Exam Prep 101: Science
3 years ago
Science can be fascinating and confusing. Whether you find immunity to be a walk in the park, or can’t wrap your head around quantum physics, science exams can equally stump us all.
With final exams just around the corner, here are our top tips to help you study smarter and not harder for your science exams!
1. Know your Study Design
Before you resort to rewriting your notes as exam revision, take a good look at your subject study design. Chances are, your notes may be long and contain content that isn’t assessed on your final exam.
This is likely for content-heavy sciences like Biology, Psychology and Health, where it can be hard to decipher what areas are important to consolidate. Use your subject’s course outline to condense your notes down to important information. This will help you to strengthen your knowledge and revise more effectively!
2. Make Diagrams and Flowcharts
Trust us when we say these are your best friends in your science revision! Map out your chosen topic to visualise and further your understanding of how everything interlinks. The cool thing is you can be as creative as you want! Grab your favourite pens and highlighters to explore and branch out content areas within a topic.
Depending on your preference, you can make it as pretty as you want. Or you can go full madman and treat the map as a brain-dump, by drawing out everything you know under the topic. For those that learn better digitally, it’s super easy to make flowcharts on platforms like Word and Visme.
3. Teach Others
A classic method in the book, but by far one of the most effective. Select a topic you want to consolidate, and teach it to someone else! Whether that be your parent, sibling, friend, dog or even yourself in the mirror, make sure to vocalise everything you know about the topic. This will help you identify areas you are still unfamiliar with and enhance your knowledge of other areas.
Our experienced and top-scoring tutors explore this revision method to greater detail on RESN Wiki! Take a look to ensure you’re on the right track.
4. Make the Most of Your Practice Exams
Are you panicking because you don’t have enough time to complete X number of exams? Let us stop you there. The golden rule is quality over quantity. There is no point churning out exam after exam without identifying areas of weakness to help you improve on the next. There are key differences in exam content between sciences.
Subjects such as Physics and Chemistry require you to learn equations and formulas and apply them to different problems. This means exposing yourself to lots of practice questions to ensure minimal mistakes are made in your working out and interpretation of questions.
Content-heavy sciences such as Psychology and Biology have specific exam marking. It is just as important to understand the content as it is to address all points a question asks.
When tackling practice exam questions:
- Note the number of marks
- Identify key words
- Ensure your answer is specific and concise
After marking your practice exams, make sure to jot down any mistakes in a book. By doing so, you can refer to them if you encounter a similar question later on.
Short on practice questions? Hop onto RESN Quizzes for a large bank of practice questions for you to master your exam preparation!
5. Reach Out for Support
There’s no sugar coating how this year has been. Each one of you has survived the school year and done your best in these tough circumstances, and we want to congratulate you for making it through!
Studying science this year was especially hard without labs, which are a crucial aspect of learning in most sciences. You may be feeling behind, unsure of how to approach revision or simply unmotivated. But it’s definitely not too late to get yourself up to speed! These final weeks are the best time to get support.
Good ways to seek help include:
- Reaching out to teachers through email/after class.
- Revising in groups or with friends/peers.
However, we understand that getting help from teachers and peers can be limited, especially with this year’s circumstances.
Have a question you’re aching to resolve right away? That’s why we at RESN have constructed and implemented various platforms to provide you the best academic support we can.
- RESN Wiki contains our top tips, tricks and advice for acing your final years of high school.
- At RESN Help, we enlist the knowledge and expertise of our top tutors to aid you with your VCE, HSC or QCE subjects.
- Our exclusive FREE RESN Zoom Consultations (4-6pm every Wednesday and Thursday) are running if you have burning questions or need help in your final exam preparation!
We hope these tips aid you in your science exam preparation. Even though it’s crunch-time before exams, remember that balance is key. Between churning through practice exams and revision material, make sure to give yourself downtime to rest and take care of yourself.
At RESN, we have your back and wish you all the best for your science exam preparation.
We believe in you!
By Catherine Le