exam revision tips

1
exam revision tips

• London Isoc Team

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Before the exam
3
Examination tips

• Dua

• We cannot adequately express the importance of
  making dua before, during and after exams. If you
  ask Allaah (swt) to help you, then inshaAllaah,
  He will. Its really as simple as that!
• General Supplication
• Make dua wherever you are. Whether you are in the
  Library, in the car, walking, running, be
  constantly asking for Allaahs (swt) Help and
  Assistance (it goes without saying that you must
  not invoke Allaah in the bathroom!)
• Prayer
• An excellent time to make dua, is at the time
  between the athaan and the iqamah, when a person
  is in sujood and immediately before completing
  the prayer (making salaam). The Prophet (saws)
  said
• A dua between athaan and the iqamah is not
  refused, so supplicate during that time
• The slave is closest to his Lord while in
  sujood, so ask Allah in that time
• The Last Third of the Night
• Making dua to Allaah (swt) in the last third of
  the night is an extremely beneficial time. The
  Prophet (saws) said

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Examination tips

• Dua - Supplications

• ???? ???? ????
• My Lord, increase me in knowledge
• ????? ??? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?? ????, ?? ??? ?? ????,
  ?? ??? ?? ????,
• ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??
• O Our Lord, verily I seek refuge with you
  from knowledge which does not benefit, from a
  heart which does not fear, from a soul which does
  not praise and from supplications which are not
  answered
• ????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?
  ?? ?? ????, ? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?
  ?? ?? ????
• O Our Lord, verily I ask you from the good, all
  that I learnt from it and all that I did not
  learn, and I seek refuge with you from the evil,
  all that I learnt from it and all that I did not
  learn

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Examination tips

• Revision

• Revision for exams is often a very personal thing
  and it is very difficult for people to tell you
  how to revise as the majority of people find
  their own style and are comfortable with that.
  However, we will provide general tips for
  revision.
• Do not start revision for your exams with only a
  week to spare! Start preparation well in advance
  by which we mean two months or more. This does
  not mean that for two months you have to be in
  FULL revision mode but at least have started
  revising two months before the exams.
• It is always a good idea to set yourself a
  timetable for revision. This needs to be done
  sensibly with setting realistic targets and
  goals. You should collect all the material you
  need to study for your exams, assess how much
  time you have until the first exam and then
  divide the material up into the time
  REALISTICALLY. If you are unrealistic or
  over-ambitious with your estimation of how much
  you can do, this will end up being a pointless
  exercise.
• When revising, make sure that you are in an
  environment which is conducive to study. Do not
  study in a place where your PC is nearby or there
  is a Nintendo Wii being played or where there is
  lots of noise and disruption. Go to the Library
  if you have to. Desperate times call for
  desperate measures.
• (This isnt suitable for everyone) Study with a
  partner who is studying the same course! Some
  people often find that this strengthens their
  motivation and often if you cannot understand
  something, then the other person may be able to
  explain it. We would strongly advise not making
  the person who is the top of the class your
  partner. This can often have a negative effect as
  it makes a person despondent that they do not
  know as much as the other person.
• Keep something snacky nearby (although this is a
  sure fire way to put on a few pounds), it is
  always good to supply the body with energy when
  the brain is working in overtime.
• Make sure that you have a list of contact
  details or at least know a way that you can
  contact your teachers or lecturers in case you do
  not understand something! They will be willing to
  help you 99 of the time.

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Examination tips

• Revision

• Some people start re-writing their notes into a
  manageable form for exams. This is a good thing
  to do, but ONLY do it if you are months before
  your exam! This is a very unproductive activity
  if you have only one week to go before your exam.
  (If you do make notes, make sure that you keep
  them so that future students can benefit from
  the. Send them to London Isoc and we will put it
  up on our website as a resource!).
• Obtain notes, past-papers, hints and tips from
  wherever you can. People in the above years are
  always good sources of reference. The London Isoc
  website has a forum where you can post your
  questions about your studies so that other people
  can help. There are lots of websites out there
  which you can also post to and they will be able
  to help with your questions.
• Constantly answer past-paper questions. They
  will help to focus you into the mindset of the
  examiners and to understand the style of question
  which will be used in the exams. You never know,
  some of the questions which you answer in the
  past-papers might even come up in the exam! Try
  to answer the questions according to time-limits.
• Take regular breaks whilst you are revising. It
  has been shown that people who study continuously
  without taking breaks retain less information
  than people who do. This is not an excuse to stop
  studying for half the day, but just take 15-20
  minutes break and unwind. The way we advise to
  take breaks are around the times of the Prayers
  (which will also give you the opportunity to make
  lots of dua) and around the mealtimes. If you
  find you stick to those, then you should get
  enough breaks in the day.
• While you are revising, you may come across
  terms that you do not understand. It is always a
  good idea to either look the term up there or
  then, or if it can wait, start a glossary book at
  the beginning of your revision in which you can
  write down words which you can look up at the end
  of the day.
• Depending on which subject you are studying,
  there are going to be set lists of things that
  you will have to learn. Some people find it
  useful to plaster their bedroom walls with lists,
  so that they can take out 15 minutes from their
  revision session to look at the walls and learn
  the lists there. Again, some people find this
  activity extremely beneficial, some people do
  not.
• Whilst you are studying, unless you know that
  you are going to have absolute control over
  yourself, switch your mobile phone off. The last
  thing that you need while you are studying, are
  your mates calling you up and wasting your time.

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Examination tips

• Pre-Examination Preparation

• Okay, so what are you going to have to do to
  prepare for the exam itself
• You should know all the dates and times for your
  exams. There have been too many occasions where
  students have got the date or the time or both
  WRONG! This will of course mean that you
  potentially fail. Academic institutions can be
  extremely unforgiving for this type of mistake.
  Make sure you write down these dates and times on
  a wall-planner, in your diary, on your PC.
  Somewhere so that you remember when your exams
  are.
• Make sure that you know the venues for your
  exams. If your exams are taking place somewhere
  where you have not been before, then going for
  the first time on the day of the examination will
  be extremely foolish. What you need to do, is to
  visit the venue before hand so that you know
  where you are going. You should also go at the
  same time that your exam will be at so that you
  can gauge the traffic and how long things take
  and even after that, give yourself a 30 mins
  buffer. You should also have a contingency plan
  in mind. For instance, if the tube is shut, what
  bus(es) could you take to get to the venue? Have
  you left enough time for yourself should you need
  to get there by bus!
• You should have been sent your examination
  number, candidate identifier before your exams.
  You will often need these numbers to sit your
  exams! If you havent received them at least two
  weeks before your exams, contact the Registry at
  your university or the school office and ask them
  what your number is or how you can obtain it.
  After all, you will need to know where to sit in
  the exam.
• You may need certain materials for the exam
  itself. Again, do not leave this to the last
  minute! Make sure that you visit a stationary
  shop well in advance of your exams and make up a
  set which you will take into the exam with you.
  Try to leave those materials for the exams and
  try not to use them before as you will find that
  you have lost or broken them even before the
  exams have started.
• Make sure that you have a record of the phone
  number or any type of contact details for the
  school office or the registry. If by some
  unfortunate event you are running late to the
  exam or there has been a problem at home, you
  must let the registry know about it as soon as
  possible. They may be able to help organise a way
  for you to sit your exam in another room.

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Examination tips

• Pre-Examination Night Preparation

• Ensure that you have packed any stationary you
  may need. You may also need a candidate
  identifier or entry card for the exam. Make sure
  you put that in a place where you will be able to
  find it (and equally, somewhere it will not fall
  out and you will lose it). You may also want to
  take notes with you that you can read in the
  morning which will help refresh your memory just
  before you walk into the exam. Many people say
  that there is no such thing as last minute
  revision this is wholly untrue. If you are
  going to take notes with you, you will have to
  throw them away before taking them into the
  examination or leave them in a bag somewhere far
  away from the examination hall. Certainly do not
  take Textbooks with you, unless the exam is an
  open book exam, otherwise you will look very
  foolish.
• Prepare the clothes that you are going to wear
  for the next day. The last thing that you want,
  is when you wake up, not being able to decide
  what to wear, the iron not working, theres a
  hole in your favourite shirt and other such
  undesirable surprises. The examination you are
  going to attend is NOT a fashion show! You should
  wear clothes that you can sit comfortably in for
  up to 3 hours at a stretch. Please bear the
  weather in mind. If it is cold, do not wear thin
  t-shirts, nor if it is hot wear a sweat-shirt.
  With regards to your footwear, if you are not
  obliged to wear smart black shoes, make sure you
  wear your most comfortable trainers (some people
  will take their shoes off during the exam, but
  you may receive evil stares from the people
  sitting around you).
• Please re-check the date and time of the
  examination. It may be that you have mixed up the
  times of different examinations and this does
  happen more often that youd expect. Make sure
  you know what time your exam(s) is/are and where
  they are.
• Make sure you get a good nights sleep! Do not
  spend all night studying as the chances are that
  you will not be able to retain anything by the
  following day because you will be so tired. You
  will do much better when you are able to think
  clearly rather than sitting behind your desk like
  a zombie who has no energy left because they were
  trying to remember all of the elements of the
  Periodic Table!
• Set alarms for the morning. There are some
  people in this world who will wake up at the
  first buzz of a bell. There are others who will
  wake up, switch their alarm off and go to sleep.
  We are not generally worried about the first type
  of person, but for the second, we would advise
  that they set another alarm a further distance
  away which they will have to get up to switch
  off. Perhaps leaving a note by the second alarm
  to remind you about the exam would also be a good
  idea.
• It may be useful to produce a checklist of items
  that you will need for the morning so that you do
  not forget anything important.

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Examination tips

• Pre-Examination Morning Preparation

• Ok, so its the morning of the exam...what are
  you going to do?...
• Always advisable to take a shower. This will
  refresh you and it will positively impact upon
  your performance ( we sincerely hope that you
  take a shower every day). Have you noticed, that
  when you are clean and groomed, you feel
  empowered and ready for the day and when you get
  up and walk around without having washed and
  groomed yourself you feel like you just want to
  sleep? The same principle applies.
• Again, check that you have all of the stationary
  that you will need for the exam. Make sure that
  you also take a spare set of batteries for your
  calculator in case it blanks out on you in the
  middle of the exam.
• Check that you have all the necessary
  documentation which you will need for the exam,
  such as your candidate identifier, or your
  university card, etc...
• Make sure that you are wearing a watch for the
  exam. It doesnt matter how fancy it is or
  whether it is your or not, all it has to do is
  tell the time! You will save precious moments by
  looking down at your wrist rather than up at the
  wall. The other problem with looking up, is that
  your gaze inevitably wanders to the other
  students taking the exam and you will waste your
  time doing that. Focus!
• If it is possible, leave your mobile phone at
  home. There are strict penalties for mobile
  phones going off in the exam. Do not risk it by
  taking a phone in. Even if you have to, make sure
  you leave it in your locker for the duration of
  the exam. Also, avoid taking anything that makes
  sounds into the exam.
• With regards to food and eating. This is really
  about how a person feels in the morning. General
  advice is to avoid fluids which have the
  potential to be vomited easier than solids. Our
  advice would be to eat a bar of chocolate before
  going into the exam (unless you are diabetic!) as
  the sugar will give you the energy to think.
  Eating and drinking too heavily in the morning
  might make you feel sick or sleepy, both of which
  you would like to avoid.
• Tick off the items on your checklist which you
  prepared the night before. In this way, you can
  be sure that once you have left the front door,
  you have not forgotten anything.

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Examination tips

• Pre-Examination Entrance Actions

• Ensure you arrive at the examination hall at
  least 30 mins before the start of the
  examination. This will give you ample time to
  focus on the task ahead and to use the bathroom
  if you need to.
• Go to the examination hall and check your place
  on the seating plan. There will be a list of the
  candidates there with the numbers arranged with
  the seating plan. Make sure that you know where
  you are sitting and orientate yourself with the
  plan. The worst thing is to walk into the exam
  room, sit down, only to find out 1 minute before
  the exam starts that you are in the wrong place.
  It has happened before!
• Use the toilet. You do not have the time to
  suddenly get up in the middle of the exam and ask
  to go to the toilet. Whether you realise it or
  not, it is also extremely distracting for the
  other students, so please go before-hand.
• Avoid speaking to other people, just make dua.
  This is the time when you should be supplicating
  to Allaah, asking His Help for what you are about
  to face. If you speak to other people, their fear
  will negatively impact upon you. Just keep making
  dua that Allaah (swt) clears your mind and makes
  the exam easy for you.
• Ensure that you have no notes or scrap pieces of
  paper on your person before entering the hall.
  This can inadvertently happen. If you are caught
  with papers on your person, you will be
  disqualified from that examination and
  potentially further examinations after that. Bin
  ALL papers on your person before you enter the
  examination hall.
• If you have a programmable calculator, it is
  always a good idea to reset it before you go into
  the exam. Anything that you have written there
  could easily be mis-interpreted as cheating which
  will again cause you to be disqualified from the
  exam, even if you are actually innocent of any
  crime.

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THE exam
12
Examination tips

• Before Starting the Paper

• Try to find the place where you need to sit as
  quickly as possible. This will give you the
  maximum amount of time to digest what material is
  in front of you on the table and will also allow
  you to set out your stationary and any other
  materials that you might need. Also make sure
  that you do not talk! This could again cause you
  to be disqualified from the examination.
• Make sure you have the correct exam paper in
  front of you. The hall may easily have been
  partitioned for people taking different
  examinations. They may have put the wrong exam
  paper in front of you. If this is the case, raise
  your hand, call an invigilator and ask them to
  replace the paper.
• Check to see if your desk wobbles. This can be
  extremely frustrating during the examination as
  you will inevitably place your body weight on one
  side of the table when you are leaning to write
  and all you will hear, is the sound of the table
  hitting the floor. It is very easy to fix the
  problem. Fold pieces of paper and place them
  under the side which is in the air.
• Lay out your stationary that you wish to use. It
  is important to do this effectively as you will
  probably have a lot of papers on your desk and if
  your stationary is not appropriately set so that
  you can get instant hold of it, you will spend
  half of your exam time hunting for the rubber
  that you think youve lost but its under the MCQ
  sheet!
• Put your ID on the table. In most institutions,
  invigilators are obliged to come round and take
  an attendance register and check it with your
  identity. You do not want an examiner to tap you
  on the shoulder in the middle of the exam when
  you are in full flow and ask you to produce you
• Synchronise your watch with hall clock. What you
  do not want to find out three quarters of the way
  through the exam, is that your watch is 10
  minutes slow and the invigilator says 10 minutes
  left and there you are thinking you had 20
  minutes left.
• A general rule when you are sitting in an
  examination is that you should not touch anything
  until you are told to do so. Do not even write
  anything until you are told to do so. You will
  inevitably get those typical invigilators who
  will start screaming in your face about who said
  you could open a booklet or write anything. Just
  avoid the temptation to do anything. Sit there
  and make lots and lots of dua. Remember, sitting
  there not thinking about anything wont help your
  situation, making dua will inshaAllaah.

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Examination tips

• Starting the Paper

• Before you even open your exam paper, as with
  everything else a Muslim does, start with
  Bismillaah.
• Read through the whole paper without answering
  any questions first. The logic behind this is, is
  that you will quickly be able to identify those
  areas that you are extremely confident with all
  the way to those areas that look very strange, as
  if you had never studied them before. Dealing
  with the questions you know positively impacts
  upon a person and gives them the confidence to
  answer harder questions, which if they had
  started with them, would have probably given them
  a mental block. The other advantage is that you
  will maximise the time that you have in the exam.
• Identify a plan of attack, you dont have to
  start at the beginning. As we have mentioned
  above, it is always beneficial to have a strategy
  of some description. This will enable you to make
  the most of your time and allow you to obtain the
  maximum marks possible.
• Within your strategy, identify where the
  greatest cluster of marks are, so for instance,
  once you have identified which are the easiest
  questions, make sure that you answer the ones
  with the most marks first which will help you to
  obtain the maximum amount of marks possible.
  Remember, it is very easy to get caught up with
  the little questions which carry the least marks,
  but which you are able to write paragraphs for,
  compared to the big questions which carry the
  most marks which you run out of time with.
• Psyche yourself up to concentrate on the exam.
  Positive mental attitude is essential in any
  examination. If you believe that you are going
  to do well, then you will do much better than if
  you believed you were going to do poorly. Build
  up that mental wall of strength by supplicating
  to Allaah (swt) and believing in the fact that He
  (swt) will help and guide you in your exam.
• D O NOT PANIC! This is a lot easier said than
  done, but it is really very sound advice. Once
  you panic, it will cause you to become careless
  and reckless and you will not pay attention to
  the details of the exam. You will feel
  overwhelmed by each and every little thing and
  you will begin to think the situation is
  hopeless. This is when you will start to look
  around, you will start playing with your clothes
  and your feet, you will keep looking at the clock
  willing the second hand to go slower. The
  important thing is to close your eyes, take a
  deep breath, make supplication and continue with
  the conviction of doing well and inshaAllaah you
  will.

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Examination tips

• Answering the Questions

• READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY! If theres one
  piece of vital advice that we could give to any
  student, it would be this advice. There have been
  countless times that students have either not
  answered the question which they were asked or
  have not answered the questions fully because
  they did not read it properly.
• Once you have read the question, relate it to
  the syllabus. This is a very skilful art which a
  person must master before they sit the
  examination. Once you see the question, you
  should immediately be able to compartmentalise it
  to a particular part of the syllabus. That should
  evoke some recollection of the text-book you
  used, the examples that you did and how they were
  done. Recognition of the style of question is
  key, because 90 of the time, you have seen that
  style of question, or one very similar to it many
  times before.
• If you cannot answer a question, MOVE ON! People
  manage to remain stuck on one question for up to
  10 minutes trying to remember what the answer is.
  If you cannot remember, then why are you wasting
  your time? Make use of the time by going to the
  next question which you can answer and then
  return back to the question you couldnt remember
  the answer to. Do NOT (metaphorically) shoot
  yourself in the foot by running out of time
  whilst there are easy marks on the paper which
  you could have availed.
• Mark correct boxes if answering MCQs. MCQs
  (Multiple Choice Questions) are dangerous as if
  you are not paying close attention, you may
  scribe the right answer for the wrong question.
  Once this happens, unless it is discovered
  quickly will mean that you have to erase all your
  previous answers and redo them again!
• Ensure that your writing is neat and legible.
  There is nothing more frustrating for the
  examiner than reading answers which are written
  in an illegible scrawl that eventually they just
  have to put a line through. It is even worse when
  the answer that you have written is correct! Be
  sensible. We are not saying that you have to
  write in the most pristine fashion possible, but
  your answers should be legible. If necessary,
  underline your final answer to draw the
  examiners attention to it.
• Avoid waffling, be clear and concise. Waffling
  helps you to fill up space but ends up irritating
  the examiner as they have to sift through all the
  waffle and look for the correct answer. This
  frustration can sometimes lead to a candidate
  obtaining no marks for question, whereas, if they
  had been more concise with their answers, they
  would have gained some marks.
• Remember to keep one beady eye on the time. You
  dont want to be caught out by the examiner
  shouting, 5 minutes left and you still have not
  finished half the paper!

15
Examination tips

• Answering the Questions

• Show all of your working out and thought
  processes, even if you dont get the answer. This
  will definitely get you more marks than simply
  writing down the answer. Occasionally, a person
  may answer a question exactly how it is supposed
  to be answered, but fall short at the final
  hurdle and give the wrong answer. If the examiner
  has seen that for the most part, you knew exactly
  what you were doing but made a small mistake at
  the end which gave the wrong answer, they may
  well still give you the majority of the marks for
  the question.
• Allow 5 minutes to check the paper. If it is
  possible, try to leave 5-10 minutes at the end of
  the paper, to look through your answers and
  scrutinise them. Whilst you are doing the paper,
  you will get a feeling for those questions that
  you were not 100 sure about, but you still
  answered them. There is no harm in making a
  mental or physical note of those questions and
  going back to them at the end of the paper to
  give them a little more time and attention.

16
Examination tips

• Ending the Exam

• Stop writing as soon as the examiner says so.
  Failure to do so could result in a penalty
  against you and if you are worried about how the
  paper went, that is the last thing that you will
  need!
• Ensure that all the correct details are
  completed on all sheets that you have worked on.
  It has happened on occasions, that candidates
  have not ensured that their own details including
  name and candidate identifier are on every sheet
  of paper which may in some cases and some
  schools, colleges, universities, count as you not
  having sat the exam and thus failing! Be extra
  careful when it comes to this.
• Maintain silence until all scripts are
  collected. Again, talking whilst students have
  still got examination papers in their hands could
  potentially be considered cheating! Do not do it.
  You have just managed to stay silent for 1.5
  hours or more. Another 5 minutes is not going to
  kill you.
• Try to help facilitate collection. If you want
  the exam to be over quickly, try to help the
  examiners to collect papers. We do not mean that
  you should stand up and start picking up papers
  by other students, but when the examiner comes
  round to your desk, make sure that you are
  holding the paper up, ready for them to take it
  from you. This will make them happy and help the
  whole process run more smoothly, efficiently and
  most importantly, quickly!
• Do not look around, just focus on your desk and
  make dua. Dua should be made at all times. Do not
  waste your time by looking around at you
  colleagues who will probably have looks of
  extreme despair or extreme happiness on their
  faces. If you have done badly then you will feel
  worse and if you have done well, you may begin to
  doubt yourself and start twisting your brain into
  knots about what you wrote and whether or not it
  made any sense. Just look forward, help with the
  collection and make dua.
• Make sure you collect ALL your belongings. Do
  not leave anything behind as you are most
  unlikely to get it back. Besides you will
  probably need your things for the next
  examination. Please be extra vigilant in making
  sure that you do not forget your ID cards or
  candidate identifier information.
• Dont remove anything from the hall that youre
  not supposed to. Students often have the idea,
  that we should take the examination paper so that
  we can show other people. This will inevitably
  lead you into trouble. It is STRONGLY advisable
  not to do this.

17
Examination tips

• After the Exam

• Refrain from discussing the exam with other
  people, especially the clever ones. This will
  cause you more headache and distress than you
  could possibly have imagined. To give you a real
  life example, one brother was walking back from
  his exam with other brothers and was discussing
  the exam. All of sudden, one of the other
  brothers said how did you find question 109. The
  brother stopped and said, question 109...? I
  thought there were only 90 questions! In actual
  fact, that brother had missed out 23 questions
  which made the rest of his time until his results
  came out an absolute nightmare! The good news is,
  he still passed Alhamdulillaah. Its stressful,
  dont do it!
• Do not run to the library or your notes to check
  your answers. That is almost exactly the same as
  discussing the exam afterwards. Checking the
  answers in your notes or in the library will not
  change what you have written in any way. You will
  only depress yourself by realising that you have
  made mistakes!
• If you have more exams, focus on those, forget
  the ones you have given and start revising. As we
  have outlined above, there is always a great
  temptation to remain stuck in the exams you have
  just done. Forget about them! Get on with
  revising for any exams that you are still going
  to have to sit, otherwise you will find that you
  have run out of time in the present whilst being
  stuck in the past.
• If you have no more exams, then by all means,
  feel free to PARTY!!!! (within the bounds of
  Quran and Sunnah of course).

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Examination tips
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