How to Prepare for English Exams

Last Updated: August 15, 2021 References Approved

Depending on your grade level, your English exam may cover material from the entire semester, or it could cover a single book. No matter how much course material you're studying for, preparing for an English exam takes time, concentration, and effort. Learning how to study efficiently will help you prepare for any exam, and can help put you in a position to succeed in your studies.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Studying for a Literature Exam

1
Confirm the exam content and form. Before you begin studying, you should confirm which information from your English course will be on the exam. Your syllabus should outline whether it is a unit-specific exam, for example, or a comprehensive exam covering an entire course worth of material.^{[1]
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- Check your syllabus, and read through your notes to see if your instructor announced any changes in class.
- Email your instructor or meet with her after class to confirm that you are studying the right material.
- Try to find out what format the literature exam will be in. If it is short answer or fill-in-the-blank format, you'll have to know the material a little more thoroughly than if it's a multiple choice format.
- Make sure that you attend class in the days leading up to the exam. Instructors will often do a review session in one of the class periods before an exam.
2
Read your notes. Your notes from class should help you get a general idea of what information your instructor thinks is most relevant or important from the reading assignments. If you've been taking notes while you read the course material or otherwise notating important passages, review those notes and passages as well.^{[2]
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- If your instructor talked about it in class, it's fair game for the exam.
- Anything from the relevant readings is also fair game for exam material.
- Review any supplemental material from class, such as handouts, worksheets, etc.
- Bring your book to class each week. Reading along while your teacher quotes or references passages can help give you a visual memory of the passages you're likely to be tested on.
- Take notes on any passages you discuss in class, and reread those passages extensively. You may also wish to highlight or underline any particularly important passages for ease of reference.
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3
Create a study guide. As you go back through the book or books your exam will cover, take notes that will outline what you've read. You can make your own comprehensive study guide by reviewing important passages and jotting down the main people, places, and events in the book(s).
- Make a list of characters and their noteworthy characteristics. Try to get an overall sense of each character's personality, as well as each character's role in the book.
- Write down the dates or time period (if relevant) and the setting of each major section in the book. Try to get a sense of how the period may have affected the setting, and how both setting and period may affect characters.
- Jot down any details you learned about the author's life. Try to make connections between what the author experienced (both personally and generally, in his place and time) and what takes place in the book.
- Try to pin down what the book means, beyond just rehashing the plot. Was it a social commentary? A criticism of some person/place/movement? Is the novel thick with simile and metaphor?
4
Quiz yourself. Once you've written your own study guide and compiled all your course notes and handout materials, you should review this information until you can recall any portion of the material. Test your knowledge of the material by doing a quiz-and-recall review. Read a line from your notes with the answer covered or blanked-out, and see if you can tell (without cheating) what the notes said.^{[3]
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- You can also quiz yourself on plot and character questions by reciting the main characters, and main sequence of events to yourself. Do this as often as possible to test your memory - you can even quiz yourself by reciting these summaries while walking or doing chores.
5
Take the exam. After extensive study sessions, you should be ready to take the exam. Beyond just knowing the information, however, it can be useful to know how to take an exam efficiently. If you're taking a multiple choice exam, it's fairly easy to answer the exam questions systematically in a way that maximizes your potential for success.
- Pay attention to how many points each question is worth and spend more time on the questions that are worth more. For example, you would want to spend more time on a question that is worth 10 points than a question that is worth 2 points.
- Skip difficult questions and come back to them later. Hammer out the answers you know first, then spend more time working on what you're struggling with.
- Cover the answers while you read the question. Underline key words, and look for absolute qualifiers like "always," "never," or "none." In a true or false situation, these terms often indicate that the answer is false.
- Predict the answer before you look at the answer bank. Then find the best response that most closely matches your answer.
- Cross out any answers that you know are wrong. Make an educated guess if you are absolutely stumped - if you eliminated two wrong answers, you've probably got a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Preparing for an Essay Exam

1
Reread the book(s) for the exam. If you have sufficient time, it may be helpful to reread the book or books you will be tested on. If you don't have time to review the entire book(s), you should at least reread the most difficult passages.^{[4]
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- Identify the major themes in the book, and try to get a sense of the most important events.
- Write out the basic plot of the book. Include details like which character carries out a given action, as well as the overall sequence of events.
2
Review old test questions. You may not know what exactly will be asked of you on an essay exam, but you should have a fairly decent idea based on your completion of the reading and any previous exams you've taken. By predicting what will be asked of you on the exam, you can study more efficiently and outline your essay well before it's time to take the test.^{[5]
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- Review the questions and format of the last exam essays you completed for this course.
- Focus on the structure of previous exam essays. Were you asked to write about the reading within the context of historical events? The author's life?
- Did previous exam essays ask you to summarize the plot? Or did it go deeper, like compare/contrast questions, or questions that ask you to prove/disprove an argument?
3
Anticipate possible essay questions. Once you have a sense for the types of essay questions that might be asked, review your notes and study materials with that knowledge in mind. Try to pull out potential questions based on what you know about your instructor's essay questions in the past, and come up with your own thoughtful, articulate responses to those hypothetical questions.^{[6]
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- Put yourself in your instructor's shoes. What types of questions does he like to ask, and how might he pull those questions out of the course material at hand?
- You can also predict possible essay questions by looking for any boldface text/headings in your course textbook (if you have one), and turning those phrases into questions.
- As you look for possible essay topics, practice phrasing those questions using key essay terms like "describe," "explain," "define," and "contextualize".^{[7]
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4
Outline your essay answers at home. Once you've generated a few potential essay questions, try outlining your answers to these questions. This should help you to memorize some of the information that you will need to know and determine how best to organize your essay.^{[8]
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- You can make your essay outline as detailed as you want. For example, you could create a skeletal outline that briefly states the topics you will cover in each paragraph or you could create a more detailed outline with topic sentences for each paragraph followed by bullets for other details.
- Make sure that the points you include in your outline will provide a satisfactory answer to the question and that you know how to elaborate on each of these points.
- Only include relevant information in your outline. When you take the essay exam, you will need to be as concise and direct as possible and avoid padding your answers. Identifying and memorizing lots of relevant details will help you to write the best essay answers possible.
5
Take the essay exam. After you've reviewed the material for the exam, covered possible essay topics, and written practice essays, you should be ready to take the exam. Try to pace yourself if you're working within a time limit, and make sure you read every question (and its instructions) carefully before answering.
- Write down a condensed summary of all the information you've studied on your scrap paper or in the margins. This is called a "memory dump," and it's incredibly helpful for freeing up your mind to review the questions at hand.^{[9]
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- Review the instructions for each section to ensure that you're answering in the correct format.
- Analyze each question. Take a moment to reread what's being asked of you before you formulate a response, and look for action verbs that indicate what/how you should be writing.^{[10]
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- Form a thesis that will address the question.
- Organize and sketch out your supporting information on scrap paper or in the margins.
- Write a clear, concise thesis statement in response to the question, and write the body of your essay using your supporting information as the main points of each body paragraph.
- Review your answers. Confirm that your essays answer the questions completely, and look for any glaring factual errors, grammatical errors, or structural mistakes.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Finding Better Ways to Study

1
Rewrite your notes. Rewriting your notes can help you process the information from lectures/readings and commit that information to memory. When you rewrite your notes, though, be sure that you rephrase and summarize what your original notes said, instead of simply copying them word for word.^{[11]
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- Read over your original notes and give yourself a few minutes to process what you wrote.
- Think about the key concepts, characters, and literary devices discussed in each note passage.
- Paraphrase your notes into your own words. Try also drawing comparisons or connections between relevant topics and ideas discussed in class.
2
Make and use flash cards. Flash cards are easy to make and can be a valuable tool for studying. You can use these cards to study and memorize key terms, concepts, names, dates, and places.^{[12]
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- You'll need a stack of blank index cards.
- Write a term, concept, or name on one side of the card and its definition or explanation on the back.
- Quiz yourself by only viewing one side (either the term or its explanation) and reciting what appears on the other side. When you've mastered giving the explanation for the term, switch it up by giving the term for the explanation.
- Set aside cards you struggle with and review those cards with extra effort.
- Repeat the whole process until you've committed the cards to memory in any order.
3
Break up your study sessions. It may be tempting to cram right before an exam, but you will not retain much information by staging long, exhausting study sessions. Instead, you should study more efficiently by breaking your study sessions up into smaller, more manageable blocks of time.^{[13]
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- Don't study for longer than 50 consecutive minutes at a time. This can overload your memory and prevent you from retaining all the information.
- Take breaks between study sessions. Aim for at least a 5 to 10 minute break, and try stretching or going for a walk to refresh your mind and body before the next session begins.^{[14]
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- Pace your sessions out over the course of several days or weeks.
- Refuel by having a nutritious snack when you take a break from studying. Opt for fresh fruit and vegetables for a refreshing, reinvigorating study snack.
4
Determine how/where you study best. Some night owls find that they are more productive in the evening. Morning people, on the other hand, might prefer to wake up early after a good night's sleep and do their studying over coffee. However you study, it's important to try different study times and locations to figure out what works best for you.^{[15]
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- Schedule your study sessions during the time of day that you're most alert and attentive.
- Don't study when you're too tired. Study sessions while you struggle to stay awake will not be very productive, and you probably won't retain much information.
- Figure out where you study best. If you like working in a comfortable environment, you might study well at home. If you prefer a quiet, distraction-free setting, try the library.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Feeling Your Best on Exam Day

1
Get a good night's sleep. It's important to get a restful night of sleep before the exam. You should show up to class alert and awake, ready to begin as soon as possible.
- Adolescent students in high school or younger typically need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night.^{[16]
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- College students typically need between 6 and 10 hours of sleep, with seven to eight hours being the average.^{[17]
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- Make sure you're wakeful for the exam. Drink a caffeinated beverage or chew gum to ensure you're mentally alert.^{[18]
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Start your morning out right. Follow your usual morning routine to feel your best the day of the exam. If you usually shower in the morning, make time to do so. Just make sure you leave early enough to get to class at least 15 minutes before the exam to ensure you're in the right classroom.^{[19]
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- Eat a small, nutritious breakfast. Oatmeal and fruit is usually a good bet.
- Avoid eating anything that might upset your stomach.
- Make sure you use the bathroom before you get to the exam.
- Wear comfortable clothes.
3
Bring whatever you need. When you leave your home the day of the exam, make sure you've got everything you'll need for the test. The last thing you want to do is show up unprepared in some way.^{[20]
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- Bring extra writing utensils, in case your pen dies or your pencil breaks.
- You may want to bring a water bottle or coffee to stay hydrated and focused.
- If it's an open-book or open-notebook exam, bring your textbook(s) and your notebook to the exam.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I prepare for an exam on a novel?

Penguinpencil

Community Answer

Make sure to have read the book. The main types of questions are on characters, relationships, the plot, the themes, and the setting, so make sure to have a few ideas on those.
Question

If my exam is tommorow and I am not prepared, what can I do?

Community Answer

Make the best use of the time which is left. Try to master a few concepts before the exam.
Question

How can I memorize the meaning of words in the text?

Community Answer

Flashcards are the best for memorization. Split your words into groups (like five groups of ten words) and study one group per day. Each day, review the cards from the day before as well. Also, try to use the words in your daily conversations and writing so that they stay in your long term memory.