How to Practice Effectively

So now that we’ve had a look at how to succeed in the exam itself let’s talk about the best way to approach the exam beforehand. When you’re practicing. So this lecture will focus on how you can practice effectively and make the most of your time before the exam. So what we’re going to look at is a list of don’ts and do’s and we’re going to start with the don’ts the do nots so do not study with distractions do try to avoid accessing social media or opening any Internet browsers because these will only slow you down. They also they won’t allow you to simulate exam conditions very well and they can pose a huge challenge to the amount of focused work that you get done. Don’t be too self-critical. This is actually really important this one. Don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Making mistakes is how we learn and just try to keep those mistakes in mind the next time you approach a task and see if you can learn from your mistake. But don’t be too self-critical Otherwise you will approach your self-study practice in a negative mindset and you should never you should never approach your study from a negative mindset. Never give up. It’s the same thing you know if you are approaching things negatively you may be more likely to want to give up. So remember that you are choosing to do either of your choosing to take the eyeless exam you are choosing to practice it so your choice and don’t choose to give up because you are probably much closer to success than you think you are. If possible do not only study alone. We’ll talk about this in a bit more detail in a moment. But if you only study alone it can be quite draining for your motivation with your study and a team you can be a little bit more motivated. Don’t forget about timing. I often talk about the importance of practicing with a clock but also without a clock. But don’t forget about timing. Together it’s a crucial part of the exam. Writing these 150 words in 20 minutes is quite challenging. So do keep that in mind as you go through your practice Don’t ignore your health or sleep very important that you continue to take care of yourself. And this is the same idea. Don’t overwork yourself Ailes is just one part of your life at the moment. And it’s great that you that you want to get a really great school but you can actually sabotage and jeopardize your efforts if you work too hard and you neglect your health. Sleep friendships relationships and so forth. So this idea about distractions then. Great example of this here. Very tempting to just wind your way through things on the Internet. So if possible do try to close your Internet browser down or even look at this here. Shut down your distractions with particular programs is a really great program called Freedom which you can find online and this completely blocks your internet access with your permission for a set period of time and you cannot get back onto the Internet in that time. If you’re anything like me you have perhaps a bit less willpower than you think you do. So this can be very useful in this regard. So what else should we do. We should practice in different ways. As I mentioned a moment ago you should practice with a clock you should practice without a clock. You should practice with a dictionary to practice without a dictionary you should practice doing task one first task to second and tossed to first and task one second and you should practice alone and practice with a friend is a good example of that right there. Do try to reward yourself when you’ve had a really good session. Give yourself a break. Maybe take a nice hot bath will give your self a moment to read all of your favorite snacks so whatever the case is it’s important that you are giving yourself the motivation to study with intensity and with concentration. Do make sure to take breaks. Of course you don’t get a break in the exam but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be taking breaks as you study. It’s quite good to give your mind the opportunity to consolidate what it’s learned so give it the opportunity to give it the space to recover and to allow the ideas to settle in your mind. To make sure to read watch and listen. We’re going to talk about this a little bit more detail in a later lecture. But the idea here is that you should just be reading as much as possible preferably things related to task one like analyses of charts or looking at process paragraphs. Things like this. You might want to watch so in programs that look at how things get made. Or you might want to listen to radio programs on finance and financial happenings in the world because that will often talk about things going up and things going down. Very useful for graph language. Finally think about getting guidance. Again this is an idea of not just studying alone sitting alone is good but it’s not the best way to study. It’s important to have somebody else to point out where you might be going wrong to point out your blind spots things that you’re not recognizing that you’re doing wrong and there are lots of different ways to get guidance. But all of them will help us to focus on what needs to be done to succeed in the iOS exam. And this idea of getting guidance is what we’re going to focus on in the next lecture.