Preparing for Exams

The purpose of this chapter is to describe some useful tactics to improve MEMORY.

You should learn:

1.

The distinction between learning and memory.

2.

The purpose of exams in college.

3.

How organization improves memory.

4.

When mnemonics can be useful memory aids.

5.

How to rehearse for essay exams.

6.

How to learn negatives for objective exams.

7.

The meaning of cognitive relativity.

You should also study the following appendix:

• X. On Mnemonics

Being tested is an inevitable fact of life in our society. Not only are there exams in college courses, there are tests that determine admission, placement, employment, advancement, etc. Hence, you had best adopt a positive attitude toward being tested. A good analogy is the marathon runner who has trained for months and now anticipates the payoff, the big race. Similarly, after you've spent many weeks and months studying a subject, a test is your chance to show how much you've learned. The only reason for you to be intimidated by an imminent exam is if you have not been learning your lessons.

I wish that I could say at this point that, if you have been keeping up with the assignments, preparing for an exam is easy. But the truth is that it is still an appreciable amount of work. To see why this is so, refer again to the fact that knowledge is not verbal:

 

Figure 7.1: Learning is deriving non-verbal knowledge from words; memory is being able to recall that knowledge when taking an examination

What I hope is apparent in the figure is that the learning process in which you have been engaged is all for naught unless you are able to remember the information when called upon to do so. Now how many times has an answer been on the tip of your tongue such that you know you know it but just can't think of it? How many times have you remembered an important point, but not until after you have already left the exam? How many times have you given a good answer, but to the wrong question, or kept coming up with the wrong answer when trying to recall the right one? All of these familiar experiences illustrate problems of memory, the ability to remember nformation that you have learned.

The task of preparing for an exam, then, is one of finding ways to insure that you will be able to recall information quickly if you need it during the exam. It is NOT a matter of learning the information; it is too late for that. Nor is it a matter of reviewing the information as you presumably have been doing right along. What is now required is to devise techniques that will insure that you have ready access to the knowledge you have already learned. It is worth repeating the marathon analogy to point out that very few of the runners who start in a marathon have any expectations of winning. For most of them the goal is simply to finish the race, and possibly to set a new personal best time. Likewise, your goal is just to do your very best to demonstrate how much you have learned.