Why Do We Actually Do Practice Exams?

Now, you've read the title and probably thought "well we do practice exams to gain confidence, get used to the style of the exam, see how well we're doing with the mark we got." All of those answers are right but there's something missing.

Learning is an iterative process, which means we have to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes in order to improve. We don't just do exams to see our percentage, we do them to diagnose what we are weak at.

The Exam-Revision Loop Strategy

Here is the strategy: the exam-revision loop.

1. Do an exam or a few exams

2. Mark those exams and spot what topics you're getting wrong consistently

3. Revise those weak topics before doing the next batch of exams

4. Repeat (loop)

Why Does This Loop Work?

You have to identify your mistakes and learn from them. That's how you improve—that's a big part of what learning is.

If you just flick through your textbook at each section and think "yeah good with this topic, yep good with that topic too, oh I feel like I'm pretty weak with this one..." that isn't an effective way of identifying what you're weak at. Have you ever had an exam where you thought it was super easy and straightforward and you got a mark way lower than what you were expecting? That's because we are not innately effective at identifying our weak areas—we have to test ourselves. When you do practice exams and mark them, you know what you're actually weak at. The numbers don't lie.

Spotting Mistakes Isn't Enough—you Need Action

It's not just a matter of spotting your mistakes but actually doing something about it. When you make mistakes, you have to learn from them. It might be revisiting the questions you've gotten wrong or revising your weak topics. Either way, you need to do something to strengthen your weaknesses because that is where the most room for growth lies. If you're getting a 90% in math and a 60% in biology, which subject should you focus on more to maximise your ATAR? Biology. 60 to 100 (40 marks) is a greater potential increase than 90 to 100 (10 marks).

Sometimes we want to avoid what we're bad at because it makes us feel uncomfortable and other times we want to focus on the easy stuff because we're good at it. We have to listen not to our thoughts but the exam-revision loop system. The numbers don't lie. If you're getting minimal marks for a topic, that's what you're weak at—otherwise, you'd be getting the marks.

In Conclusion

To recap, do an exam, mark it, spot your weak areas, revise those weak areas, repeat. This is one of the basic techniques we cover in Student Evolution.

Student Evolution is about meta-learning: learning how to learn, to work towards becoming a strong independent learner for school, uni, and your career.