How to Study for and Take a Test

Everyone takes a test from time to time. Loosely speaking, tests could be defined as any situation meant to measure some aspect of one's mental or physical abilities, integrity, personality, or numerous other attributes. However, the tests that seem to cause the most grief are tests of intelligence in a school setting or perhaps a work or certification setting. This is the situation that the article will address.

Before you take the test, you should probably study the material to improve your chances on the exam. These study tips have helped me throughout my academic career and might be helpful to you as well. While no study strategy will be helpful to everyone and there are many different strategies, this article should help you develop your own study plan. These are the steps that I typically take.

Develop a Plan and Visualize the Outcome

It is always easier to achieve a goal when you can clearly define the goal, develop a plan to meet the goal, and visualize successful completion of the goal. Taking a test is no different. I always find it helpful to plan my study time to include a thorough first pass of the material (perhaps highlighting the material you find to be important) to be followed by one or two more passes to help put the material in context. How much time you will need depends on how much material there is. It is helpful to plan conservatively to be sure you have enough time to study the material. If you have excess time before the test, go through the material one more time.

Exercise Discipline and Stick to the Plan

No plan ever goes perfectly. That goes for study plans, too. There will be times you feel like studying more and times you feel like studying less. Accept the variation, but try to maintain consistent progress.

Overstudy

Try to study enough so that you won't just pass the test or do well, but you'll do great. This will give you much more room for error. Be sure that you are not only memorizing names, dates, or other facts. You'll generally do better on the test (and will learn much more) if you learn the material well enough that you can put the facts into proper context. This is the point at which you truly know the material.

Take Practice Tests and/or Use Flashcards

Before you take the real test, take any practice test that may be available or develop your own flashcards for the same purpose. This will help you in multiple ways. First, you'll get an idea of how well you know the material in general. Second, you will be able to determine which areas you are weak in and need to study further. Third, even if you do poorly on your first practice test, you will have a baseline to compare with future practice tests as you continue to study. As you see your scores improve, your confidence will increase as well.

Taking the Test

Much like study techniques, there are many strategies for actually taking the test. I'll just give you my two cents. Assuming you have studied appropriately, the best thing you can do is RELAX. You probably know the material and should be in good shape to succeed. The following are three steps that I use on almost any test I take. The steps are ideal for a multiple choice test, but are applicable to many other formats as well. I have never taken a test that did not allow enough time for these three steps.

1 - Please read the instructions and each question very, very carefully. Many tests will attempt to trip up the test taker by posing the question in ambiguous or tricky ways.

2 - Go through the test once and do one of three things for each question. If you know the answer, answer the question. If you have a good guess, answer the question and mark it for review later. If you have no idea, don't answer it yet.

3 - After you've finished the first pass of the test, go back and answer the questions that you left blank (unless the test penalizes you for a wrong answer). For any question that you marked for review, re-read the question and be sure that you understood it. Check to make sure you filled in the correct answer. I would recommend against changing your answer just because you have a hunch or are second-guessing yourself. If the test taker understood the question and thought about the answer, the first response is most likely to be correct.

After the test, just enjoy the fact that you worked hard toward a goal and followed it through. If you're lucky enough to be taking a test with immediate results, you will already know how you did. If you did not do as well as you hoped, it's OK. You probably learned quite a bit throughout the process. If you will not find out the results right away, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. Don't worry or stress out about it.

This is all of the advice I can muster on the subject. I hope you find the information useful and helpful. Good luck on your next test!