How To Study For Exams
Study Tip #01

The
‘Question / Answer Reflex’...
And How It Can Help In Your
Exams

Have you ever touched a hot
iron and then pulled your
hand away really quickly to
avoid getting burned?

Did you have to think to
yourself...
“Gee, this iron is hot, I
better not touch it any
longer because it’ll probably
cause a really bad burn on
my hand!”

The answer is probably NO!
You wouldn’t have any time
to think about what you
should do... and pulling your
hand away is automatic.

It’s what we call a...
“reflex” action.
It doesn’t involve much
thinking because by the
time you think about it...
it’s too late!

Let’s lighten up a little and
investigate another situation
where reflexes are
important but a little
thinking is involved.

If you’ve ever played tennis,
or most other ball sports,
you’ll know it’s important to
think quickly because the
ball can move very fast.

However... if you just stand
there and think for too long,
the moment is over, the ball
moves past you, and you’ve
lost the point...
the reflex was too slow.

The reason you practice so
much in tennis, or any other
sport, is to train your
reflexes to the point where
you almost don’t have to
think at all!

When your opponent serves
a ball to you at over 100
kph you react in a
millisecond and hit the ball
back for a winner.

Your brain has virtually no
time to think about what
you’ll do...
it happens automatically.

Now you’re probably saying...
“what does this have to do
with getting an ‘A’ in my
exams?”

Let me explain...
Imagine when someone hits
a ball to you in a game of
tennis... it’s like being asked
a question in the exam.

Returning the ball...
or answering the exam
question...
is called a response.

What do we normally call
the combination of a
stimulus and a response?

It’s called a...
REFLEX

A reflex is the response to a
stimulus.

In the example of the hot
iron, the incredible heat is
the stimulus...
and pulling your hand away
really quickly is the
response.

In this case the reflex
doesn’t have to be trained at
all because the body is
already programmed to
react and protect itself from
injury.

Some reflexes however have
to be learned before they
become automatic

That’s why we practice our
sports so much...
to train our reflexes to
minimize the amount of
thinking we have to do...
there’s so little time to think!

Now in exams...
exactly the same situation
exists...

You have a limited time
(several hours) to respond
(give answers) to lots of
stimuli (exam questions)

I invented the term...
“question / answer reflex”
to describe this situation.

Once again as in our previous
examples...
if you take too long to
respond to the stimulus
(answer the question) then
you’ll probably fail at what
you’re doing.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to
train the “question / answer
reflex” so you could react
much faster in the exam?

Whenever a question is
asked... you react at lightning
speed with the answer...
almost like touching a hot
iron and pulling your hand
away!

As soon as a question is fired
at you in the exam...
your mental reflexes are so
well trained that your
answer responds immediately!

You hardly even have to
think...
all the thinking has already
been done in your pre-exam
training and your answer is
virtually automatic!

Doesn’t it also make sense if
information in exams is
expected to “come out” in a
question / answer format...
that it should “go in” in much
the same way?

Would you train for a tennis
match by hitting a baseball
with a bat?

Then why do students train
for exams by highlighting
and underlining notes?

Doesn’t it make more sense
to train for exams using the
same system you use in the
exam?
ie questions and answers.

Now go and work on your...
“question / answer reflexes”

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