Brittany Tolleson

The Communicator

What if there was a recipe to passing your final exams? Well maybe there is.

We spoke with Katella DeBolt, Psychology Instructor who also teaches SFCC test-taking workshops and she has a list of things we all can do to better succeed.

“There’s two parts to acing a test” said DeBolt.

“There’s knowing what’s on the test and feeling the appropriate amount of confidence about it, and the second is test preparation. Did you study? Did you do such a good study schedule that the night before your test you didn’t have to study? Are you eating food that supports the learning process?” said DeBolt.

Furthermore, the biggest contributors to failing a test are “overconfidence” said DeBolt.

“It’s that overconfidence of “this is good enough” or “I’m sure I got this right” or you quickly run through a test so fast that you don’t stop to look at the details.

I think that speed is a factor of overconfidence. You don’t get extra points for being done first, why are you in such a rush?” said DeBolt.

The second is “Not having good nutritional support. I think quite honestly thats one of the biggest sources of failure is someone who studies and somewhere between studying and taking the test it’s like it (the memory) never was there. That’s probably a nutrition issue. You can’t get the memories back out because you don’t have enough nutrition to pull. Or you didn’t have enough nutrition to convert memories from data to conversion and storage” said DeBolt.

“And when all else fails, make an educated guess” said DeBolt.

“If you don’t know what’s on the test, but you’re a good test-taker, you’ll probably do okay.

You’ll very likely pass if you just use these techniques” said DeBolt.

It should be mentioned that all of this information comes from the General studies114 class Thriving in College.

Before the test you should come well rested. Don’t come hungry-Eat a meal that doesn’t consist of junk food or too much sugar.There should be minimal review before the test.

During the test you should relax. Take some deep breaths, drink water, or stretch in your seat.

Have a plan and go over the test and which questions you will answer first. How much time is available? What questions will take the most time? Plan! Expect some anxiety. Tests go hand in hand with a certain amount of stress or worry. Expect it. It’s also perfectly acceptable to skip a question and come back later. Make sure not too much time is spent on one particular question.

For multiple choice tests, you should read the question before looking at any answer and attempt to come up with the answer before looking at the choices. If you come up with an answer and it’s one of the choices, it’s more than likely the correct choice. You should eliminate answers you know are wrong and make sure to read all choices before answering.

For true or false tests, you should read carefully and pay attention to keywords. Words that restrict or open up statements are qualifiers. Qualifiers like “never, always, and every” mean that the statement must be true all of the time. Usually these qualifiers lead to a false answer

Qualifiers like “usually, sometimes, and generally” mean that the statement can be considered true or false. Usually these qualifiers lead to an answer of true.

If any part of the statement is false then the whole statement is false

For essay question tests, you should look for keywords or phrases. Outline the answer and jot-down notes or keywords to help remember information. Don’t pad the answer with verbal fluff; get to the point quickly and keep the answer concise. Manage time; don’t spend all of the time answering one essay question. Make sure all portions are answered; re-read the question making sure the answer matches exactly with what the question was asking for.

“Obviously this (recipe) has some limitations. It doesn’t work for every class all the time. It’s hard to pick the right answer if you don’t know what you’re looking at” said DeBolt.

DeBolt also highly encourages students who are struggling or curious about how to succeed in test-taking to check out the test taking workshop in the student success series, which is every Thursday of every month in Bld. 24, room 1:03 at noon.