Strategy for people who suck at exams?
Let's say your work ethic is outstanding. and you have a strong understanding of the material. However, when it comes to exam time, you always completely screw it up and borderline pass.
The fact of the matter is, there are some people who, despite working hard and understanding the material, have always sucked at exams.
My question is to those of you who are/were already in successful positions (analysts, ect). Since typically most of your GPA is dependant upon one-time examinations, what strategy should these people employ?
From my perspective, this seems synonymous with the tactics one should employ when recruiting with a low GPA (2.00-3.00). In other words, focusing on extracurricular learning and networking, to 'prove' the GPA wrong?
This pretty much sums up how I feel
Don't you love it when people are like, 'I'm a bad test taker.' You mean you're stupid. Oh, you struggle with that part where we find out what you know? I can totally relate see, because I'm a brilliant painter minus my god awful brushstrokes. Oh, how the masterpiece is crystal up here but once paint hits canvas I develop Parkinson's.
Haha yes rgk you beat me to it
I appreciate the humour. You guys may or may not believe what you're saying but in all seriousness, please do try to be mindful other people's strengths and weaknesses.
Even if you're not part of this category, please do share legitimate suggestions for what someone in this situation should do.
no humor I actually believe it. If you can't do well on tests how can you say you know the material? And then why are you a bad test taker? Odds are you're going to saying something that someone is going to say makes a bad analyst
I absolutely see what you're saying. It's completely justified and makes logical sense.
My point is, I'm quite confident that I do understand the material. In addition, my worth ethic is such that I can honestly say that I put in more than sufficient effort to understand said material. However, with that said, exams never turn out well. Since they make up approximately 50-60% of your overall grade for a unit, it skews the overall grade downward.
Do you think extracurricular application of knowledge relevant to your field of interest is enough to overcome this? I feel like this is the area to focus on for people in this situation. I'm interested in what you professionals think?
Maybe ask the teacher for old exams.
And you might be studying too passively. When you read over material, it's easy to just sit there and convince yourself that you know how to do it. But when the time comes to actually do it on a test you might have trouble given you never actually went through the steps of solving it in an active manner when you studied. This is also an issue for those who look up the answers to homework problems online. You might get the credit on the homework and save yourself a lot of time, but if you don't wrestle with the problems initially there won't be a whole lot of learning involved.
Another issue could be basic anxiety, where you feel pressure to the point where you mentally freeze and perform worse. And maybe you go too slow and get into a time crunch. Maybe you're unmotivated to study the material, cram too much, or don't study thoroughly enough... Could be plenty of reasons.
Jokes aside, it sounds like you're looking for a silver bullet to balance out your resume, instead of just fixing the problem itself. Rather than admitting that you might not have a complete understanding of the material, you've used test taking as a scapegoat to alleviate your cognitive dissonance.
Is it the format of the exam that is causing your poor performance? Would you be able to teach the material to someone else from memory? Are you consistently choosing the "trick" option in a multiple choice question? The test is designed to challenge your understanding. As SF_G put it, you may be convincing yourself you understand something while reading it without cementing your knowledge through practice. At the end of the day, you are expected to demonstrate what you've learned by answering questions, so practice answering questions.
You are clearly introspective enough to recognize the problem. Now be proactive enough to fix it.
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