How To Get Ready For A Test – Complete Guide

How To Get Ready For A Test

There are only two good answers to the question of how to get ready for a test:

1. Learn how to get ready for a test (which you can do by reading this article)
2. Find a way to cheat and make sure not to get caught

If you chose option number 2, then reading this article will be a waste of time, so you don’t have to continue. To make things clear, I am not saying option 2 is bad, I just don’t have enough experience to teach you how to do it efficiently, so find someone who knows what he is talking about and learn from him.

For those who want to learn how to get ready for a test without cheating because they are “good” students (or are just too scared to cheat) there are some things you have to know before we begin.

To get ready for a test we need to answer 3 questions. Those are:

1. What to do before taking a test
2. What to do when taking a test
3. How to get ready for the next test

Let’s answer these questions one by one and see how to place ourselves in the best possible situation to get a good grade.

What To Do Before Taking A Test

This is the most likely reason you are reading this article in the first place. Most people think the only way to get ready for a test is to prepare really well.

Is that not true?

To completely prepare for a test you need to make sure to apply your preparation well and analyze how you did and what you could have done better. Nonetheless, the most important thing to learn is how to prepare well (after all, how are you going to see if your preparation goes well and analyze your results if you haven’t prepared in the first place?).

So, now that we know how important it is to prepare for a test, what can we do to prepare well?

There are two time periods we have to pay attention to when preparing to take a test:

1. The day before the test
2. Every other day besides the day before the test

What you do on the day before the test is just as important (arguably more important) than everything else, so let’s make that our starting point.

The day before the test

There are two things to keep in mind when you are taking a test the next day:

1. Make sure to get a good night’s sleep
2. Dont overwork yourself on the day before taking a test

Make sure to get a good night’s sleep

This single piece of advice is the most important thing you can implement (so make sure to pay attention and not look at social media, ok?).

Sleep plays a really (more like really x100) important role in doing well on a test.

Sleeping does three things to help us when we study and learn new things:

1. It clears the toxins out of our brain
2. It sorts the information that we learned that day
3. And, it stores that information in our brain

Look at all of these benefits that sleep brings you. You can see that sleeping well every single day helps you to sort and store the information you learn that day (but, you have to study to learn the information, sleeping can’t help you with that)

But, what does “It clears the toxins out of our brain” mean?

This is the reason you have to sleep well the day before the test. How much information you store and how you store it is influenced by how much toxins you have in your brain so clearing them makes those processes more efficient.

Most importantly the more toxins you have the harder it is to pull that information out of your brain.

Make sure to remember this. No matter how much or how hard you study, if you can’t remember what you studied, you won’t do well on a test.

If you are going to put all that work into studying, then make sure to sleep well.

You can learn how to sleep better here.

Don’t overwork yourself on the day before taking a test

Cramming one day before taking a test works for many people (including you, probably). That is why they continue and will continue to do it.

But, think about this: If you prepared well for a test do you really need to push yourself one day before taking a test?

Of course not. So continue to read and learn how to get ready for a test and stop the cramming, alright? (even though I said all of this, most of you are still gonna do it, am I right?)

Remember this: cramming can lead to increased stress, which can lead to a lack of sleep, and hopefully, by now, you understand what happens when you don’t get enough sleep (don’t get mad at me, I will stop mentioning sleep after this, I just want to make sure you understand its importance).

Every other day besides the day before the test

The first thing you have to do is to find a calendar. When you find out when the next test/exam is, write it down in that calendar. In this way, you know how long you have left before the test and you won’t forget when the test is (this might not sound useful, but when you have 5 tests in one week you will be thankful that you did this).

The second thing you need to do is to create a schedule and do everything in your power to stick to it.

Make sure to study every single day.

While it does sound hard, if you manage to study every single day, then it will turn into a habit and you won’t need to put that much effort into starting. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy at the start. Start with 15 minutes a day and slowly increase the time as you get more comfortable.

I don’t know if I need to say this, but if your test is tomorrow this strategy doesn’t exactly work. That is why you need to make sure to prepare ahead of time and plan how you are going to study (and if you really have a test tomorrow, good luck, you might need it).

You can learn more about how to plan your day for studying here.

The last thing you need to get ready for a test is to learn to study in an efficient way. For that, you need to learn how to use active recall and spaced repetition.

Active recall and spaced repetition

Active recall is a technique to learn something faster and spaced repetition is a technique to remember something for longer (which makes for a pretty good duo).

I could rant about how good these two techniques are for more than 20 minutes. For those who don’t have time for that here is a short summary:

Active recall – Instead of reading and re-reading the material you should test yourself to see how well you understand what you read. After you read a paragraph try to repeat what you just read in your own words.

Spaced repetition – People start to forget what they learn after some time. To combat this you should schedule when you are going to revise the material you are studying, to see how well you remember it (something like 1 day after the first time you learn it, then 2 days, 4 days, 7 days and so on).

This is the shortest summary I could provide (I don’t know if I have done a good job, but I tried my best, and that is all that matters). You can read the full explanation of how to use active recall and spaced repetition here.

* * * * *

This pretty much takes care of the question of how to get ready for a test. If you master these concepts you should have no problem in getting a good grade. Here is one last friendly reminder:

You have to study to get a good grade.

What to do when taking a test

As I previously said, many people think the preparation is over, but now you will learn that there are a few more things you can do to better prepare yourself for the test you are taking. There are 3 things you can do to increase your chance of getting a better grade:

1. Learn hard start jump to easy technique
2. Learn how to manage your stress levels
3. Learn how to check for mistakes

Hard start jump to easy technique

First of all, look at that awesome name. Nice work to whoever named it like this. And the best part about the name of this technique is that it perfectly describes what you have to do:

Start with the hard question first and then jump to an easy one.

Have you ever tried to answer a question and after much struggle, you gave up only to remember the answer after the test was finished? This technique can prevent that. First, let me explain how it works.

When you are focused on something your brain is in a focused mode. But when you aren’t thinking about anything in particular, or when you change what you are thinking about, your brain goes into a diffuse mode.

This diffuse mode can help you to solve these hard questions. That is why it is important that you start with them. If you do hard questions at the end of the test, the diffuse mode won’t have enough time to activate, and when it finally does, the test will have been finished (that is why you suddenly remember the answer to that hard question you didn’t know about, your brain went into diffuse mode and found the answer).

When you use this technique, there is one thing to keep in mind:

Don’t try to finish the hard questions, just start them and let diffuse mode do the rest.

The name of the technique isn’t hard start answer to easy, but hard start jump to easy. If you don’t switch to an easy task you won’t get into diffuse mode. Do you have no faith in this technique? No problem, you can try it on your homework. If that does not satisfy you, make your own test and try it there. You can always practice at home and then use it on a real test when you get enough confidence.

To learn more about focused and diffuse modes go here.

Manage your stress levels

You should learn how to manage your levels of stress, just in case you feel stressed on a test and you don’t know how to deal with it. There was one time when I might have felt extreme stress, and I might have made some of the stupidest mistakes you will ever see a human make. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, you should learn how to manage your stress levels (or you could just go through the same experience as me, that works fine too).

Having high levels of stress can hurt your concentration, making it harder to do well on a test. The most effective way to deal with stress is to think of it as excitement rather than stress (but in most cases that is not realistic, although it can be achieved with the right mindset). If you can’t easily get excited about taking a test (who could blame you?) you need to learn a way to manage your stress levels.

The best way I have found is to put your hands on your belly and to breathe. Breathe slowly. Focus on breathing and feel how your hands are moving as you inhale and exhale. This is more than enough to calm me down and help me relax.

As always, if you have any doubts about this technique, try it at home and see how it feels. If you practice at home, you will get into the right rhythm much faster, which means you will feel relaxed in a much shorter period of time. And the less time you spend relaxing, the more time you will have to focus on the test you are taking.

Check for mistakes

Checking for mistakes is the one thing that I know I should always pay attention to, but I don’t. I mean is there anyone stupid enough to think that he won’t make a single mistake while taking a test? That was a trick question, the answer is yes, you are currently reading his article.

It’s obvious that you should leave some time to check if you have made any mistakes. But, when you do, don’t get lazy and make sure to concentrate when checking for a mistake. Sometimes people skip “easy” questions because those questions are… well easy (and there is no way you would make a mistake right that, right?).

The other mistake people make is that they don’t spend enough time checking the hard questions. The way to deal with this is to check questions starting in the middle. If you have 20 questions, start with question 10. Then go to 9, 8, 7 and so on until you reach the first question. When you are done repeat the same process, this time from question 10 to question 20.

You obviously don’t have to do it exactly like this. You can go from question 10 to question 20, and then do the rest, it’s up to you. The key point is to not let your brain get lazy and to make sure you check all of the questions while being fully focused.

How to get ready for the next test

The final step to completing the ultimate test guide (at least according to my standards) is reviewing how you did and what you can do better the next time you take a test. You should look at how you did on the test and what you can learn from it. Write down what you learned somewhere and try to do better next time. For more clarity here are some questions to answer:

1. Am I satisfied with how well I did?
2. Did I get enough sleep the night before the test?
3. Did I feel too stressed while taking a test?
4. Is there anything that stopped me from fully focusing when taking a test?
5. What could I have done better?
6. What is one thing I want to try the next time I take a test?

Look at these questions and take some time to answer them. You don’t have to do this every single time after taking a test, once a month will do (you can do it once a week if you’d like, no one is stopping you). The best time to answer these questions is right after the test, while you are still thinking about how you did and what you could have done better.

Don’t skip this step just because it seems boring. Don’t use the excuse that it is the shortest section so it doesn’t matter as much. The best way to learn something is to learn from your mistakes. If you don’t even look at the mistakes you made how are you going to take advantage of that?

One last piece of advice

Now you should be fully equipped to take any test (assuming you studied for it of course). You don’t have to implement all of the techniques at once. Pick one thing you think can help you the most (if not that, then pick the one you find the most interesting, just pick something) and try to use it the next time you have to take a test.

You can see whether the technique helped you, by how much and what you can change about it to fit you better. Try changing some things and see if that makes the technique better. You can do whatever you want, as long as it helps you to get a better grade (just don’t cheat, it might get you a good grade on the test, but eventually, you will need that knowledge, so it’s better to study and learn the material).