1. Embrace Serenity
One of the most crucial aspects for students is to maintain a serene mindset before the exam, considering it as a knowledge assessment opportunity.
Especially for those who have experienced university admission setbacks, it is essential to stay calm, always fostering a belief that they will surpass the exam. Never entertain negative thoughts about past failures, as this is the ultimate and necessary secret every student must remember, to avoid stress
2. Focus on Fundamental Knowledge
For those who have faced the challenges of university admission failure, you've likely gained valuable insights from that experience.
You realize that the exam content closely aligns with the fundamental knowledge found in textbooks. The content within textbooks comprises the most basic, concise, and essential knowledge. Organize your studies so that you cover the material thoroughly, ensuring a solid grasp of each topic. Focus on practicing exercises that you find challenging, ensuring confidence during the exam. With this approach, you'll feel assured and, post-exam, won't worry about errors in this or that section. So, pay attention to fundamental knowledge.
3. Set Clear Goals and Specific Plans
Following the rule that every 20 minutes spent planning saves 80% of the time and enhances work efficiency, outline your university entrance exam goals.
- Which university do you aim to enroll in?
- What is your target score?
- What subjects do you need to study, and how will you approach them?
With these details, consider what your first task should be. Typically, you won't be able to accomplish everything. Just master the most fundamental knowledge, which is sufficient for effective exam performance. Therefore, you need to study with clear goals and specific plans.
4. Study Environment
For those who have faced the challenges of university admission failure, the study environment may not be as favorable as for those who haven't faced such exams. Therefore, when revising material or studying, sit near a window, exposing yourself to natural light and ensuring proper air circulation in the room. The closer to these conditions, the better for your well-being.
If possible, consider listening to Baroque music while studying. This genre can enhance your mood and, moreover, improve your English skills. The study environment is crucial, indeed.
5. Intense Focus
Typically, current university entrance exams mainly consist of multiple-choice questions, and for these, time pressure is a significant stressor. Most students struggle to maintain focus for an extended period, and towards the end, their minds start wandering due to the large number of questions.
Therefore, for each study session, tackle a multiple-choice test for one subject, adhering to a set time limit. Avoid letting your mind wander or get distracted. Your approach should be to quickly go through a series of multiple-choice questions, focusing on the easy ones first, and then tackling the more challenging and complex ones. This method will help you achieve high scores and perform better. Therefore, you need to maintain intense focus during your revision sessions.
6. Cultivate Note-Taking Habits
For challenging topics, those easily forgotten, or those requiring prolonged effort to understand, don't forget to jot down notes on a piece of paper or in a notebook. When encountering similar problems or formulas, you can retrieve and review them.
Doing so will reinforce your memory and save you from redoing a problem. Hence, we need to cultivate the habit of taking notes.
7. Study Time
Based on the experience of those who have excelled in exams, the optimal brain working hours are 5 am - 6 am, 7:30 am - 10:30 am, 2 pm - 4:30 pm, and 8 pm - 10 pm. During these periods, the brain is more alert, and knowledge absorption is faster.
During the study time, avoid prolonged study sessions; limit each period to 40 to 45 minutes, followed by a break for relaxation and mental ease. Best of luck with your exam preparation.
8. Group Revision
In addition to classroom and self-study, consider organizing study sessions in groups: group revision.
Through group study, easy discussion on challenging exercises and mutual correction is possible. This method maximizes each person's abilities, and teaching each other also contributes to reinforcing essential knowledge. Moreover, guiding one another fosters stronger bonds among friends. Give it a try!
9. Cultivate Self-Study Habits
After numerous interviews with high-achieving students, the consensus is that it's not essential to attend various tutoring sessions. Running from one class to another, thinking about the next tutoring session while still in one—this exhaustion often leads to a cycle of study and sleep. Meanwhile, the notebooks with valuable notes are left neglected in one place. This is highly detrimental as accumulated knowledge remains unutilized, making it difficult to know where to start studying. Therefore, the key takeaway is to embrace self-study habits.
Self-study provides flexibility in time and mindset. You can manage your time for each subject and topic you want to study. Moreover, with the internet's advancement, you can explore topics online anytime. For unclear concepts, a quick Google search followed by summarizing the main points is effective. The self-study approach proves to be the most efficient and effective for all current students. Cultivate the habit of self-study starting today.
10. Balanced Nutrition
Balanced nutrition is crucial for every student, especially those entering the university gateway. Students before the university entrance exam often feel tired and lose their appetite, which is not good at all.
It's essential to have a balanced diet for good health, enabling effective studying and achieving high scores. Avoid situations where you skip meals or lack sleep due to excessive worry.