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	Thomas Lee Budesheim, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Preparing for and Taking Tests
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Let's face it--how you do on a test is in large part determined by how you study for it. Here is a checklist of some things you should keep in mind when preparing for an essay test:

Study for Comprehension and Recall. Too often students read through their notes or through a chapter of the text passively. They understand the information as they read it, but only in a superficial way. Although the information seems to make sense to them as they read it, if one asks them later to recall the information or to describe the material to you, they barely scratch the surface of all the material they read. Why does this happen?

Reading is a fairly automatic process for us by the time we are in college, much the same way as driving a car can be a fairly automatic process for us. We can get into a car and get to where we want to go often with very little conscious effort and attention--particularly if we are talking with passengers, listening to the radio, or simply distracted with thoughts of other things. Likewise, we can read through a chapter of a text or reread our notes from lecture and do so without much concentration. Unless you are studying the text and lecture notes in such a way that it makes the material clear and memorable to you, you are not studying effectively. Relate material to your own life, think of new examples of a concept or phenomenon, relate the concepts to other concepts in the course, etc. In short, actively think about the material and its implications and avoid being a passive receptacle of information.

If You Study Often, You Can Study Less! If my goal is to get an 'A' on the test, the amount of time I need to reach that goal is less if I spread my studying out over time rather than try to cram it all in during the few days (or hours) before the test. This is a well-established fact in the research literature on learning. Discipline yourself from the start of the semester to study your lecture notes later that same day, to keep up on your readings, to outline the chapters as you go, to do a certain number of study questions on a frequent and regular basis, etc.

Some of us may feel anxious every time we start to study for a test so we avoid the anxiety by putting off studying until we can't put it off any longer. Fight that urge to procrastinate as a way of dealing with a dreaded test (or course material one doesn't find interesting). Consider it a personal challenge to struggle with the urge and defeat it and you'll find the anxieties and dread will diminish substantially.

Test Your Memory Before I Do. The test will require you to retrieve information from memory, with no help from your notes or textbook. You won't have the luxury of simply having to recognize the right answer from a list of possible answers. If you have been studying your lecture notes and your textbook and have optimistically assumed that you can recall the material when needed, you might be surprised to find gaps in your memory. A state of shock is common among students who have spent a tremendous amount of time cramming the material during the days leading up to the test, but never stopped to test their memory for the material. How do you test your memory for the material?

One common method is to find a study partner or group and have others ask questions of you, which you must answer without aid from notes or textbook. Another method that is useful and does not require anyone else is to take a blank piece of paper, put a major concept right in the middle of the page (such as the general subject of a particular chapter or lecture) and begin forming links to other concepts and material from that section of the course without looking at your notes or textbook. Ideally, the page would quickly fill up with lots of connected material sketched out on the paper. The longer you go, the more details you are able to recall. Often, when one first tries this, the page is sparse and one laments at how little one can recall. That's great! You needed to identify what you can remember easily and what you cannot. Only then will you know what information you need to review further and what information you can safely skip.

Practice Putting the Material in Your Own Words. An essay test requires that you not only recall the correct information, but that you describe that material in writing to your instructor. Testing your memory when studying, as I recommended above, not only helps to spot gaps in memory but also can spot material you find particularly difficult to describe to others in your own words. This is a crucial step and one that often is underestimated by students who are used to taking only multiple choice tests.

There are some useful strategies to use when taking a multiple choice test. To view helpful advice on this matter, click here.

My tests often take the full class time because I'm trying to find out just how much information I can wring out of you (in other words, I want to know how much information is 'in there'). You need to be efficient but thorough. Here are some tips:

Don't Spell "Red" When I Asked You to Spell "Orange." Once upon a time a professor was visiting his young nephew, who bragged that he could spell all his colors. He begged to be challenged. The professor asked him to spell blue and the child did; the professor asked him to spell green and the child did; the professor asked his nephew to spell orange. The child paused and then said "I can spell red, R-E-D, see?" The professor pointed out that he had asked him to spell orange and the child said, "But I can spell red, you wanna see? R-E-D." This may be cute in a 5-year old but don't use this child's approach when answering a question on an essay test. Demonstrating your knowledge of the material is a waste of time if it is not relevant to the question I asked.

List vs. Describe vs. Explain. The type of response and the amount of details you may need to give in your answer to a question is often indicated by the question itself. For example, a component of some of my questions may be to list certain information (e.g., "List the three components of working memory.") If I do not ask for a description or explanation, then don't give one. Students who pay attention to the clues in the test questions themselves can answer some with much less effort and use that time to focus on other questions that require more detail and elaboration.

The More Points a Question is Worth, the More Detailed Your Answer Should Be. This is a general guideline that works most of the time on my tests. I try to indicate specifically what I am looking for when I write a question. However, sometimes students have a hard time knowing how much detail to go into when answering a question. One useful cue is the number of points the question is worth. Of course, if you are still uncertain, you may raise your hand during a test and ask a question that might resolve the ambiguity.

"This is only a test. If it had been a real emergency..." No one test (or for that matter, no one class) is going to determine if you are a success in life. Sometimes students loose perspective and get overly anxious before a test. Too much anxiety, however, can hurt your ability to concentrate and perform up to the level of your cognitive potential.

When the time has come and you are in the classroom about to take "the test" the ONLY THING you can do now to help your grade is to relax and do the best job you can do under the circumstances. This is no time for kicking yourself for not studying more; this is no time to be worrying about how you are going to do; this is no time to imagine how awful life will be if you don't do well. Focus your attention on purging these disruptive thoughts, ignoring the commotion around you, and relaxing your mind and body. Close your eyes... take some slow, deep breaths... take note of where your body feels tense and concentrate on relaxing those muscles.