Benefits of Studying Past Exam Papers
Examinations are always stressful to students and they feel the tension just thinking about it. Their anxiety can make them miss out on instructions given in the paper. This is why practicing past paper questions becomes very helpful. It decreases the student’s stress and anxiety and lessens the tension because then the student has an idea of what will be expected.
There are many advantages of doing timed past paper questions. You must ensure that you get plenty of timed practice from these previous exams so that you are ready to give your paper. If you have some coursework to complete and that may keep you away from doing timed practice from these exams, you may want to think about taking assistance from an essay help company. In any case, you should make sure to study from previous papers as they can be of a huge advantage to you.
It allows you to know the pattern of the paper
Knowing the pattern of the questions and the number of questions and parts that are usually asked, the student knows how much time they should spend on each section. Also, if the paper has been divided into sections and the student has only limited time for each section, they should know how to manage their time wisely to complete the paper. Usually, the MCQ section is given a shorter time duration. Students have to be quick in thinking of the right solution and quickly marking the answer. When students come to the essay-type questions, they have more time for it.
They can finish the paper in the given time duration
When students give themselves a mock exam in the form of a past paper, they get a pretty good idea of how much time to give to each question and that they cannot give greater than so much time to one section of the paper. They may also realise that to do an excellent paper, they have to be swifter in their handwriting or have a greater practice to do questions more swiftly. Since the student has made sure to do timely practice, they become familiar with how much time to spend on each question and whether they need to increase their writing speed.
Helps decrease their anxiety
Doing previous exams prepares the student in many ways. It gives them an idea of what common questions may be asked or what questions are favourably asked by the examiner. Examinations are very nerve-racking. If a student does not know how many questions to attend or what types of questions there will be, whether there will be MCQs or essay type questions or computational questions, they would be nervous about what to expect. They wouldn’t know if they have prepped in the right way, whether they are prepared enough or not.
Doing timed practice of past papers lets the student overcome the paper’s fear because they have an idea of the exams since they have made sure to practice several past papers. Knowing the pattern of the questions and preparing beforehand by practicing past papers decreases the pressure on them and gives them more confidence to attend the paper.
Practicing from past papers makes the revisions easier
The student can conjecture the key topics and important areas while doing previous exams. Sometimes, they can cleverly guess the more important questions that they should focus greater on. The more practice they do, the more prepared they are in giving the exam. Sometimes, questions are repeated or close to the same questions, giving the student an edge because they have practiced from previous exams.
You know the instructions of the paper beforehand
When students sit in the examination hall, they are full of the anxiety of attempting the paper. The minute the invigilator says start, they do not read the instructions carefully and do not answer according to the paper’s requirement. So it’s a good idea to be prepared with the guidelines beforehand by doing past paper practice.
The instructions given for the paper are to be read and followed by the students. It is easy if the student has practiced the past paper, so they know the instructions beforehand. Though it is important to read the given instructions on the exam, since the student has practiced the past papers, they know the instructions given. So there is little chance of not following the guidelines and not mixing up. Sometimes, students are dismayed that they have missed out on reading the instructions carefully and did not attempt as many questions as they were asked to do so in the exam. That is why all teacher advises their students to ensure they do timed practice from previous exams.
