The exam period is usually the most serious time in the student community; you see many students doing their best to read and catch up on everything that has been taught for the term/semester or academic year, so they could pass.
But some students are indifferent or are probably not doing enough work to help them score good grades. And most of these students belong to the category of students who will likely fail their next exam because they end up not being well prepared to face exams.
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What type of student are you? Let's find out how you prepare for your exams and which category of students you belong to from the list below.
Types of students that will likely fail their next exam
- The procrastinator
- The "I don't care" gang
- The overconfident
- The exam gamblers
- The Cram and Pour
- Slow learners
- The ghost students
1. The Procrastinators
These types of students are always busy doing nothing. They believe there is still time and would rather spend it scrolling through stories and feeds on social media. They get tired at the sight of schoolwork and would prefer to do anything else than read their books. Their favourite anthem is “I will read it later”, when they do, they either get distracted or read very little.
Some of the students in this category are naturally intelligent, so they pride in their ability to grab so much in a short period but in the end they try to read everything at the last minute. Sadly, they run out of time and eventually fail their exams or score very low because they couldn’t revise well.
2. The ‘I Don’t Care” Gang
This group of students are in school just to bear the ‘student’ tag. They can readily prepare for exams without any academic preparations. Weird, right? They don’t just care about schoolwork. Schoolwork is stressful for them and they didn’t come to school to kill themselves.
They skip class whenever they feel like; and can decide to attend a party the night before an exam, even when they have read nothing. Most times, they put all their trust in different forms of exam malpractice.
Their popular slogan; “School is sweet, but na exam spoil am.” And they can only do their best by writing whatever they know and leaving the rest for God.
Ironically, heaven helps those who help themselves. So they mostly end up failing their exams or escaping narrowly. You might think they will learn their lessons and change the next semester. Never. They only came to school for the fun of it. They don’t care about exams.
3. The Overconfident
These set of students believe they know it all and will pass any exam whether they prepare or not. They are just like procrastinators, just that they are super sure that they don’t need to read to pass their exams.
They comfortably flip through their books to scan the notes and reassure themselves that they attended all the classes and can remember it all, even without revising. Unfortunately, they fail to refresh their memories with salient points that will boost their marks in the exams. So they end up scoring low or even failing their exams as the case may be.
4. The Exam Gamblers
These groups of students have more important things to do than to revise every area of their coursework. They place mental bets on the areas that might be set on their exam sheets and leave out the topics they feel will not come out.
They would show up, ready for the exams, after reading three topics out of ten and be so sure that they are on the right path. Sadly, they end up writing little or nothing because what they read might not show up on the exam question paper.
5. The Cram and Pour
These are another set of students who believe they can do all things at their own convenient time. They would prefer to mentally download textbooks than study and revise.
They memorise their textbooks and notes to give back to the teacher/lecturer; word for word. Ever heard of “la cram, la pour?” The amazing thing about these students is that they are usually quiet after cramming and wouldn’t want to be disturbed as any form of disturbance will disrupt their concentration and make them forget their lines.
Unfortunately, that is always the case; they tend to get choked up or freak out, and forget most of their lines; if peradventure, the exam question comes in a different diction from the one they found in the notes to the textbook they crammed.
6. Slow Learners
The students in this category are nothing like the students in the previous categories because they do everything right but end up failing most of their exams because of their slow learning ability.
These students attend classes, burn the midnight candles and strive hard to read and prepare for their exams. But are less fortunate with remembering things they have read and in some cases, write at a very slow pace.
Students like these need extra help and motivation because they work hard to pass, but sadly, they have low confidence in their abilities. And the truth is, they may not write well enough to earn good grades.
7. The Ghost Students
There are students who you hardly meet in class but they show up for class tests and exams. Sometimes, it's so bad that you may never have met them in class nor did they attend class tests.
These students only come to school for examinations and most times, without being fully prepared.
They rely on borrowing handouts and notes a few days before the next exam to revise and catch up on the coursework; which they rarely do. Most students in this category may have failed that class or course, but are too ashamed or feel too big to join the lectures.
This results in scoring low grades or failing their exams, again.
How to avoid failing your next exam
It is believed that students have to write exams to gain admission into most schools, and no sane student goes to school with the hope of failing.
And studies show that most students fail as a result of not preparing well and partly of having little or no confidence in themselves.
That said, here are a few tips that can help you improve your reading habits and help you score excellent grades in your next exams.
Some tips to avoid failing your next exam
- Attend classes regularly. Most teachers set questions from examples they cited in class which may not be present in the notes and textbooks.
- Ask questions in areas that seem vague for further clarification.
- Read after every class. It reduces the bulk of work before your next exams.
- Note the hard areas while you read and ask questions or conduct more research to make it clearer. Takedown salient points as you read. It helps for easy remembrance.
- Join class group discussions or reading classes if you have problems with concentration when reading alone.
- Make sure to cover your coursework weeks or days before each exam. Then read again a day/night before to memorise points.
- Compare your notes, textbooks and handouts while you read. Research for more points, it always boosts your grades.
- Get to the exam venue in time; it gives you the luxury of settling down early and for last-minute revisions.
- When writing; focus on your areas of strength first, and attempt the hard questions and compulsory questions. Then cross-checks your answers and make sure to understand each question before answering. Ask for clarification if need be.
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Conclusion
I'm hopeful that you don't belong to any of the student categories above and that you're working hard to not fail your next exams.
What are your thoughts on the categories listed above? Is there a category you think we missed? Feel free to share in the comment section.
And don't forget to share, you could be saving a soul with this.
