A presentation about Exam Preparation originally given to a group of students on March 29th, 2018 at Qatar University. I decided to record it for YouTube in the hope that other students might find it helpful in organizing their studying. The recording can be found here: https://youtu.be/iiMu_9evZbU

1. Preparing for...
R. Stefan Rusyniak
ExamsExams

2. 3 Components
of Exam Preparation

3. 3 Components
of Exam Preparation
… A way of Life
EAT!EAT! SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP! SPORTS!SPORTS!SPORTS!SPORTS!

4. EAT!EAT! SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP! SPORTS!SPORTS!SPORTS!SPORTS!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

5. EAT!EAT! STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY! SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!

6. Fuel
Your Brain!
EAT!EAT!

7. Don’t Skip Meals
Quality Matters

Complex Carbohydrates

Lean Proteins

Omega-3 Fats

Vitamin-Rich
Avoid

Excess Calories

Simple Sugars

“Energy” Drinks
EAT!EAT!

8. Blood-Glucose Roller-Coaster

Short Term (low glucose)
– Poor Attention
– Lowered Cognitive Function

Long Term Effect
– Cognitive Decline
– Brain Shrinkage
Credit:
www.myfitnesspal.com
If there isn’t enough glucose in the brain, for example,
neurotransmitters, the brain’s chemical messengers, are not
produced and communication between neurons breaks down.
High blood glucose levels can affect the brain’s functional
connectivity, which links brain regions that share functional
properties, and brain matter. It can cause the brain to
atrophy or shrink.

10. Fill
Your Brain!
STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

11. What to Study
●
PowerPoints vs. Textbook
How to Study
When to Study
STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

12. Powerpoint or Textbook?
Depends on your Prof
●
Are textbook readings assigned?
●
What is his/her PPT style?
●
Does your prof just read the slides?

13. Powerpoint or Textbook?

14. Powerpoint or Textbook?
Depends on your Prof
●
Are textbook readings assigned?
●
What is his/her PPT style?
●
Does your prof just read the slides?
Depends on you
●
Did you attend the lectures?
●
Did you take notes?

15. What to Study
●
PowerPoints vs. Textbook
How to Study

What’s Your Style?

Avoid Distractions

Avoid Procrastination
STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

16. “What’s your Style?”

17. “What’s your Style?”
Your Studying Preferences

What works best for you

Based on your past experience

18. “What’s your Style?”

19. Avoid Distractions“Psychologists who study what happens [...] when
people try to perform more than one task at a time
have found that the mind and brain were not
designed for heavy-duty multitasking.”
- American Psychology Association
“People have to shift their cognitive resources, or
attentional resources, to a completely different topic. You
have to completely shift your thinking, it takes you a while
to get into it and it takes you a while to get back and
remember where you were.”
- Professor Gloria Mark
Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine

20. Avoid Distractions
… shown to damage task performance. We found that cellular phone
notifications alone significantly disrupted performance on an
attention-demanding task, even when participants did not directly
interact with a mobile device during the task. The magnitude of ...

21. Avoid Distractionsusing social media for nonacademic purposes
[...] and social media multitasking significantly
negatively predicted academic performance.
Participants reported that using social media during academic
activities diminishes achievement, increases the amount of
time it takes to complete tasks, and reduces how much
information students retain from study and lecture sessions.

22. Avoid Distractions
Mobile Phone
●
Keep it off
●
Keep it out of sight
Social Media
●
Avoid using laptop
●
Avoid the “other tab”
Try…
...it’s not forever

23. Goal-oriented vs Process-oriented
●
“I will finish this chapter”
●
“I will study for 30min”
Pomodoro Technique
●
Study for 25min
●
Take a 5min break
●
Repeat
Dealing with Procrastination
This will take FOREVER!!!

24. What to Study
●
PowerPoints vs. Textbook
How to Study

What’s Your Style?

Avoid Distractions

Avoid Procrastination
When to Study

Study Schedule
STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

25. The Forgetting
Curve Hermann Ebbinghaus Experiments
(in 1880s)
Non-sense Syllables :
- Zup
- Pev
- Lom
- Gub
- Blo
- Dex

26. The Forgetting
Curve Hermann Ebbinghaus Experiments
(in 1880s)
- forgot new info within 24hrs
- lost ~50% of new info
in 1 hour
A well-timed review helps to
maintain new knowledge
The Neurobiological Perspective:
– Stimulate a neural
pathway
– Repeat a few times
– Connection is
strengthened
The Learning
Curve

27. Timing Your Review SessionsTiming Your Review Sessions

28. What to Study
●
PowerPoints vs. Textbook
How to Study

What’s Your Style?

Avoid Distractions

Avoid Procrastination
When to Study

Study Schedule

Avoid Late Nights
STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!

29. Rest
Your Brain!
SLEEP!SLEEP!

30. Sleep is critical to memory
●
Sleep at night if you can
SLEEP!SLEEP!
Over more than a century of research
has established the fact that sleep
benefits the retention of memory.

31. Sleep is critical to memory
●
Sleep at night if you can
●
Take naps if you can’t
SLEEP!SLEEP!
… In young adults, an afternoon nap
benefits episodic memory retention.

32. Sleep is critical to memory
●
Sleep at night if you can
●
Take naps if you can’t
Information Processing
●
“Consolidation”
SLEEP!SLEEP!
Memory consolidation refers to the process by
which a temporary, labile memory is transformed
into a more stable, long-lasting form.

33. Sleep is critical to memory
●
Sleep at night if you can
●
Take naps if you can’t
Information Processing
●
“Consolidation”
Avoid “all-nighters”
SLEEP!SLEEP!

34. STUDY!STUDY!STUDY!STUDY! SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!SLEEP!
Summary
●
Avoid Sugary
Snacks and
Drinks
●
Eat Healthy
●
distraction-
free study
environment
●
Study in short
“Bursts”
●
Use Spaced
repetition
●
Sleep is
critical to
memory
●
Even short
naps are
helpful

35. Good Luck
You Can Do It!