Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College Collins - An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers to be published June 27th, 2006 ABOUT THE BOOK MEET THE AUTHORS MEET THE AUTHORS BUY THE BOOK
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chapter 8

Acing Exams by Adjusting your Attitudes

Think you know all there is to know about test-taking? Think you learned all you really need to know in fourth grade? Think that the secrets to acing exams can be summed up in 5 tips: ! Pay attention to qualifiers (like all, always, most, identical). ! Notice negatives (such as no, not, none, and the prefixes il-, and im-). ! Choose the best response (especially among a number of good responses). ! Eliminate answer options that are not grammatical. ! Mark only "sure things" first, then make three "passes" through the test?

Well, you're not 100% wrong. Tips like these -- taken from an actual college guide to multiple choice questions -- are broadly true. The trouble is, they're unbelievably simplistic. And everyone in college already knows them (and has known them for about 10 years). These, and similar techniques (which you often hear bandied around near test time, or in "study aid" books, and sometimes in "learning resource centers") are simply not going to help you ace college tests. No "techniques" will. What you need is an attitude adjustment. A mind-set makeover. An emotion overhaul. Out with the old, in with the new!

Old Attitude: "This is going to be like the Spanish Inquisition"
New Attitude: "A working session? How nice ... "

Do you find test-taking very stressful? Of course you do. And why wouldn’t you? You’ve accumulated so many bad memories from years and years of test-taking that probably just the word "test" is enoigh to send your body into that "fight or flight" mode. It’s perfectly normal. It’s perfectly natural. But it’s not the best idea to go into a test in a state of terror. It’s not good to see tests as times when you get pounded with question after question until you collapse in a puddle of blood, sweat, and tears and are carried off to the stake. That kind of attitude would make anyone incapable of doing the clear, collected, and rational thinking that nets top grades on the test.

So stop thinking of tests as modern-day Inquisitions. Start thinking of them instead as working sessions -- opportunities to work on problems or interpretive issues that have come up in the course. Times when you get to pull together what you’ve been taught up till now. Times to show off what you know. You’ve had working sessions before, either when studying on your own, or working with your study group, or consulting with your professor during an office hour. The only difference this time is that you’re taking your working session into the torture chamber, um we mean classroom....

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