Scoring As by studying smart

Acing the SPM is about knowing the right strategies

IT has often been said that straight-A students do not study much yet they consistently excel in their exams.

Studies have shown that outstanding students do not focus on memorising and revising. Instead, they employ three powerful strategies to achieving top grades.

Students can find out more about these strategies during the Uni Enrol SPM Masterclass which will be held next month.

As part of the online webinar designed for students all across Malaysia to access the best teachers with the best techniques and insights to better prepare students for the upcoming SPM exam, Uni Enrol is sharing these tips on how to help students ace the exams:

Don’t memorise everything

Not everything in the syllabus will be tested. Instead of memorising everything, it is more useful to identify important topics to focus on by going through past years’ exam papers. Questions that have come out are an indication of what examiners feel are important topics in the subject.

These are the areas you should focus your time and effort on. Before studying or practising your on questions, flip through the past years’ exam papers and take note of which topics they fall under. Pay special attention to the questions that are frequently asked. Don’t spend too much time trying to cram the entire syllabus to memory. It is better to strategically focus on understanding popular topics. Cover less popular areas only if there is time.

Attempt past years’ questions

One common trait among top students is that they do as many past exam papers as they can. For the SPM, papers from the past five to 10 years are relevant. Top students use exam papers from the previous years to identify patterns, namely, how frequent certain questions come out, when was the last time the question was asked and how likely it is to come out again in the upcoming exam.

Questions that came out the year before would unlikely be repeated so soon. Students should instead take note of the different ways questions from a particular topic can be phrased.

Answering SPM questions from previous years will afford students the experience to complete them faster if similar questions are asked in the upcoming exam. This is what students will learn to do during the Uni Enrol SPM Masterclass.

Experienced teachers who have analysed previous SPM exam and trial questions will be on hand to provide their insights based on the trends.

Answering techniques based on exam schemes

Examiners follow a specific marking scheme as a guide when allocating marks to the answers. Knowing the right answering technique will enable students to get the full score for every question.

For written subjects such as Bahasa Melayu, English and History, there are specific keywords, points and structures that must be followed when answering. This ensures that the students receive the maximum marks allocated to the question.

For science subjects, Mathematics or Accounting, providing the correct terminology and demonstrating the proper steps when answering will help students score.

That is why some teachers, who could also be examiners, repeatedly highlight certain topics or emphasise specific ways of answering questions in class.

It is not about how long your answers are but whether your answers contain the keywords, points, structure or steps outlined in the exam schemes. This is what differentiates a B+ from an A, or an A from an A+.

These answering techniques will be highlighted in the Uni Enrol SPM Masterclass which will be conducted by experienced teachers who have perfected their techniques and notes to help students do well.

For more about the SPM Masterclass, visit thestar.com.my/ news/nation/2020/09/12/spm-masterclass-to-help-students-in-pandemic-era.

To register, go to unienrol.com/ spm-masterclass or call 03-5613 7225, Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 6pm.