Out of trial exams! T_T

[Stick]

Yeah, I'm scared I'll end up doing the thing, Chemderp and nisha. :/ I'm intending to slow the pace down a little bit now, because I know I've adequately prepared content-wise and I'll do better if I'm a bit more fresh heading into the exams.

[Shenz0r]

I did too many exams for Midyears - close to 52 for chem and around 16 for Physics ( ) - and still ended up loosing too many marks for chem because of not reading the question properly in the hype and pressure of the exam. Sometimes, doing less is more. And I wish I did a few less prac exams if it meant I was calmer going in...I tend to perform best when I have done no preparation, but it sucks because I am a perfectionist, and feel the need to. I also completed ALL NEAP study guides, checkpoints (twice), Lisachem, Heinamein textbook questions, Heinemein Workbook questions, Chemistry Dimensions questions, past sacs from other schools....
but I guess the danger in all this is to become "robotic" and quickly then skim a question-> realise, hey! I've done a questions like this before! and then regurgitate an answer, rather than read the question properly, and understand it.

Logbooks would really help for this. I'd say, do an exam, mark it immediately after you're done with it, write in every mistake into your logbook, and then memorise all your mistakes.

Then, the next exam, in reading time, just think something like "OK, what will I use to solve this question? What are the tricks to this question? Have I had a similar question where I've done something wrong before? I remember that I have to put open circles on my derivative graph." And then move on to the next question, repeat. I wouldn't bother trying to mentally solve any question in my head. It's very useful for a subject like Methods, where careless mistakes mean everything.

I didn't count how many exams I did for both Bio and Chem, but I must've done at least 20. And yeah, I still definitely lost quite a few marks that left me just breathing on A+ for both of them. Quantity doesn't always mean you'll do well. I wrote a logbook, but it was way too specific and rather than addressing careless mistakes, it was focused on solutions for each individual answer.  So just write your general mistakes in your logbook, methinks.

[sahil26]

" Work smarter, not harder "