotional response, speed in answering the questions, knowledge of the pattern of the questions, and confidence on the exam date.

A common mistake, even among brilliant students, is skipping this step. Hence, they go in prepared academically but end up performing average in exams due to pressure and lack of a real-time strategy.