Like any professional actor athlete, they're not going to go out on the field without some type of preparation and dress rehearsal. The success formula demands that you prepare before the game actually begins. Practice is really the only way to improve performance treat an exam as a practice environment just like you would before a game or a match. A little bit of preparation, thoughtfulness, goes a long ways into improving your performance. There's a clear difference between recall versus reading. And what I mean is there a difference between active and passive tests preparation so when you're active, you're thinking you're recalling and reciting.

It's an active process. It uses different parts of the brain structure called the hippocampus, which is a memory center and all the various neurons and web of linkages between information that really solidifies your knowledge versus the passive reading. I see students who mistake reading they're not is actually studying, they're just passively sitting there on the couch with nearly a blank look on their face just reading their notes. And at the end, I can interrupt them at any point along the way and say, What did you just read, and most of the time, they have no idea what they're actually reading. So I encourage you to really adopt an active stance when preparing for exams. The environment really dictates performance.

And the goal is really to stick to simulate reality. So I know it's easy to sit on the floor, sit on a couch or lay down while you study. But it really doesn't get your mind and your body geared up for the actual environment that you're going to encounter this information in. So I generally suggest that when you're you know, in the final stages of test preparation is to sit at a table or a desk to really emulate the actual act of test taking to make your study prep, very similar to your test taking practice in a similar environment if you can. It's not very difficult to get access to a classroom or an exam room or a test. Center to see what it's like to see what the environments like to sit in the chair to really kind of gauge what the level of comfort is, how close are the chairs?

What is the the view like is it bright or dark is our ambient noise from a busy street across the way all these are important factors in maximizing your test performance. Certainly, if you're taking your critical exam like GRP, l SAT, MCAT, anything like that, you want to take every step possible to maximize your performing performance. Timing also plays a factor you know if your exams at eight in the morning, if you're prepping for it at midnight, it really sort of creates a different mindset, a different shift. I'm not going to go into the whole hormonal and cortisol and adrenal process that happens throughout the day, but realize that if you can practice at least once or twice around the same time as your actual test, that certainly is a way to get your mind and your body geared up to be in sync and Simple, it's as simple as asking ask the teacher if you could come in, you know, on a day when there's not a class scheduled and just just sit in the exam room and maybe study your practice for half hour, or look for a room that's very similar if you're, you know, somebody who's really nervous and anxious about test taking to see if you can get a little bit of time in the exact in the actual exam environment.

And that'll go a long way to soothing fears. There's really a checklist for success. And I think a lot of students really misjudge what information is available. Most teachers and professors they're more than willing to tell you what kind of exam to expect. They want you to do good, they're invested in your success. And so ask what type of questions are these multiple choices?

There's some fill in the blanks? Are there short essays? Are there problems? Is the work required to be shown and obviously in chemistry, math and physics, a lot of times, examiners want to see some work shown to know that you actually solve the problem. Just find that out and just ask if they're unwilling to share that information, which is probably going to be a rarity. Look at previous exams, talk to previous students and review your notes, you'll get probably a pretty decent idea of what to expect.

And also you want to create a a condensed summary sheet. And so this can be just bullet points or just a little tiny phrases or things that really jog your memory, something that you can really reference in the final stages of your exam prep, and perhaps just the, you know, the morning of the exam, just to re solidify and to pull those deeper memories back into the front where they can be recalled easily. Again, you want to ask the types of questions and I think the best way or one of the best ways to look at historic exams, if all the old exams are multiple choice, it would be a little bit unusual for that Professor to have a essay test. And if they won't tell you to ask their teaching assistant or past students, there's plenty of students out there who have taken the same high school or college university course that you're taking right now in the information is there you just have to do a little legwork and find out The perito principle, he was an Italian economist.

And really, a lot of times it boils down to 20% of the information is really going to give 80% of the results. Obviously, there's a challenge and figuring out which 20% but again, ask, there may be some material that's a little bit challenging or confusing, or this is boring. Ask the teacher, Hey, is this important? Should I be expected to know this for the exam? And you'd be surprised the number of times they'll say I'd never test on that. I don't consider that important or that theory is outdated.

And I'm not going to ask you anything about that eliminates a lot of extra studying, and can really pare down and fine tune your test preparation efforts. If the test is cumulative, if it's a urine test over an entire semester or a year, make sure to ask, a lot of times teachers will say, Well, you know, I waited most heavily on the last, you know, 20% of the course so I'll pull some general topics and concepts from the beginning of the course. But obviously that was nine months ago. It's a little bit hard or arduous for me to expect students to remember Everything from a year long course, you can also scan the index of the book, I think that's a great way for these cumulative exams, just to really gauge your comfort level, look for knowledge gaps, any missing information you can have, you'll see a broad outline of topics and you can just kind of tick through them in your mind mentally.

Yes, I know that Oh, that's very easy. That was very interesting. I love that topic. That's a little bit confusing, I should probably spend a little bit of time on that. Just make some notes for some little little ticks in your in your index of the book. And we'll give you sort of a roadmap about some things that you can really focus on to solidify your knowledge.

Getting good night's sleep, this is critical. I know that, you know, college and high school can be times of stress when you're working in sports and relationships and friends. But really, sleep is critical. And if you have trouble with sleeping, I encourage you to check out my one week to better sleep course you can use the code test 10 to get a huge discount on that course. But the bottom line here is that REM sleep consolidates memory, that's the dream state so if you're not getting decent sleep If you're not going through the various stages of sleep because you're hopped up on caffeine or you're completely stressed out or anxious, you're not going to solidify some of those memories and you're really hampering your efforts. So finish studying and go to bed, don't watch TV, don't crank on the music, don't go out to the bar.

Just take all that memory and all that information that you've just packed into your head. Go to sleep and let the natural biochemical and neuro physiologic processes take hold and solidify those memories where you can pull them out when you need to on the exam day. avoid distractions. And what I like to suggest is the last five minutes of any day are purely for you. So the lights are off, you're in bed, to spend a few minutes visualizing the exam where you're sitting, taking the test, and that your outcomes exactly as desired. You got the a and that really helps kind of gear up the mental framework for success.

So t minus 10. You're You know, you're showing After the exam sight, and these are just a few things that you want to avoid, obviously common sense avoiding the nervous malaise. Don't let anybody's nervous energy, weigh you down or fuel you. I like to avoid the note all meds that people that are spouting information, trying to tell you how much they know telling you what that's going to be on the exam. And realize that a lot of times these people aren't as smart as they want you to think they are. Don't cram, really, you're going to really do very little in the last few months other than push up your anxiety level by trying to cram in last minute facts.

Sure if there's some formulas or your summary sheet, you want to review that that's fine. If it's a math or physics or chemistry. It certainly can help you review some last minute structural details or formulas that are probably gonna be on the exam, but do not cram. Take a final breath. You've got this you've prepared. You've gone through this course you've studied the material.

I'm confident in your success. Good luck.