10 Ways to Avoid Making Stupid Mistakes on Exams College Info Geek

We are rapidly approaching final exams right now, so hopefully you are aspiring to greatness because greatness is what precedes the growing of great beard, so if you feel little bit of prickly stubble coming in, well, you know your aspirations are in the right place. Anyway, today we are gonna talk about how to not make dumb mistakes on exams. I've been emailed about this question lot, and wanna tackle 10 ways that you can stop making those stupid mistakes. But first, quick recap. - Just last week, Thomas released video on test anxiety. As you may be aware, stress and anxiety are two of the leading causes of stupid mistakes on exams. Therefore, if you have not yet seen that video, it is highly recommended that you click the card right now and glue your eyeballs to it. Also, this is not Thomas, it is obviously the announcer guy from The Legend of Korra. Would lie to you? - All right, so that out of the way, let's get into our first tip, and just to warn ya, some of these might seem little bit obvious, but as is my M.O., wanna be pretty comprehensive in addition to brief, so even if you've heard these before, try to put them into practice. So number one, be aware of the time you have for your test, and aim to finish early. Put some time pressure on yourself. Just like with your homework assignments, time pressure can help you in the context of an exam. So if you've got 50 minutes, prepare to finish in 45. That way you've got time to double check later. Speaking of double checking, that is tip number two, so put the kabash on the don't feel like it" mindset when it comes to doing it because know it's pain in the butt, but five extra minutes in the testing room going over your answers can mean the difference between an and and what were you gonna do with that extra five minutes anyway, like, go on Reddit back at your dorm or something? So double check those answers. Tip number three has to do with tests that use Scantron bubble sheets, and it's something that used to do in my own tests. So basically when you've read question on the test and if you've figured out the answer, then you're about to transfer it over to that bubble sheet, first either lightly touch your pencil or your finger to the letter of the answer, and then say the letter in your head. That will drastically cut down the chance that you'll bubble in the wrong answer on your Scantron sheet, which is an incredibly common error on that test format. Tip number four has to do with the work you do on scratch paper, and it's simply to draw box around each problem's work. That way when you're looking at your scratch paper to fill in an answer, you don't accidentally pull data from different problem. Tip number five is to slow down and read the questions fully and watch out for trick wording. lot of questions might say, "Which of these is not?" instead of, "Which of these is?" So if you tend to read questions too quickly and you're making mistakes, then use pacing device like your finger. Simply move it along the text of the problem and let your eyes be paced by that finger. do this every single week when I'm proofreading the emails write for the College Info Geek newsletter subscribers because if I'm sending out an email to 17,000 people, don't wanna make mistake, and it's pretty easy for me to put typos. Tip number six has to do with your essays, and it is to, no matter how easy the essay seems at first, create an outline for that essay before you start writing. Yes, it's good for organization, but the big thing it helps with is staying on topic. lot of students immediately take the prompt and then start writing from scratch, and the stream-of-consciousness style writing often ends up with their essay going into territory that the professor didn't want them to write about. Now, while I'm all for freedom of expression and creativity in your writing, if you're not really staying on topic with the essay, you're not gonna get good grade. So make sure you're staying on topic, and use an outline. Tip number seven, seriously, cut down on your test anxiety. Tip number eight is to check your spelling and grammar on essay-style exams. Wait, did really put that on my list? That is way too obvious. Anyway, moving on, tip number nine is to do sanity check after you get your answers on math problems. Before you go through the actual work of solving problem, you probably have general ballpark idea in your head of what the answer should be, so when you actually get that answer, compare it to that ballpark number. If it's way off the mark, it doesn't mean your answer is necessarily wrong, but you should probably double check your work just to make sure. And finally, tip number 10 is to simply know your own brain. Do you have specific mistakes that you tend to make lot? Maybe you get the order of operations wrong, or maybe you tend to multiply things together that should be added. Whatever they are, do your best to notice them when they happen, and then when you're taking your next test, pay special attention on those areas. So, now that we've gone through those 10 tips, and you've got some ways to combat making stupid mistakes on your next exam, here's big related question. If you've already written down an answer, and now you have the compulsion to change it, should you actually change it? Well, there's actually research on that topic, and we'll be covering it in next week's video, so subscribe to this channel if you haven't already, and hey, thanks for watching this one. (techno music) Hey guys, thanks so much for watching this video on how to combat making stupid mistakes on your tests. If you liked this video, you can support it by leaving like here on YouTube, and also if you want to get new videos every week on being more effective student, you can hit that big red subscribe button right there. If you wanna improve your grades, also wrote free book on the subject, and if you wanna get free copy, just click the picture of it. You can find links to anything I've mentioned in this video at the companion blog post, which you'll find by clicking the orange logo right there. Last week's video covered test anxiety, and it's really related to this topic, so if you missed it, click the thumbnail and check it out. Lastly if you have questions or ideas for new videos or just wanna connect, you can follow me on Twitter @TomFrankly or leave comment below. See you in the next video. (techno music)