Most students worry about making the best out of their semester which is usually gauge by the lessons you have learned throughout. But a more important thing is – how?

Organization This is usually self-explanatory for college students who have a hard time coping with time management and even studying. But here are some practical things you can follow –

•Take notes – “A dull pencil is better than a sharp mind.” This is usually one of the greatest adages that you can follow about studying and learning. There are things that your sharp mind tends to miss later on but when you write everything down on your notebook or post-it papers you enhance your chance at remember it later on.

•Agenda list – It is important that you make a regular weekly list of itinerary. Your agenda should give you sense of direction and purpose making everything better every day.

•Real time inbox – This is a figurative term which simply refers to a permanent place in your room or apartment where you study. This is where you will place all your notes, books and assignment papers.

•Get to know your professors – Search engines usually give you short biography on your teachers. Alternatively and more accurately, you can search about them in your school library. Learn about their research interests and knowledge.

•Study partner/mentor – The secret to success is not about being alone but being able to find someone who can understand your habits and study style.

Written exams make up the majority of your exams in college, which in turn make up the majority of your grade point average. Your performance on written exams will be directly reflected in your grades.

Basically, they’re a pretty big deal.

How to Improve Your Performance on a Written Exam

There are two skills you must master in order to improve your performance on a written exam:

Time management

Deduction

Both are essential skills that will not only give you a better chance of doing well on an exam, but they will also improve your academic performance overall.

Time Management

When taking a written exam, first allocate enough time for you to complete all the questions. Briefly review the test to determine the number of questions and how long each of them should take.

Reviewing the test in advance gives you the option to determine which questions you know well, and which questions will require more effort.

There are three categories by which you can divide the sets of questions during an exam but even though this takes time the end result is usually worth it. The three categories include –

• Questions you know well (easy questions)
• Questions you know better (moderately hard)
• Questions you know nothing about (hard questions)

Always answer the questions in order of difficulty, not necessarily the order that they are in on the test.

Avoid leaving questions blank. An incomplete or incorrect answer will always be better than no answer at all.

Deduction

The power of deduction is especially useful for moderate or difficult questions. Most people refer to this as an “educated guess,” because you use your education and contextual clues to determine the most likely answer.

Deduction is a powerful skill that can be practiced. Once you’ve answered all the easy and moderate questions, you can potentially use those answers to deduce the more difficult questions.