Study Tip #01

How To Study For Exams

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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