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9.
Then look again at the questions, seeing whether you have found the answers to all of them. Guided by the things the
questions emphasize and your knowledge of what the whole chapter covered, go rapidly through the chapter again,
underlining the most important points. If the chapter falls into three major divisions, underline the three sentences
that come closest to summing up the idea of each division. Number these points in the margin: 1,2,3. For each point
you have numbered, underline two or three supporting points. In other words, underline the sections you think you might
want to find in a hurry if you were reviewing the chapter.
10.
What happens in class the next day, or whenever this assignment is discussed, will give you some check on whether you found
the important points. If the teacher spends a lot of time on a part of the text you didn¡¯t mark at all, probably you
guessed wrong. Get yourself a red pencil and mark the teacher¡¯s points.You can make these changes during the study
time you have set aside for comparing class notes with the textbook.
11.
One word of warning: don¡¯t underline everything you read. If you mark too much, the important material won¡¯t stand
out, and you will be just as confused as if you had not marked anything at all.
12.
The third rule useful to everybody is don¡¯t let tests terrify you. If you have kept up in all your classes, if you have
compared your class notes with your texts, if you have kept all your quizzes and gone over your errors, if you have
underlined the important parts of each chapter intelligently, the chances are good that you can answer any questions the
teacher will ask.
13.
Being fairly sure that you can answer all the questions, however, is not the same thing as answering them. Nothing is
more frustrating than freezing up during an important test, knowing all the answers but getting so excited at the
sight of the test that half of what you actually know never gets written down.
14.
Do you know the story of the lecturer who cured his stage fright by pretending that all the people listening to him
were cabbages? A head of cabbage is no more capable of criticizing a lecture than cabbage soup would be. And who¡¯s
afraid of a bowl of borsch? You might adapt this system to taking tests. Pretend that the test is only a game you
are playing to use up an idle hour. Pretend that your test score is no more important than your score in canasta
last night. But you tried to win at canasta; try for as high a test score as you can get without frightening yourself
to death.
15.
One way to insure a good score is read the entire test before you answer any questions. Sometimes questions
that come near the end will give clues to the answers on earlier questions. Even if you don¡¯t find any answers,
you can avoid the error of putting everything you know into the first answer and then repeating yourself for the
rest of the test.
16.
Be careful, too, not to spend all your time on one question at the expense of the others. If you have sixty minutes
to finish a test that contains ten questions, plan to spend five minutes on each question and save ten minutes
at the end to read through what you have written, correcting silly mistakes and making sure you have not left out
anything important. If some of the questions seem easier than others, answer the easiest first. There is no rule
that says you must begin at the beginning and work straight through to the end. If you¡¯re going to leave something
out, it might as well be the things you aren¡¯t sure of anyway.
17.
Following these three suggestions, reading through the test, budgeting your time, doing the easy part first,
will not guarantee A¡¯s on all your tests. To get A¡¯s on essay tests, you must be able to write well enough
that your teacher is convinced you do understand. What following these suggestions can do, however, is help
you make the most of what you know.
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