How I Aced My First Year Of University

 

 

Part 1 - The Jump From Highschool to University

When it comes to the transition from high school to university, an oft-quoted line is that “student averages tend to drop about 10-15%”. Looking at the basic numbers, this initially seems to be a pretty fair statement. For example, at York University, you need at least a mid to high 70s average to receive admission to one of its science programs, such as Biology (e.g. 77+ or so).

Considering several factors, such as the fact that fewer students probably got a 90+ average than the number of students who achieved a 77-89 average, it is probably safe to assume that if we computed the average of the final high school grades for a first year York science class, the number would be around 85. And I would imagine that most first year university science classes are made of students with similar high school marks.

Looking at the first year university science courses I have taken so far, the class averages have generally been around the ~65 mark, so it seems that on average, student marks do drop about 15%, and possibly more in some cases.

However, keep in mind this doesn’t mean that all students tend to drop 10-15% in their course marks; it just means that on average, students seem to achieve lower marks than they did in high school. Initially this seems to make sense: if a university class still needs to maintain a class average of 65, then obviously an entering class with high school averages of 85 should see a drop. As a matter of fact, however, the issue is much deeper and complex than this.

Consider the fact that there are actually some students who do better in university science than in high school. There are also some students, unfortunately, who do worse. And there are students who do about the same.

Moreover, there isn’t an obvious correlation between high school marks and university marks. For example, I know a student with a 95 high school average who now maintains a mid-80’s average in university, and can’t seem to break the 90 barrier. On the other hand, I know another student with a 95 high school average who completed first year university science with an even higher average. Myself, I had about a 94 final high school average and my first year university average was somewhere close to that.

NOTE: Universities generally use a GPA system which does not involve the averaging of numerical grades – rather, each numerical grade for a course is first converted to a value on the GPA scale, and these GPA values are then averaged. I’m just trying to make a point with my previous few statements.

Clearly, at least for science programs, the transition between years within high school (where students maintain the same type of marks) is very different from the transition from high school to university.

 

The Simple Reason: Marks, Difficulty, and General Academic Program Delivery Vary from School to School

 

Of course, we can try and explain this through the simple and obvious reason that no two schools are alike in their difficulty and education style, and so it should not come as a surprise that high school marks vary widely across Canada. As I have mentioned in a previous article, I am sure that my final high school marks would vary quite widely depending on which high school I attended.

This is partly the reason why some students’ marks tend to change when they enter university. At a university, the programs are composed of students coming from a variety of high school backgrounds, and therefore, a variety of educational experiences. Your high school marks become sort of irrelevant in university since you are no longer being evaluated in the same way you were before. The skills that you relied on to obtain a high average in high school may or may not be what works for achieving a high average in university. As a result, you will often see a pair of students with identical high school marks achieving very different marks in university.

Particularly for the science stream, I believe there is a clear difference between the skill set required to succeed at university compared to the skills needed to excel at high school. The bigger problem, however, is that in my opinion, these skills are actually never really taught.

 

High School: Memorizing Problem Types

 

While there are probably some high school science programs that are exceptions, for the most part, high school science can be mastered with a strong work ethic. All that you’re taught in high school are specific facts and problem types

Facts are exactly what they sound like; a bunch of statements you are supposed to know and memorize. For example, high school biology is full of facts you are expected to store in your head, such as “herbivores are organisms which mainly consume autotrophs” and other things like that.

But what are problem types? Problem types are simply specific types of questions or problems you are taught to solve. For example, finding the derivation of the function y = x2 in mathematics is a problem type. In physics, being able to find the net force acting on an object given its mass and acceleration is also a problem type.

Throughout high school science courses (primarily chemistry and physics), you are taught to memorize how to do specific problem types. Almost every problem you see on a test or exam is a problem type you’ve covered in class or the textbook. The numbers used in the questions might be different, but the problem type is usually almost exactly like something you have covered before. As long as you have memorized how to do these problem types, you should be able to ace your tests and exams.

The problem with focusing on memorizing problem types is that you do not have to understand how they work to use them effectively and properly. On your high school calculus test, you not need to understand what a derivative is or even means to correctly apply the power rule to a function. On your chemistry exam, you do not even need to know what an ideal gas is to plug numbers into the Ideal Gas Law and solve for a multitude of variables. And even if you are asked what an ideal gas is, all you need to do is memorize its definition from the glossary and write that down, regardless if you actually understand what it means.

The reason that some students ace high school science while other students struggle isn’t necessarily because the top students understand science better in the first place (whether they do or not isn’t that significant a factor). The only thing we know for sure is that the students doing well are better at or have devoted more time to memorizing problem types and facts, and are skillful at recalling them on tests and exams. There are of course the occasional exceptions on some tests or even some entire school science programs, but I believe this is generally true for most high schools. (both how to identify them and solve them). Essentially, all you need to do is memorize all the possible problem types, correctly identify those problem types on the tests/exams, and then regurgitate the answer to them. Any other types of questions you’re asked to solve simply require regurgitation of facts you needed to memorize.

 

Why am I concerned with this?

There are both short-term and long-term problems with an education focused on memorizing facts and problem types. The short-term problem is that while memorizing facts and problem types is still necessary for university science, they are not the only or defining skills required – this explains the “jump” from high school to university science. High school students simply are not completely prepared to handle all of the types of test questions in university science.

The long-term problem is that the skill of memorization is what’s being emphasized, and in my opinion, memorization is one of the least important skills in the long run. The difficult problems we face in our world today and in the near future cannot be solved by simply looking up a problem type in a textbook – it is always much more complicated than that. If this is true, then why does our science education emphasize memorization of problem types and solutions more than questioning, thinking, and discussion?

Throughout your life, parents, teachers and other individuals have told you that “understanding is more important than memorization”. If this is true (which I think it is), then why isn’t understanding really being taught in schools? Some people will say that I’m wrong and that it is taught in schools, but if that’s true, then why is the jump from high school to university science as big as it is? Why do so many students who did just fine in high school science now start struggling in university science?

 

By Joshua Liu

As a chemistry peer tutor for my past two years in university, I have had the opportunity to not only meet and mentor some really interesting students, but I have also been able to hear about how the first year science classes have been going on a regular basis. For one of this semester’s first year chemistry classes, the average on the first test was ~30% – I heard similar numbers for last year’s class.

Although I can’t remember if the class average for my first university chemistry test was that low, the average was supposedly a failing grade. So you can imagine what the impact of those types of results is like, especially considering that for many first year science students, this is the very first university test that they take. It can be quite the confidence crusher to go from a 90+ chemistry mark in high school to a failing grade on your very first university test.

I can still remember my own first university chemistry test, so much so that I could probably regurgitate the gist of the six problems we were asked to solve. I remember them pretty clearly because I recall reflecting about that test, and particularly, how and why it was different from my high school tests.

There were subtle differences – like the fact that lectures actually mattered (however, this tends to be more true for some university courses and less true for others). Two of the questions on my chemistry test were based on information taught in lecture but not available in the textbook. In my high school, there was never information or concepts taught only in class but not available in the textbook (you’ll find that professors have much more flexibility in terms of what they can choose to teach in university). However, this on its own is not that big of a deal – just go to class more if you didn’t the first time around. Another difference you will find is that there is significantly more material to cover in university than in high school, but I will address that topic in a future part of this series.

Yet there was one question in particular on the test that many students got wrong, which made me realize what the difference between high school and university science was; it’s a difference I have continued to notice in many of my university science courses. All our professor did was take a certain problem type but turn it backwards; that is, he took a problem type he went over in lecture and simply asked us to solve it in reverse. It was kind of like being taught how to determine the force due to gravity on an object in class, and now being given the force due to gravity and asked to find the mass of the original object on the test. Obviously the question was a bit longer than that, but the general idea was the same.

University: Learning How to Think

What happened was that students were so accustomed to knowing all of the problem types, that when a slightly different problem type was presented, a lot of students were lost. That is, while we were taught both important facts and certain chemistry problem types, we weren’t really being taught how to think about chemistry.

When I use the phrase “how to think”, I’m referring to being able to think critically and logically about a subject, and therefore, being able to do things like problem solve about a subject. In university science, you can’t get away anymore with just memorizing the problem types from the text book or lecture. You need to learn how to think more deeply about the subject. Just because you get all the practice problems correct, does not necessarily mean you really know how to really think about a subject. Being able to pick up and memorize patterns for solving certain problem types may help you do your homework, but may not help when you are facing situations that you have never seen before.

In university science, you’re going to be given some problem types that you’ll partly have to figure out on the test/exam for the first time. The students who have developed the critical thinking skills that allow them to think more deeply about the subject will be able to answer more of the questions. On the other hand, the students who just do what worked in high school (i.e. completed all the practice questions but do not necessarily know how to think critically about the material) will not be able to answer some of the questions.

This is why some students with 90%+ high school averages have experienced a significant drop in marks in university science while others have not. In most high schools, you did not need to know how to think critically about your subjects, so anyone who figured out how to memorize all of the facts and problem types was able to do pretty well. However, the need to be able to think critically and logically is amplified in university science right away.

Problem: Even in University, Learning How to Think About a Subject is Not Really Taught

As it turns out, at least in my experience, the teaching style in university science is not very different from high school science. Professors still only teach facts and problem types. If professors really taught you how to think critically about the subjects, then many more people would be acing tests. In fact, it’s almost as if professors expect you to be able to think critically about a subject, even though they don’t explicitly teach problem solving, critical thinking, logic, or anything like that.

That’s weird, isn’t it? It seems as if professors are only responsible for teaching you the facts and problem types. If you tried to argue that this is unfair, someone might point to the fact that there are always students who ace the test, and therefore, all of the necessary material was taught properly. However, the reality is that while there are always a few students who have already developed pretty good critical thinking and problem solving skills on their own and thus do well, the vast majority of students are left in the dark.

So what regularly happens is that the small percentage of students who already know how to think critically and problem solve about the subject will do well, and apparently it’s just “too bad” for everyone else – it is as if students are expected to know how to think critically and problem solve, even though that is one of the more difficult skills to develop, and it’s not ever really taught well in our education system.

Am I saying it’s the university’s fault? Not entirely – I think it would be nearly impossible for a professor on his or her own to teach critical thinking and problem solving to a class in the hundreds. These are skills that need to be developed through personal thinking, small group discussion, and practice. Your professor can’t just lecture and give you these skills. On the other hand, it is not like universities ever provide any sort of support for the development of these types of skills. Then there are the debates of whether the development of such skills are important in the first place, at what age these skills should be encouraged, and what methods of doing so are appropriate. I am sure there are people who would disagree with me and believe that the education system is doing enough of these things, but I would point to the results and respectfully disagree.

Example: Understanding Logical Relationships

A lot of students have asked me to try and elaborate more on the ideas of critical thinking and problem solving, particularly in terms of tackling university courses. If I were asked to define it, my view would be that critical thinking involves making decisions/judgments and solving problems through logical, objective analysis. The bigger, more important idea is that critical thinking skills can be applied to and is important for almost any discipline, whether it is related to a school course or real world situations. The reason why some students are able to consistently do well on all of their school courses is not because they are naturally better chemists, physicists or biologists – it’s because they have developed the critical thinking skills that allow them to better tackle the types of problems they face in those courses.

Developing critical thinking skills requires you to be an active thinker, not a passive one. When you are in class mindlessly writing down what your professor says without ever questioning the merit of his or her arguments, you are not actively thinking – you are just assuming. To be able to think critically about ideas, concepts, and overall subjects, you need to actively question the things you are being taught: Do the ideas make sense? Why or why not?

Right now, as you read my articles, are you just assuming the ideas I propose are logically sound? How do you know my reasoning isn’t bad?

Overall, this is a pretty complex topic because developing these skills relies more on personal thinking, group discussion, and practice than anything else – so it is almost impossible to help you directly develop and improve these skills by writing an article. But maybe I can give a decent example to shed some more light.

One of the important critical thinking concepts you need to understand for doing well on tests is being able to understand relationships between things, and subsequently derive new ideas from these relationships.

For example, in physics you are taught that force = mass x acceleration. You are also taught that momentum = mass x velocity. Then on the test you might be asked to derive that momentum = force x time.

For things like first year physics where you get to work with equations, that might seem like an easy example. But this concept is no different form understanding relationships in biology and chemistry. Just realize that all of these relationships are logical. Let’s look at such a situation on a biology test.

Example university biology test question: Let’s say there is a biological pathway where consuming drug X causes the body to release hormone B. The release of hormone B causes the body to produce more of chemical Z. Assuming drug X has just been consumed, which if the following would be the fastest way to prevent the production of chemical Z?

Possible Answers:

• A: Consume drug A which makes drug X inactive.
• B: Consume drug B which makes drug X inactive.
• C: Consume drug C which eliminates excess hormone B.
• D: Consume drug D which eliminates excess hormone B.

Let’s say that from your studies, you know that drug A acts faster than drug B, and that drug C acts faster than drug D. From this information we can deduce that the answer is A or C.

Since the question wants the fastest way to stop the production of chemical Z, it makes sense to pick the drug which creates a hole in the earliest part of the pathway. So the answer is A, since inactivating the drug will prevent the pathway from occurring in the first place.

So as you can see, in this example, you had all the necessary information at your finger tips (assuming you studied). You just needed to understand the relationships between the items and ideas presented, and use logic and common sense to deduce the best answer.

So How Do You Learn “How to Think”?

The above was an example of what knowing “how to think” is about. If stuff like this is foreign to you, and you really want to improve your critical thinking skills, you just need to practice – and I don’t just mean in the school environment.

Anytime you see something interesting, try and ask questions about it, and practice creating logical answers/arguments. For example, let’s say your favourite sports team just made a big trade: Can you come up with logical arguments for why they made the trade? Is the trade good for either team? What would a better trade have been and why?

Or say you see a new business open up around the corner. Ask yourself: Who is their target market? Is this an ideal location given their market? Would this business be profitable, why or why not?

Even better than this is to do these types of things with a small group of friends. And then continue to ask questions, think, and debate with your friends in the same manner when working on your homework and preparing for tests.

One of the reasons I have been successful my university courses is because I have a small group of friends who I can discuss and debate with for questions or ideas I am struggling with. Sometimes it is really helpful to see other perspectives and learn different ways to approach a problem.

Being able to problem solve, think critically, and attack situations logically are extremely important skills. Pick any career or life situation, and these skills are absolutely invaluable. Not only will it help you solve many problems and make better decisions, it will help you understand new things faster and better!

 

By Joshua Liu

I have been a fan of mixed martial arts for the past two years. I think it’s because I am competitive by nature, and nothing can compare to the raw physical competition between two individuals just duking it out in a ring.

There is one quote from mixed martial artist Tito Ortiz that I have always remembered, which went something like this: “It’s the training that’s hard. The actual fight is the easy part.”

I look at tests the same way. A test takes only an hour, but you might spend hours, days or weeks preparing to write it.

All of the hard work happens in the preparation and studying – the test is the easy part If you are completely prepared for a test, then there is nothing to worry about. You just go in and do your best. In general, tests only become hard if you aren’t sufficiently prepared, both physically (the actual studying/test-taking preparation) and mentally (the psychological aspect).

In this article and the next, I focus on this preparation that I believe has made me successful in my university courses.

Approaching Lectures

Every professor has a different approach for lectures. Some professors don’t use textbooks, so everything they say or show you in class is everything you need to know for the course. Some professors like using textbooks, and their lecture is just a way to help you better understand the material in the textbook. Other professors are in between, using parts of the textbook while also coming up with their own original course material. In my opinion, how you approach the lectures should be a function of how the professor approaches it.

If your professor is lecture-based, then you should try to never miss a lecture. Your should also try to write down any notes that the he puts up, and in addition, anything important that he says that is not written down in his notes. There are some professors who put a few notes up, but add many new pieces of information when they speak. Some students make the mistake of thinking that only the information on the black board or the PowerPoint slides is important – don’t fall into this trap! If you’re not sure, write down anything important the professor says. There are some lectures where I will write down almost every single word the professor says.

Personally, I always bring my laptop and type up my notes for lecture-based professors. I type much faster than I write (which can also get quite messy), so unlike some other students I often see struggling to keep up with professor, I almost always get all the important information down. So if you enjoy typing more than writing, and you have a laptop you can use, I would definitely suggesting typing your notes during lecture.

What if there are diagrams to take down? Well, that’s harder to do on a laptop, so a friend and I have devised a system for our classes that involve diagrams. I type up any notes or things that the professor says, and my friend draws all of the diagrams. After, we just scan/photocopy the diagrams so that we both have all the information necessary for the test.

If your professor is text-book based, then you can probably be more liberal with your lecture habits. I had one professor who essentially just followed the textbook, and because of her strong accent, I could not understand a word she was saying in class anyways – so I did not go to a lot of those classes. I also had another professor who spent most of his class telling random stories, making jokes, and occasionally picking out random things from the textbook to talk about – I didn’t see much value in this class, so if I didn’t feel like it, I just didn’t go. Conversely, my philosophy professor this year does a wonderful job of explaining our textbook readings, so even though his class is textbook-based, I still never miss a class.

Some people might say, “well since you paid for the course, you’re doing yourself a disservice and wasting money by not attending every single lecture”. I don’t agree with this viewpoint, because that’s like saying if you go to a restaurant and order something, and it turns out that the chef just served you something from the trash, you should eat it because you paid for it. The fact of the matter is that you are adults in university now, and it is up to you to figure out whether there is value in anything that you do, from whether you should go to lecture to how much you should be studying for a test.

If your professor is somewhere in between, then you should probably go to class because something he says might be important. And in general, in those types of lectures, you probably won’t have to take too many notes anyways.

Do Your Assigned Readings on Time

Now I don’t actually follow this, but I suggest that you do. I think my life would be a lot easier if I at least kept up with my readings instead of trying to learn everything for the first time, last minute.

For professors that do use a textbook, the point of doing your assigned readings is so that you will be able to understand the lectures better. In addition, by keeping on top of your readings, you will quickly figure out which concepts you need to spend more time on. Imagine not doing your readings, and finding out the day before a test that you don’t understand something! Moreover, you will probably retain many of the key concepts or ideas you have read throughout the year, and therefore, there is less you will need to learn or study the days leading up to a test.

So if you have the time, doing your readings on time can only help.

Should I Take Notes from the Textbook?

I really don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this, and the best answer is to do what works for you.

In general, I just study straight from the textbook, so I rarely if ever take notes from the textbook. However, some students find it helpful to take notes while going through their readings, so that they can just study their notes (and forget the textbook) when preparing for tests. In addition, some students find that taking notes while reading helps them retain the information because they need to put the material into their own words. Other students highlight the key points in their textbook, so that they know what key concepts or facts to memorize when studying.

You just need to figure out if taking notes makes sense for your learning and studying style. One thing you’re going to learn in university is that there is often no one right way to do something, and different techniques have their merits.

Form a Study Group

One of my close friends at York University was the only student in my class to achieve a perfect GPA after two years of undergraduate science. One night during second year, our study group was working through one of our professor’s past tests before a biochemistry midterm. Together, our study group went through each question and tried to come to a consensus for the answers. This way, we could see many different perspectives to the problem, and hopefully converge on the line of thinking that was probably correct.

However, for some reason, my friend could not make the study session and went through the practice test on his own. My friend got an 80-something on this midterm, while the rest of the our study group got high-90’s. My friend has always attributed his mark on that midterm to not being at that study session, and has always wanted to go through practice tests as a group since that moment.

The point I’m trying to make is that even for students acing courses, group discussion, practice, and studying is imperative to their success. Every successful student needs to have a group of friends he or she can rely on for support and advice.

When I say study group, I don’t necessarily mean that you need to have a group of students always studying together, many times a week. How you organize your studying, whether in a group or not, and how often you do so, is up to you and a separate issue on its own.

When I suggest that you form a study group, I just mean that you should find a small group of close friends that you can rely on for asking questions about course material, working through practice problems or past tests, or even meeting up to study in a group if that works for you.

No one is perfect, and you’ll rarely find a student who never has problems with the course material and never has to ask a question. I get confused all the time, but I’m never worried because I have a close group of friends who I can always go to for help.

By Joshua Liu

In science, you’re generally going to come across tests that require either the knowledge of facts/material or the understanding of concepts/problem types (and sometimes a combination of both). Biology tests tend to be based more on facts, while chemistry/physics tests tend to be based more on concepts/problem types.

Facts/Material – Memorization

For knowledge-based tests like those in biology, it doesn’t matter how great of a critical thinking, problem-solver, or test-taker you are – if you don’t know the material, then you won’t be able to answer a single question.

One of the differences between high school and university science is that your university courses require the consumption of more material. In addition, as the years go by, you will be focusing on more and more specialized courses, and therefore, more and more detailed material. The detail you end up having to study, with a slew of specific facts, names, and definitions, can make the material seem quite dense. But you have to know this material, and you have to know it all. You have to know it by heart.

Some students make the mistake of thinking that they just need to do their readings and they’ll be fine for the test. This might have worked in high school, when all you needed to know (even for subjects like biology) were key themes and ideas. Unfortunately, in university, professors love to ask you very specific questions that sometimes require knowledge of the most obscure detail. And think about it – can you really read through a dense biology passage once and remember all of the names and details? The vast majority of us, myself included, don’t have photographic memories – so we need to put in the time to memorize as much content as possible.

How I Memorize

Everyone studies and memorizes facts differently, and not one strategy works best for everyone. All I can do is share with you how I approach it – I can’t say whether this will work for you or not, but feel free to try it if you want.

When I am trying to study dense material, I will read each paragraph actively, as if giving it my full attention and making sure I am understanding what I am reading – it’s very different say from when I am reading a novel or story, where I just skim through everything. If I don’t understand something, I make sure I stop and figure it out. I will often look up terms on Wikipedia as I read if I don’t understand the book’s explanation.

In terms of memorization, every time I come across a key point or sentence that I need to memorize, I will first read it. Then I will repeat it to myself (without looking at the book) out loud or in my ahead a few times until I feel it sticks. Then I go to the next point. I do this fairly quickly, as I only do this with things I know I must memorize – i.e. I am not memorizing every sentence in a biology textbook. When it comes to things like steps in a process or the axioms of a theory where I must memorize phrases in groups and sometimes in an order, I do the same memorization procedure, but I go back to the beginning after memorizing each step.

For example I first repeat Step 1 out loud until I have internalized it, then I repeat Step 2 out loud, and then go back and make sure I can say Steps 1 and 2 without referring to the book. Then I move on to Step 3, memorize and internalize it, and then go back and repeat Steps 1,2,3, etc. If at any point I can’t completely repeat it in order, I’ll stop and check, and make sure I can get those 3 steps right before going on to Step 4, and so on.

I’m sure if you do an Internet search or talk to your peers you can learn about many other memorization techniques and ultimately find one that works for you. The most important idea I want you to take away from this section is that however you do it, the fact is that you need to know the material by heart. You need to be able to regurgitate it at will for the test. For the most part, it will not be enough to just read your textbook because the details won’t stick.

One of the reasons that some students do worse in university science is because they aren’t adjusting their studying habits, particularly in consuming material. They keep thinking that they can apply old, less intensive studying methods that worked in high school. Unfortunately university is harder than high school, and you do need to memorize more and drier pieces of information. It’s just something you need to deal with.

It’s for these reasons that I suggest you do most of your memorization in the few days leading up to your test. You want the details and names in your short term memory, because if you try memorizing obscure facts any earlier, you’re going to forget them. It’s the concepts or pieces of understanding that you should be working on regularly throughout the semester.

Concepts/Problem Types – Practice, Practice, Practice!

When it comes to understanding concepts and solving problem types for most chemistry and physics courses (and a few biology courses like genetics), your best bet is to do as many practice problems from your professor and textbook as possible. Similarly with memorization, while I suggest you do some practice problems throughout the semester to build your understanding of the concepts, I suggest you do many of your practice problems in the week or two leading up to the test so that the problem types are fresher in your head.

One benefit of doing as many practice problems as possible is that the more you do, the more quickly you are able to do them – this is because a lot of certain thought processes that you would normally have to actively go through become more subconscious (since you’ve seen the same situation many times already). Reducing the time it takes you to solve problems is crucial since you have a limited amount of time on tests.

I can remember some students in my first year chemistry class complaining at some points that they were unable to even finish some of their tests! Some of these students might have known how to answer these questions, but because they could not work quickly enough, they had no chance to prove it. Don’t let that happen to you! If I can’t solve a problem on a test, I want that to happen because I couldn’t figure it out, not because I ran out of time.

Talk to Older Students

Older students can be one of your greatest resources for doing well in your courses. Whether it be through a mutual friend, school club, or even a random event, you’re going to end up meeting and making friends with some older students who have taken the same classes with the same professors you have now. These older students can often provide great advice on what types of questions your professor likes to ask, which material you should focus on, help with understanding course material, etc. They are also a great resource for recommendations for future courses, buying used textbooks, and obtaining past tests.

Obtain and Actively Attempt Past Tests

Most professors teach the same courses every year, and in general it is pretty easy to obtain copies of that professor’s tests for you to practice on. In some rare cases, professors offer access to some of their past tests. But in general, you should be able to get past tests for your science courses from your school’s science clubs/associations (e.g. the Biology Society, the Chemistry Students Association, etc.) or older students, usually for a small fee (or sometimes for free if your friends are nice!).

Doing past tests is extremely important because it allows you to understand what types of questions your professor is probably going to ask, and therefore, what aspects of the material you need to understand the most. For example, my first year chemistry professor only asked us to solve problems on his tests, while I know of another chemistry professor for a different section that asked for definitions. By working through my own professor’s past tests, I knew I didn’t need to waste my time memorizing obscure facts or definitions.

In my opinion, doing the practice test under real test conditions (e.g. timed, by yourself, etc.) is not that important – I don’t do it, and I don’t suggest that you do. What you want to focus on at this point is dissecting the past test and your professor’s problem types. You want to understand how your professor thinks about the material, and therefore, what types of concepts you need to know. Being able to perform under test conditions is a psychological aspect (which I will explore in the next article of this series), separate from understanding the actual preparatory material for the test. If you do practice tests under real conditions, you might use your score as a gauge for what you will achieve on the actual test, which can sometimes create overconfidence or anxiety. When dealing with practice tests, I think your focus should be entirely on preparation.

Should you do the practice tests individually or with a group? I don’t think it matters too much, as long as you involve a group in some way. Sometimes I like to go through the test question by question with friends from my study group, so that we can hammer out our thought processes and come to a consensus before moving on. Other times we will just do the tests individually, then go over our answers as a group, and figure out if and why there are any discrepancies in our answers. The important thing is that you do (in some way or another) talk to your friends or study group about your answers to the practice tests, to make sure you are most likely on the right track with your approach to the questions.

Finally, I suggest that the practice tests be the last thing that you do in your studying process. There’s really no point attempting the practice tests before you’ve assimilated all of the material you need, and doing the practice tests later than earlier allows the important concepts and problem types to be fresh in your head.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve studied and prepared if you can’t perform under pressure on the actual test. So that’s what we are going to explore in the next article of this series.

By Joshua Liu

Some students may think that you just study and go in and do the test. I don’t think it’s that simple.

While I have said that preparation is the hard part and taking the test is the relatively easy part, I would say that is true, but only if you have already mastered what I like to call the “art of test-taking”. For that reason, many students actually find taking tests harder than studying for it, even though it shouldn’t be that way.

Test-taking is as much psychological as it is mental and physical. The habits, mindset and attitudes of a successful test-taker are significantly different than students who have trouble with tests.

In this article, I explore those differences, and will try to show you some of the subtle yet important things myself and other successful test-takers do to maximize our test performance.

NOTE: I plan on writing in the future about tackling specific types of tests, such as Multiple Choice Tests, Short-Answer Tests, Essay Tests, etc. For now, this article focuses on general test habits and attitudes.

Getting a Good Night’s Rest

This one should be pretty obvious, and admittedly because of late night cramming, I don’t follow this as much as I should. Some of you may be able to get away with not sleeping enough, but for most students, getting enough sleep so that you are wide awake during a test is crucial. Take this from someone who has personally pulled all nighters and fallen asleep during exams (luckily during high school, and not university!). If you don’t have enough sleep, you won’t be able to focus, and you won’t be able to do your best. It’s that simple.

If you’re like me, and you just can’t follow this good habit, then you’re going to have to find a way to keep yourself awake and stimulated for your tests. For me, if I’ve had a late night, my most important activity the morning of the test is to get a nice cup of coffee for the caffeine. I hate suggesting stuff like this, but do whatever works for you to make sure you’re awake.

When You’re Writing a Test, Be in the “Zone”

When I say you need to be “in the zone”, I mean that while writing a test, you need to be completely focused on the task at hand. Don’t think about how well or how badly you’re going to do, don’t panic, don’t stress out – just focus on the test. Clear your mind of anything else.

Thinking about things other than the question on the paper is a waste of mental energy. You don’t want to mentally exhaust yourself by thinking cynical, negative, or stressful thoughts – you need that mental energy to do your best on the test. Learn to just focus on the task at hand, and you won’t feel anxiety or stress anymore because your mind will be completely distracted by the test itself.

Successful test-takers do worry about tests and how they did, but they are successful because they leave those worries behind while they’re in the test. Sure those feelings can come back after the test, but that’s okay – as long as you don’t let those worries affect you during the test, it’s fine to be a little nervous or anxious when it’s over.

Always Do the Questions You Know You Can Answer First

On my very first university chemistry test, our professor decided to put arguably the most difficult problem on the first page. I decided to be stubborn, and waste the first 15 minutes just trying to figure that one problem out. Fortunately, I came to my senses and decided to give up and tackle the other problems first, but having realized this late, I still had to rush all of the other questions, increasing the chances of me making mistakes.

You have to realize that every question you do has a number of marks associated with it, and your goal is to maximize the number of marks on your test – not to answer the hardest questions just to prove you can. Imagine a multiple choice test out of 10 where 9 are really easy and 1 is super hard, and it takes the average person the same amount of time to solve the hard one as it does to solve the other nine easy ones. The fact of the matter is that you should make sure you get the 9 easy ones first, to guarantee that 90% before attempting the hard one – especially if it’s a multiple choice test and you have a ¼ or something chance to get the hard one right anyways.

If there’s a question you’re stuck on, and you know you’re likely going to be stuck on it for a while, skip it. There will probably be other questions, worth the same number of marks, that are easier to do. If you have time leftover, come back to it and try it again. But at least this way you don’t waste your entire test period trying to figure out one or two questions you may or may not even get – it’s just not worth it in terms of risk versus reward.

Have an ego? Get rid of it!

Some students can be perfectionists and have ego problems. They come from a high school where they aced or came close to acing every test. So they panic when they come across a question they just can’t figure out. They go berserk and spend all their time trying to figure it out because they know if they don’t, they can’t get that “perfect mark” on the test.

Trust me, I’ve been there – that’s what happened to me on my first chemistry test. But realize this: you can’t let your pride or ego get in the way of doing your best on the test. You have to understand the concept of maximizing your expectation – that is, obtaining the your best score possible on the test, regardless of what that actual number is. Sometimes that number is going to be 100, sometimes it’s going to be 90, sometimes it’s going to be 80, etc. Face it: university isn’t easy.

I have skipped questions I didn’t know, came back to them at the end, and just guessed or made something up if I couldn’t figure it out – and my GPA has turned out just fine. Having humility and being cognizant and realistic of your limits goes a long way to bringing you peace during school, reducing stress and anxiety, and therefore improving overall test performance.

Pace Yourself, but Work Quickly

When it comes to tests, time is a factor. It’s not like assignments or essays where you ultimately decide how much time you’re willing to spend on them. A common rule of thumb, and one that I support, is to briefly look over the test to figure out how long it is, and how much time you think you should spend on each question (or page). Doing this allows you to properly pace yourself, and recognize how quickly you need to work to complete the test on time. Some of you will want time leftover to double check your answers, which is something I definitely endorse. In addition, by figuring out this pace, you will realize during the test whether you’re spending too much time on a difficult question and just need to move on.

In general though, the important idea is that you want to work as quickly as possible without compromising your accuracy on the test. Working quickly is good because often you will finish your test on time (and therefore don’t have to worry about not finishing), and thus have time to check your work over. Even if you have a ridiculous amount of time to write the test and can work pretty slow, it’s not worth the rare times you misjudge your timing and have to rush at the end (trust me, I’ve been there).

Never Leave a Question Unanswered

It blows my mind when students do this, and not in a good way. You’d be surprised how lenient some professors or teaching assistants can be with marking if you just attempt a question. On one of my first year chemistry tests, there was a question that I wrote out a whole page of solution for and got it wrong, with a 2/6 for that question. My friend, who had no idea what to do, wrote one line containing one of the formulas required to answer the question – he also got a 2/6. True story. Of course, there are a few cases where leaving a question blank is fine (e.g. some multiple choice tests where you get penalized for a wrong answer), but those situations are pretty rare.

Use Up All of the Available Time

A test isn’t a race. You don’t get extra marks for being the first one to finish. I mean if you don’t really care about getting your best mark possible, then sure, work as fast as you want and immediately hand your test in without checking it over. But it boggles my mind when I see students who write a test as if it’s a race, and then get all upset when they realize they made a bunch of silly mistakes.

There’s no shame in being the last one writing a test. I almost always use up the entire test block just because I can. Call me obsessive or paranoid if you want, but if I have time left over, I’m going to double and even triple check my work just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It’s great if you don’t need to do that, but just keep in mind that the entire test period is there for you to use it, and there’s no shame in doing so.

The Correct Answer is the One the Professor Thinks is Correct

I don’t care what the world’s foremost expert on a topic says, when it comes to a test, I’m writing down whatever my professor said in class. This is a really important concept that I feel many students don’t spend enough time thinking about. Your professor is the one teaching the course and the one writing the tests. It is very important to realize that despite what you or anyone else may think, in terms of the course material, your professor is always right. Therefore, in general (and particularly whenever there is possible ambiguity on the test), you should always ask yourself: “How would my professor answer this question?”

Your Professor’s Psychological Profile: Tricky or Not Tricky?

On my first biochemistry test last year, there was a multiple choice question with a structure like this:

Question: Dogs and crocodiles are…

A: Reptiles and mammals
B: Mammals and birds
C: Mammals and fish
D: None of the above

Now, dogs are mammals and crocodiles are reptiles, but if you look carefully at Choice A, the items in the answer are not in the same order with their respective items in the question – so is it Choice A or is it Choice D (none of the above)?

For some professors it would be Choice A and for some it would be Choice D. Professors who would say Choice A is correct are professors who are pretty relaxed and wouldn’t care much for order and things like that. Professors who would say Choice D tend to be the ones who intentionally try to trick you and care very much about technicalities. You will probably come across both types of professors at some point or another.

Fortunately, my professor was willing to clear up the situation because many students kept asking him about it – but some professors won’t do this. Even if he hadn’t revealed the answer, I would have correctly picked Choice A because I felt that he wasn’t the type to be intentionally tricky.

This is one example, but just keep in mind that occasionally, it is helpful to take your professor’s psychological profile and personality into account when determining the “right” answer on your test.

Post-Test Reflection and Analysis

Okay seriously though, the first thing you should do after a test or exam is take a nice fun break. Well, I know some of you will immediately talk to your friends about what the answers were, but after that, take a break. You deserve it, and your brain needs it.

Once you take that break, feel free to reflect a bit about the test: What was easy about it? What gave you trouble or difficulty? Mentally and emotionally, were you fine?

If you felt anxious or nervous during the test, I want you to imagine exactly what those emotions felt like. By being conscious of those emotions, you will recognize them if they come up again during the next test. Then you will realize that they can’t help you, and that you need to forget about them to do better. Once you take control of your emotions, they will eventually go away.

This was the last article of the series, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions or comments about doing well in your undergraduate courses, please leave a comment and I will do my best to answer!