JAMB: 5 Easy Tips to Study Smart and Score High in the Upcoming Exams

With the increase in the number of students who sit for JAMB exams yearly, there comes the need to have an highly effective study guide, so as to score higher and have an edge over other students when the admission of aspirants into higher institutions eventually commences.

That being said, I’d like to state that no exam is too difficult to pass in flying colours, JAMB exams inclusive. By following the effecient tips I’ll be sharing in this write up and developing the best study plan for yourself, you can emerge as one of the best students in the upcoming UTME.

5 Easy Tips to Study Smart and Score High in the Upcoming Exams

Join whatsapp group Join Now

Join Telegram group Join Now

1) Don’t Study For Long Hours At a Stretch

Contrary to the belief of many students, studying for long hours without taking a break does more harm than good. Before going any further, I’d like to cite an example here.

Have you ever noticed that when a teacher starts teaching in class, his or her students are very focused at the beginning but as minutes roll into hours, they tend to become uninterested and lose focus? If the teacher eventually asks questions after the lecture, you’ll discover that the students will remember the beginning part of the class more than the middle and ending parts. Why does this happen?

This happens because the human brain is not wired to function that way. Instead of studying for long hours at a stretch, the smart way to approach studying is to study for short periods of time and take frequent breaks.

An effective method I like to use is known as the Pomodoro technique. It works like this; you study with full concentration for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. Then after the 4th round, you take a 25-minute break. Studying for short periods and frequently taking breaks will help you learn more while spending less time.

2) Don’t Try to Learn All of Your Materials In One Sitting

Another silly mistake students make is trying to learn all of their materials at a sitting. The human brain functions well when tasks are divided into small chunks rather than attempting to cover everything at once.

For instance, let’s assume that you want to study a chapter of your textbook with 25 pages. Instead of trying to learn everything in the chapter at once, a super effective way is to dedicate each study session to studying 5 pages, until your study session is over. It works pretty well because your brain needs time to absorb every little information you learn.

3) Study Multiple Subjects Per Day, Instead of Just One or Two

The consequence of studying one or two subjects and neglecting the others is that while you’re strengthening your skills in the two subjects, your strength in the other subjects begins to decline. Since you’ll be taking four subjects in your JAMB exams, try to study a bit of each subject per day, instead of channelling all your energy towards one or two subjects of all the subjects.

Besides, when you study too much of a subject per day, you may easily get fatigued and confuse a piece of information with another. Come to think of it, a History student trying to memorise the dates of specific events may confuse the dates together if he or she doesn’t shift to another subject and allow the brain to absorb the newly learned information.

4) Learn Information In A Variety Of Ways

In order to get a better understanding of a concept, the best thing to do is to learn the concept using different methods. Let’s say you’re a Physics student trying to learn and understand the application of Faraday’s laws.

After learning it in class, you may refer to your textbooks for additional information and watch YouTube videos about it. This works well because each of the platforms you use for learning will add extra piece of information which may be missing in others.

5) Space Your Learning Instead of Cramming

We’ve all done this at least once as a student; staying up all night to cram for a test or an examination. But what happened when we eventually sat for the test or exam? Even though we could recall some of the information we memorised, most of it were gone before we even sat for the exam.

A much better technique which enables you to effortlessly remember what you learn is called Spaced Repetition. When you learn something for the first time, your brain absorbs it and it’s stored in your short-term memory. After a few hours, you’ll gradually begin to forget the information if you don’t use it.

A typical example of how spaced repetition works is this:

* Actively learn the material and don’t attempt to recall it again for the next 12 hours.

* Try recalling the information after 12 hours. If you forget some bits of info, you’re allowed to glance through your notes or whatever material you used to study.

* Leave the material and don’t try recalling the information again until after 24 hours.

* Review if again after 3 days.

* Review the information again after 7 days.

* Review again after 2 weeks, and so on.

The aim of spacing your time of recalling the information is to store it in your long-term memory and aid easy recall of what you learned.

To get high scores in the upcoming JAMB exams, you need to be thorough with your preparations and the tips above can help you achieve that. I do hope that with the few tips given above, you will have more productive study sessions and score very high in your upcoming UTME.

Share this write up if you like it and don’t forget, your comments are highly welcomed.