EXAM SUCCESS: THE WAY TO GO
IT BEGINS WITH YOU
The decision to pass is the first and major task to execute. It begins with you. You must be ready to excel if you must excel. The truth is that a lot of students are not ready to pay the price of exam success.
SERIOUSNESS IN SCHOOL AND AT HOME
“No tangible achievement can be made with an unserious mindset.”
You need to change your mindset to that of a student that is ready to excel, you need to become serious with your studies in school. To do this, you will find the following steps helpful:
Attentiveness and note-taking habits.
You need to get good note books. Most serious people take down notes when classes are ongoing, and they keep good notes too. Get and keep good notebooks if you are really serious about doing real business, academically.
You also have to be attentive in classes. Get virtually everything the teacher communicates to you during the lecture. Jot down important points. As much as possible, ensure you don’t miss classes.
Change friends if need be.
You may need to change frineds. Initially, they will think you will soon “backslide” and then come back to them. However, if you stick to your guns, they will move away. It is either you limit your association with them or you disassociate from them totally. Some of them are around you to kill your seriousness while some are around to encourage you.
Gather the needed Academic Resources/ Materials.
Your school notes are not enough. You need to get the relevant textbooks for your studies. Textbooks provide more information and illustrations. Teachers/lecturers are not magicians. They prepare the notes they give you in the class using textbooks too. So dear, you also need to go to the source of what they churn out to you in class - textbooks!
Develop a strong personal study habit
You need to come to the realization that your primary job as a student is to study - adding to knowledge daily. The textbooks you bought are not for decoration. You need to build a serious study life; you need to study hard.
STUDY PATTERN
Your study pattern has to be well planned. How do you do this?
Read ahead
Start reading even before the lecture starts. While reading ahead, some details may not be clear to you. That is why you don’t have to miss classes. Those unclear concepts will be made simplified and clarified by the teacher. Ask questions.
Read as you are taught
Don’t pile up your notes. Study them as you are taught in the class. The rush of reading a topic for the first time when examination is already close would be avoided if you study ahead.
c) Have a structured reading pattern
Have a definite but flexible pattern on reading. Develop a style that will be suitable for you depending on your environment. Just ensure you spend quality time reading daily and consistently.
Read extensively
Studying only your textbooks is not sufficient to build you into a complete student. A student learns anything beneficial that would add to his knowledge bank and make him better. You can never learn too much.
Attending coaching centres
This is recommended. You should go to a coaching centre for serious academic work and not Special Preparatory Centres where they teach and prepare students for examination malpractice.
There are some useful tips on how to get the best from coaching centres.
a) Enrol early
Register for the coaching on time. Start the preparation early.
Take the coaching as a school
Take your coaching centre as serious as you take your school. So, whatever you are taught at the coaching centres should be taken as seriously as those you’ve been taught in school.
b) Stop!
Self-work is advised too. Since the early bird catches the worm and having enrolled early for the coaching, it is expected that you should have covered nearly all the topics in your subjects. Stop to read.
LEAVE NO STONE UNTOUCHED
In the course of your extensive and intensive reading/preparation for your exam, you will come across some topics or even subjects that appear difficult to understand. They only appear difficult but in the actual sense, they are not. If you dodge them, be sure you will probably meet them again at the higher level – maybe in the University. So, face them now.
PLAY AND PRAY
Play is an important part of the learning process. Play will liberate your mind, as well as lighten you up. Find time to play too. It will relieve you of stress. The secret is that you should play hard but work harder. This does not mean you spend four hours on a play and six hours on work. Balance your equation well.
Then, ensure you pray always too about your academics. This is very important since whatever God has a hand in does not fail. Prayers should not be said at your own convenience. Keep praying and praying before, during and after your exams for wisdom and understanding. Pray as though you’ve not studied, and study as though you’ve not prayed at all!
In summary, make your study – STUDY. That is, make it:
Serious: Study with all seriousness.
Timely: Study at the right time and place.
Unending: Study in an unending manner, relentlessly.
Desirous: Study with a willing and enthusiastic disposition; ready to learn.
Yielding: Study; yield yourself to what you learn.

This is okay.

All these will be useless if one doesn't do the needful

Life is all about cause and effect