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The last few weeks before the exams are most critical for students. It is during this phase that bulk of exam syllabus is revised
& reviewed for the last few times. Any short coming that becomes apparent at this stage can be easily rectified. The focus
of this phase is on review, revise, recall, remember and reproduce. Whatever you learn and memorize during this period
will be of most benefit to you in the exams. So, it pays to be extra careful about the activities you undertake during this
phase.
At this stage, learning new areas may not be a great idea. This is time to consolidate what you have already learnt and
develop a higher level of application ability in those areas. The preparation methodology should be so planned that all the
vital concept of the entire syllabus become fresh at least one week before the end of this phase. Consolidation Phase can
be divided into 4 broad steps
Steps 1: Intense review of material
Step 2 : Practice A LOT of output
Step 3 : Getting used to Exam tension & pressure
Step 4 : Keep going
The last few weeks before your examination, should be set aside for revising the important points again and again from
your revision notes. Do not attempt to learn new things. In the last one month you should be simply refreshing your memory.
Prepare a revision plan for this period, so as to leave time for a final wrap up just 
before the examination. Now you have to utilize all seven days of the week.Begin
revising each subject at the start of this final revision period. Do not revise one subject
at a time as you may run out of time and find that you cannot revise some subject at
all. Some of the things you should keep in mind while planing revision are - Devise questions around a topic : By practising asking questions about a particular topic you can increase your
flexibility and preparedness for the examination itself. - Vary subjects, topics and methods throughout your revision : Vary these each week and each day. You will find that you are more likely to sustain your concentration by doing so.
- Organising your time : Make a revision time table.The problem with most of the revision time table is that very often they go wrong after the first day. In order to avoid this problem
- Have a one week trial period to enable you to determine what tasks you can realistically complete in a day.
- Be flexible, eg different subject headings for each day will enable you to vary the topics you revise.
- Pin up your timetable or time plan on a wall in a prominent place eg above your table or desk. Coloured pens can
make it clear and attractive. - The revision period is meant solely for connecting, co-ordinating and assimilating knowledge: not for collecting new
matter. Hence spend all your spare time making up summaries. 
Step one - Read your notes and seek answers to questions, as described in The importance of
asking questions. Be as active in your reading as possible, eg talk to yourself, walk around the
room (even though people may give you funny looks), trying to recollect what you have
learned.
Step two - When you feel you have understood and can remember what you have read, close
up your notes.
Step three - Now actively recall what you've just been reading, asking again the same questions without looking at your
notes, until you have exhausted your recall of the whole topic you've been revising. Whilst doing so write down what you
have recalled in brief notes on a card or a sheet of paper. It may help you to have the question written down to refer to in
the recalling process.
Step four - Check the original notes with the new ones. Have you recalled all the answers to the questions you were asking?
If yes, you have created a master card, which you can use to re-revise without having to consult the original lengthier notes.
If no,
Step Five - Re-read you original notes as in Step one above, looking particularly for those points you originally missed.
Repeat Steps two to four above. Writing out all the points again, not just those missed the first time : by doing so, you will
still be treating the topic as a whole and improving your recall on the whole topic.
This may appear time consuming and cumbersome but it is not. It ensures a high degree of recall which reading a lot of notes does not do.
Practicing output is essential for the recall stage of memory. Don’t get stuck in repetitious rehearsal that focuses only on getting the material INTO long-term memory. Practice getting it out - under pressure. Practice using the actual kind of exam questions you will be required to answer.
So after the initial intense review, 90% of the rest of your preparation time should be spent on output activities. Some of the examples of practicing output are
- Solving as many questions as possible under time pressure
- teaching it to someone else,
- making flash cards and using them,
- mnemonic devices,
- mind maps,
- giving a speech of whatever you have learnt
- writing down summary of whatever you have learnt
One easy way to improve your output is to increase the number of senses involved in the learning process. RECITATION, or repeating information aloud, increases recall through stimulating the hearing sense as well as the visual sense. Transforming ideas into DIAGRAMS or MAPS or CHARTS is another way to increase sensory input.
Examinations are to formal learning as races are to Olympic training. They are the final performance
for which the participant must travel a long road of preparation. The exam, like the race, is only
a small part of the story. There are many long hours, weeks, and months of serious work that must
be undertaken before the examinee and competitor can even hope to be at his or her best on the
fateful day.
Although some people appear to take examinations in their stride, for the rest of us the feelings
associated with examinations make it very difficult to get used to them. However, if we can
familiarise ourselves with what is expected of us beforehand, it may well help to lessen their
impact upon us and enable us to cope better in the examination room. In order to do that student
is advised to.
- Practise answering questions in examination conditions : Simulate examination conditions by answering a question
in silence without the aid of books or other materials; at a desk and within strictly applied examination time limit.
You can do this for: - individual questions
- a whole paper (2, 2 1/2 or 3 hours)
- planning outline answers (linear, spider or patterned notes).
This will provide practise at thinking clearly and quickly in examination conditions. You may wish to try these
approaches gradually, eg giving yourself less time each time to answer the question; working for a longer silent
period each time. You could add to this by: - using a friend or parent as an invigilator, so you can get used to someone walking past you or standing behind
you - sitting in the room where you will sit the exam to get the feel of it.
- Devote more and more time in testing and fine tuning your final strategy
- Try to take as many tests as possible in the last one month before the exams : It will also help you with overcoming
the unacceptable levels of test anxiety. Retake some old tests to practice the test taking techniques and exorcising, once and for all, the High Anxiety Demon. - In the mock tests which you take at home allocate yourself 15 to 20 minutes less than the actual time you would get in the final exams. This will put you under time pressure and hence would help you in improving your speed and performance. Moreover, during the final exams you will also get a feeling as if you are not short of time.
- Try different strategies for appearing in the test and find out which one works best for you.
- Taking adequate number of very similar test will help you to naturalise with the exam process which involves rapid
shifting of focus from one topic to another and working under a certain amount of pressure and time constraints. - Learn from mock exams or tests : Once you have completed your mock exams, engage in a full postmortem of them
by yourself or with the help of another. Whether they went well or badly, use the Test Assessment & Analysis Sheet
to analyse what happened. Check your revision, exam techniques and your anxiety levels. Write down the changes
you will make and start to put them into operation immediately. - Tuning your body clock : In the last one month make your study schedule according to the schedule of the examination.
For example if you are into the habit of studying late in the night your body and mind gets tuned for best performance
and maximum concentration in the night but this may not be of any help during the exam (in some cases it may even
harm you).
So get into the habit of serious studying during the hours of the day as per your exam schedule. I have seen students
who have habit of taking a short sleep after lunch and they face difficulty in concentrating in the exam which is
scheduled in the second half. So the message is tune your body and mind to give the best output at the time the exam
is scheduled. If the exam time is 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, schedule your serious study in one stretch (i.e without any
break) during these hours of the day and most importantly all mock test you take should be taken strictly at this time
only. 
Repeat Steps 1 to 3 until you feel you have almost over learned the material. Don’t stop at a level at which you have just marginal recall of some vital information. Your goal is to know the material so well that you will be able to remember it under the pressure of the exam situation.
In the last stages of preparation apart from subject knowledge what is equally important is the state of mind. As somebody has rightly said "the difference between a topper and an average student is not much as far as subject knowledge is concerned but the major difference is in terms of mental preparation".
Last one month before exams is the time for real test and a student should keep himself cool, calm and collected. All your efforts and attempts to do well in the examination may collapse if you do not think positively about yourself and your performance. Motivate yourself positively. Think of your past successes and convince yourself that you will experience success in future.
When you find weariness approaching, rouse yourself and remember, that, if you give up, all that you have done has been done in vain . . . ' It is this belief, confidence and faith in oneself which helps a person in performing better.
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