Once children reach the age of 11, most of them find themselves facing the start of a long line of academic examinations.
Exams are used by schools, sixth forms, colleges and Universities to judge how well an individual is performing within a specific subject matter - how well they know a specific subject matter, and importantly, how well they can articulate information about that subject matter when asked specific questions on it.
Generally schools, sixth forms, colleges and Universities will use a mixture of examinations and essay assignments or coursework to decide how well a student is performing in a particular subject area.
As with all things in life; passing examinations and writing good essay responses is a skill.
You can know everything there is to know about a subject area, but if you don't possess any skill in essay writing or in responding to exam questions, then all you'll end up doing is regurgitating on paper everything you know about a specific subject matter rather than responding appropriately to the question or task set.
And unfortunately this approach won't deliver you the results you're looking for or that you are worthy of receiving.
The skill needed to pass exams is different to that needed to write good essays, dissertations, theses or coursework assignments.
Exams themselves operate in a highly pressurised environment where you have a limited amount of time to answer the questions set for you.
You'll also find that you don't have access to any books, text books, the internet or revision notes - you'll have nothing but your memory to help you write a good and successful response to an examination question.
Therefore one of the crucial preparatory elements for examinations is revision! You need to learn all you can about a subject area before you enter that examination room so that you can be sure to have sufficient content in your head to respond to the questions posed effectively.
There are lots of different ways to revise a subject, and often the way that you choose will be determined by (a) the subject matter itself and (b) the way that you find you best retain information.
However, to help you pull together an effective revision plan, below are some examples of different revision techniques: - Record yourself speaking about the subject matter, and play this recording each night, just before you go to sleep - Re-read key texts on your field of study and make notes on the text.
Then continue to read and re-read these notes until you are happy that you know the content - Create study cards, where a specific question is on one side of the card and the answer is on the other.
Use these each day to help refresh your memory of crucial facts, figures and equations - Attend study groups with your fellow students and work collectively to revise a subject area - Seek out previous examination questions and papers and put yourself in a mock-exam position.
Respond to each of the exam questions and then assess each of your responses.