Examination many believe is not the true test of knowledge but it has over the years proven to be one of the most reliable means if testing the students’ grasp of a particular subject matter or field.
Examination as a means of testing how well a student understand what is being taught. Passing or failing an examination goes a long way in explaining to people how well the subject matter is understood.
A lot of students make the mistake of taking the preparation of exams unserious while wasting their precious time on wishing and praying for miracles and sought help where it does not exist.
Common Mistakes Made by Students Preparing For Examinations
Below are the top 5 mistakes made by Students while preparing for exams;
1. Failure to Prepare on Time
There is a saying that he who fails to prepare has indirectly prepared to fail. This is so true when related to examination.
One common mistake that students do is that they start exams preparation few weeks or even days before the exams. This habit is detrimental to success as it does not give them adequate to prepare and put them under avoidable pressure to perform.
Failure to prepare early also makes the student engage in unhealthy reading habits like cramming which may not give the student an adequate knowledge of the subject matter.
2. Failure to go through past questions
This is an area many Nigerian students fail to do. Reading of past questions gives the students the first hand knowledge of what the examiner expect from the students and areas that questions always come up from.
Many students for some reasons do not engage in solving examination past questions and over the years has affected their preparation level as well as general performance.
3. Poor reading habits
Poor reading habits like cramming, playing music while reading, eating while reading and every form of distraction can be detrimental to examination success.
Possible distractions should be eliminated while reading and the best possible condition should be encouraged to achieve maximum results.
4. Failure to read extensively
A common mistake made by students is the inability to read beyond the main course material.
Most a times, not all the topics are covered in the materials given and there is for more research to be done.
Unfortunately, many fail in this regard hence the failure they experience.
Materials outside the main material given by the lecturer can be very helpful as it gives a broader understanding of the course of study although it should not act as a substitute to the main study material.
5. Inadequate preparation
Writing an exams is like going to war, there is no over preparation. The student needs to prepare as much as possible.
Materials needs to be read again and again to fully understand the course of study. Remember, it is better to be over prepared than underprepared.