One of the best things students can learn is how to spend their time efficiently and effectively. Your time is really valuable, in fact (and I don’t want to get too philosophical here) as we get older, we learn to appreciate that time is one of the most valuable things we’ve got.

So how do we ensure we’re not wasting time when we study?

In a perfect world we’d know what questions will be asked before the exam. That way we can only spend time studying the questions that will be asked.

The first thing you want to do when you sit down to study is to spend some time trying to understand the scope of the exam. What could be tested and what’s not likely to be tested. One way to do this is to read your notes from class, look at example problems that were done, was anything called out as particularly important? Write down the topics you think will most likely be tested so you can start to form a plan to learn about these topics.

The second thing to do when you first sit down to study is to do some example problems. These could be examples from your notes, text books, or old exam papers. This process provides many advantages:

• Firstly it gets you mind going… almost like jump starting a car. It makes you think.

• Secondly, it helps you understand the type of questions that could be asked (also helps with determining the scope of the exam).

• Lastly, it starts to hone your study by giving you a sense of what you already know and what you’re going to have to learn.

Use these two tools - understanding the scope and doing example problems - when you first sit down to study. This will help you formulate a great study plan moving forward.