The Round Technique
Doing well in an exam may not be only about studying hard. In an exam, managing time and your mind with a clear strategy matters as much as knowledge. When every question has the same point value, fighting for minutes with one question that really blocks you tires your mind and lowers your morale. Remember: nobody looks at which hard question you solved. They care how many you got right in total. That is why, while your head is still clear and your energy is still there, you should pocket the easiest questions first and leave the hard ones for later.
The round technique works exactly on this logic and lets you finish the exam in three stages (rounds):
- In the first stage you solve the easy questions first, the ones that take only a few minutes. On questions that will slow you a little, you put a star, a square, a triangle, a rectangle or a similar mark. If there are questions that will be very hard, you put another mark you chose in front of them, so you can see at once that they are the hardest.
- In the second stage you find the marked questions from the first stage, the ones of medium difficulty, and you solve those.
- In this last stage you give time to the hardest questions. Because you have already solved, as far as you could, all the easy ones and the medium ones, the questions left here may not go beyond 5 or 10. Since you solved the others with a clear mind, you can spend the remaining time on these without rushing.
If you want this tactic to run smoothly in the real exam, you should turn it into a habit from now. Not only in big practice exams; you should use the round technique on the worksheet tests you solve at home, and even on daily question homework. Practice exams are a good chance to test not only your knowledge but also this kind of exam strategy. If you get used to it now, when the real exam day comes you reach your highest net without panic, by managing the time well, inshaAllah. The effort is yours; the victory is from Allah.
