Mistake 1

Spotting Questions:

Spotting questions is by far one of the most common mistakes many students make when preparing for a test or exam paper. It is also the worst mistake you can commit before sitting for a paper.

For subjects that require much memory work, such as History, Geography, Biology and Economics, many students try to take the easy way out by trying to spot what questions would appear in the paper. Such students believe that they can read their teachers’ or examiners’ minds. Are you trained in telepathy or fortune-telling? We don’t think so.

Spotting questions is a problem that is at times made worse when the teachers themselves actively encourage their students to spot questions. As students who had sat through GCE "O" Level and GCE "A" Level papers ourselves, we can attest to that.

Some teachers are also known to deliberately drop hints to their students before a test or exam paper about what types of questions to expect. That happens quite often in the local polytechnics and universities too. We know because we, our friends and our siblings have studied at the local universities and polytechnics. Sometimes, the questions actually came out in the test or exam papers. Sometimes, they never did!

Instead of spotting questions, you should spot topics if you must. For example, instead of trying to prepare for a History question that reads, "Why did Singapore break away from Malaya?", you should prepare for the History topic "The breaking away of Singapore from Malaya".

That means you should know the why, when, how, who and consequences of the breaking away of Singapore from Malaya. This would ensure that, should you be asked about "What were the consequences for Malaya after Singapore broke away?", you would still be able to answer it.