Top 10 exam tips

Sweaty palms, nightmares, a black-out even. Exams may cause you to experience terrible anxiety. Too much! But fear is not at all necessary. After all, our exam requirements set out exactly what you need to know and do before going in to an exam. On top of this, we give you ten tips that increase your chances of passing an exam. Take notice of these tips when preparing for your exam.

Top Ten Exam Tips
1. Be sure to use the exam requirements, recommended literature and sample exams. The exam requirements, which includes a list of literature and the sample exams can be found by selecting the exam of your choice on our Literature can be ordered via EXIN's

2. Complete the sample exam first without consulting the answers. Then make sure to carefully read and understand the feedback.

3. Make sure to allow for plenty of time when travelling to the exam location.

4. Enter an exam well-rested.

5. Start with the easy questions. Do not get stuck on difficult ones, but put those questions aside and return to them later.

6. Often, first impressions are best. Therefore, do not change your answers unless you are absolutely certain that you have made a mistake.

7. Read the question very carefully. Consider what precisely is being asked. If the question demands four arguments, then give four, not three or five. Do not write more than required in the hope that the people marking the exams will select the correct answers.

8. The so-called ‘Open exam questions’ demand that you compose the entire answer yourself: make sure you write clearly.

9. In the case of multiple choice questions: think of your own answer first before looking at the answers listed on the page.

10. When you are finished, check carefully whether you have answered all the questions. 

No matter how much or how little you study one thing is crucial for you to realize; you are being tested by an examination so you must practice answering examination questions. How you approach these practice questions will greatly affect your exam success. Here's what you have to do. Never answer questions with the text book or study notes in front of you. It is essential that you practice your exam questions under the same conditions you will face in the exam!

Even if you promise yourself not to look, a brief glance unknown to yourself will help you answer a part of a question and lead to believe that you know it when you don't! When you find yourself hitting a brick wall in an exam on material you thought you knew, this can be one of the causes. Even the psychological comfort of having your study notes nearby is something you won't have in the exam and once you find yourself without them you will feel the pressure.

Time yourself. Write down the time at the start of each question and at the end. Don't worry if you go over the allocated time, you will improve with practice. But do keep an eye on how long you are taking. If you are consistently over the time, then either you are writing too much or you do not know your content well enough and you are taking too long to think about it.

Usually if you have practiced a lot and are still taking too long, you do know your material but are writing too much. Pay more attention to the wording of your questions, and the marks awarded for each section, if this is available. This will help you gauge the depth required. Ask your teacher to correct some of your answers to see what you can safely leave out.

You may have studied your material well and still not get the marks you deserve. Or you may have less work done and still maximize your results in the exam. What do you need to do to? Practice exactly what you have to do in the exam by doing as many exam questions as you can under the right conditions.

Assuming you are already working without any notes or text, timing yourself and learning how much you have to write as discussed earlier, then you are already on track.

What next?

Find out as much as you can about what is required in the exam questions. Pay attention to the action words in the questions. State, define, explain, give an outline, compare.....learn exactly what is required by these words. They will tell you how deep to go in your answers.

Too many exam entrants look for the content words in the question to see what it is about and then dump whatever they know on the page. It's better than nothing, but especially if you are well prepared, you will probably write too much and gain no marks at all for the extra parts you write!! It doesn't matter how much you know if the question doesn't ask about it!

Get to know your syllabus. Find out in each section the depth required. Don't rely too much on your text books - they contain a lot of extra information to help explain what you need to know or to make it more relevant or interesting. Make the most of your teacher's expertise.

Listen to your teachers and ask their advice. They will be delighted to see you thinking in such a proactive way about your own study progress and will save you a lot of time that you could waste trying to find out for yourself.

10 Ways to Increase Your Concentration

10 Ways to Increase Your Concentration

1.                              First understand clearly what concentration is: “Concentration is taking your mind off many things and putting it on one thing at a time.”

2.                              Decide carefully what you want to concentrate on, for in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways, you become that which you focus on — that is, you take on the attributes of your chosen subject of concentration. Have you ever noticed how couples who have been married for many years start to look like each other, or how people often come to resemble their pets, their cars, their hobbies, or their work projects?

3.                              Generally speaking, everyone has had experiences in total concentration. Go to a good adventure film at a movie theater. In the middle of it, stop watching the movie (this might be hard, but do it anyway) and look around at the people in the theater. What are they doing? They are absolutely still, eyes barely blinking, and their breath is slower. It would take a really major distraction to break their attention stream. These physiological signs may give you a hint about ways to increase your own concentration abilities.

4.                              Some of the enemies of concentration skills are constant sensory input, multi-tasking, trying to do many things all a the same time, loud noises, and flashing light patterns. The human nervous system is a marvelous thing, but it is not built to function in the face of these things on a full-time basis. Attention deficit patterns come, at least to some extent, from the activities or situations which make concentration difficult to impossible. Then a habit of non-attention or inability to concentrate deeply is established and difficult to overcome.

5.                              Make it a point to put your full concentration on whatever you are doing. Don’t let anything distract you. It really helps to be in a quiet place, but you can learn to block out noise if necessary.

6.                              Understand the essential connection between concentration and energy. Deep concentration is a matter of increasing or directing your life-force or conscious, cosmic energy. The more of this kind of energy you have, the better. Scattered energy doesn’t help. It must be calm, focused energy. Learn to be calmly concentrated and be concentratedly calm.

7.                              Learn and practice some physical and mental energization techniques. This is an important first step toward the ability to concentrate deeply.

8.                              Take breaks. Go outside and breathe deeply or take a brisk walk. Make yourself do this often and you’ll be able to return to your task recharged and ready to focus more creatively.

9.                              Meditation is the most powerful of all concentration enhancement techniques. Learn a few simple meditation techniques and practice them at least five minutes daily.

10.                          A first step in the concentration aspect of meditation is to focus on watching your breath — not controlling it in any way, but just observing it. This helps to train yourself in taking your mind off of many things, and putting it on one thing at a time — in this case the breath. As you observe your breath, it will calm down, your brain will calm down also (this is a scientifically well-documented, mind-breath connective function), and you automatically move into a dynamic, peaceful (but not sleepy) state of being. Your mind becomes recharged and creatively receptive. 

Presentation Topics List

Presentation Topics List

Given below are some of the topics for presentation based on current issues that can serve as class presentation ideas for college students or presentation ideas for kids from high school.

• Role of Media Today
• Global Warming
• Ways to Generate Green Energy
• Technology - A Boon or Bane
• Terrorism: A Threat to the World Peace
• Euthanasia: Pros and Cons
• Consumerism: A Need or A Want
• Teenage Pregnancies and Its Side Effects
• Impact of Advertising
• Social Networking Sites - A New Addiction?
• Offbeat Career Planning and Choices
• HIV/AIDS: Ways to Curb It
• Capital Punishment Vs Human Rights
• Legality Of Wars: Will We See World War III
• Homosexuality: Individual Choice Or Against of Nature
• Juvenile Crime and Criminal Justice

Informal English vocabulary

about to	Peggy is about to leave.
in advance	We booked the tickets in advance.
alive and kicking	I love Berlin. It's alive and kicking.
all of a sudden	I went out in the sun. Then, all of a sudden, it started to rain.
all over the place	There are environmental problems all over the place.
B
to go from bad to worse	My marks went from bad to worse last term.
to bag sth.	Tom bagged this special offer at an online-shop.
beat-up	Mark is too beat-up to play tennis this evening.
to do the best	He always does his best.
blabber	Don't listen to him, he's a blabber.
to blag sth.	Once in a while young Tim blags his father's cigarettes.
bloody	What a bloody day!
to be blue	She's been feeling blue all day.
bouncer	A bouncer's task is to keep out those who might cause trouble.
be broke	I can't go to the cinema with you, I'm broke.
to brush up on sth.	I have to brush up on my Spanish.
buck	You can buy a DVD player for less than 100 bucks (dollars).
butt	You're a pain in the butt.
buzz	Parachuting gives me a real buzz.
Buzz off!	Buzz off! I have told you not to come to my place anymore.
C
a close call	I had a close call. A stone almost hit me!
to catch sth.	Sorry, I didn't quite catch your telephone number.
to catch (a) cold	I walked out in the rain, so I caught (a) cold.
not to have a clue	I don't have a clue about repairing the faucet.
Come off it!	Come off it! This isn't the truth.
as far as I'm concerned	As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to watch the film.
cop	A big crowd of cops gathered in front of the Bank of England.
corner shop	Mother really liked corner shops when she was a child.
cram school	Many pupils have to go to a cram school in the afternoon.
on credit	I'd not buy the new TV on credit.
cut	Mr Brown made big cuts of $500 million.
D
damned	I hate going through that damned rush hour.
to dig in one's heels	If you take or express an opinion and refuse to change it, you dig in your heels.
to disrespect sb.	Poor people shouldn't be disrespected.
to do one's best	He does his best to fix the car.
to do someone good	Let's go on a holiday. The sun will do us good.
to do without	If there's no milk for the tea, it'll do without.
down under	Down under will be my next destination.
E
to be up to one's ears	Sorry, I can't go out with you. I'm up to my ears in work.
every now and then	Every now and then I play the piano.
every other	He comes to me every other week.
to see eye to eye	World Bank and IMF see eye to eye on Asia
F
fair enough	Fair enough! Let's go out for dinner tonight.
fiddle	Especially fiddles are necessary to play folk music.
to keep the fingers crossed	I have to see the doctor for a checkup. - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
flutter	The old lady loves a flutter on the slot machine.
folk	We all are fond of the Irish folk.
for free	I was lucky. I got this CD for free.
freak out	Ron freaked out when he heard that Peter had broken his car.
fridge	Butter must be kept in the fridge.
G
to get a lot of stick	In his new job Jack gets a lot of stick.
to get cold feet	He wanted to speak to the boss, but he didn't. He got cold feet.
to get fed up with sth.	They get fed up with their neighbour's parties.
to get rid of sth.	We have to get rid of that old car.
to get sth.	Jason, did you finally get your exercise?
to take sth. for granted	I took it for granted the meeting was on Tuesday.
greasy spoon	I'd rather starve instead of eating at a greasy spoon.
groovy	This cocktail tastes groovy.
guy	Jennifer fell in love with the guy from the supermarket.
H
had better	You'd better go now.
on the other hand	Sue likes pop music, on the other hand she doesn't like discos.
to give a hand	Can you give me a hand with the cupboard?
hard graft	Building our house has been a hard graft.
by heart	My brother has to learn the poem by heart.
hip	Molly always knows what's hip.
to hold s.o.'s horses	"Hold your horses," I said when John began to leave the room.
to be hooked on sth.	Bill is hooked on car racing.
J
to jump down sb.'s throat	The boss jumped down my throat because I was late for work.
K
knackered	What has happened? You look so knackered.
to keep an eye on sth./sb.	Will you keep an eye on my baby?
L
little by little	Andrew had an accident while playing ice-hockey. Little by little he begins to walk.
to look forward to sb.	I look forward to my holidays in Rome.
M
to make ends meet	She's been out of work for years. How can she make ends meet with four children?
to make friends easily	Chris makes friends easily.
to make oneself at home	Come in, please. Make yourself at home.
to make the most	Let's make the most of the last day of our holidays.
to make up one's mind	Did you make up your mind to buy a new computer?
mash	I love Grandma's homemade mash.
What's the matter?	You look sad. What's the matter with you?
to be mean	Grandfather is mean with money.
to meet sb. halfway	I don't like his ideas, but I can imagine that we should meet halfway.
to mess around	The clown messed around to make the children laugh.
to mess up	Sandy has really messed up this time.

Synonym and Antonym List

Word	Synonym	Synonym
abandon	discard	vacate
accord	agree	grant
adversity	difficulty	misfortune
affluent	plentiful	rich
aggravate	annoy	infuriate
alleviate	lighten	mitigate
amenable	agreeable	favorable
anguish	distress	sorrow
apathetic	dispirited	lifeless
arrogant	disdainful	imperious
astonish	confound	overwhelm
atrocious	appalling	detestable
augment	add	enlarge
avoid	ignore	shun
awkward	graceless	inept
baffle	confuse	deceive
banal	common	plain
barren	desolate	sterile
berate	criticize	disapprove
betray	deceive	fool
bias	inclination	predisposition
bitter	acrid	sour
blend	combine	mix
bliss	happiness	joy
bluff	boast	feign
bold	daring	fearless
bonus	award	gift
bother	annoy	irritate
brief	concise	short
brilliant	clever	intelligent
brisk	fast	swift
budget	allot	plan
candid	honest	truthful
caricature	cartoon	imitation
casual	informal	natural
category	classification	division
cease	desist	stop
chaotic	disordered	messy
cherish	esteem	love
circumvent	avoid	go around
commemorate	celebrate	honor
compensate	balance	recompense
competent	able	capable
conceive	design	plan
confirmation	acknowledgement	proof
contradict	deny	oppose
contribution	donation	grant
courteous	polite	well-mannered
craving	desire	longing
credulous	confident	trustful
damp	moist	wet
dare	challenge	defy
decay	decline	rot
decent	honorable	pure
dense	filled	packed
designate	name	select
detain	hold	keep
disclose	announce	reveal
dogma	belief	view
durable	constant	lasting
dwindle	abate	diminish
eager	earnest	keen
eccentric	abnormal	idiosyncratic
elaborate	embellish	enhance
emanate	arise	radiate
embezzle	purloin	steal
eminent	distinguished	prominent
encourage	foster	induce
endure	last	persist
essential	cultured	learned
essential	basic	necessary
estimate	guess	predict
evaluate	appraise	judge
exhaust	deplete	empty
exhilarated	cheerful	zestful
explicit	definite	specific
fastidious	exacting	particular
federation	alliance	band
feeble	helpless	infirm
fervor	intensity	passion
feud	argument	dispute
filth	dirt	squalor
flatter	compliment	praise
fleet	nimble	swift
frivolous	inconsequential	trivial
frugal	prudent	saving
furious	angry	outraged
generous	benevolent	unselfish
genuine	actual	real
glare	gleam	glisten
gloomy	cheerless	dim
goad	provoke	badger
grasp	grab	hold
greed	avarice	longing
guarantee	assure	pledge
guile	cunning	deceit
gullible	credulous	unsuspicious
habitual	accustomed	regular
handicap	disability	disadvantage
harass	annoy	disturb
harmless	innocuous	inoffensive
harsh	hard	coarse
hasty	abrupt	hurried
haughty	arrogant	pretentious
humiliate	humble	shame
hygiene	cleanliness	sanitation
hypocrisy	duplicity	falseness
ideal	goal	perfection
idle	lazy	unoccupied
ignorant	stupid	unintelligent
illogical	incongruent	rambling
illustrious	eminent	famous
imitate	copy	reflect
immense	huge	mammoth
impartial	candid	impersonal
impatient	anxious	eager
implicate	accuse	insinuate
importune	beg	solicit
inadvertent	accidental	unintentional
indifferent	apathetic	disinterested
isolate	detach	quarantine
jargon	argot	slang
jovial	genial	merry
judge	estimate	referee
justification	excuse	reason
juvenile	adolescent	immature
keen	clever	observant
label	brand	classify
labor	toil	work
lead	direct	proceed
lean	slim	thin
leave	abandon	desert
liberal	copious	unrestrained
liberal	lenient	open-minded
limitation	boundary	constraint
lucid	clear	understandable
lucky	auspicious	fortunate
mad	furious	irate
manage	administer	control
manipulate	control	shape
marginal	borderline	limited
match	agree	correspond
maze	complexity	labyrinth
meditate	ponder	think
memorial	commemoration	monument
mention	allude	refer to
merge	blend	fuse
narrow	confined	restricted
nature	aspect	character
necessary	mandatory	requisite
negate	contradict	refute
negligent	careless	remiss
negotiate	bargain	deal
nice	affable	benign
noble	aristocratic	distinguished
novice	beginner	nonprofessional
nuisance	annoyance	offense
obedient	faithful	loyal
objection	disapproval	protest
obligatory	compulsory	required
observe	notice	watch
obvious	conspicuous	definite
offend	anger	irritate
offer	bid	proposal
omen	premonition	sign
omit	exclude	remove
opportune	advantageous	auspicious
pacify	appease	placate
pain	ache	discomfort
paramount	chief	leading
partisan	biased	dogmatic
passive	inactive	lethargic
pause	break	cease
permeate	diffuse	disseminate
perpetuate	endure	preserve
perplex	astonish	baffle
persecute	afflict	harass
radiate	effuse	emanate
radical	basic	fundamental
range	anger	furor
rank	arrange	classify
realize	accomplish	fulfill
recalcitrant	obstinate	stubborn
receptacle	container	repository
reconcile	atone	conciliate
regret	deplore	grieve
reliable	dependable	trustworthy
sanction	approval	permit
scope	aim	extent
section	division	portion
settle	adjust	compromise
shallow	superficial	trivial
shrewd	careful	calculating
significant	distinctive	important
slight	delicate	slender
spontaneous	impromptu	unplanned
spread	announce	broadcast
stabilize	balance	steady
tame	domesticate	subdue
tangle	intertwine	twist
temper	mood	nature
tendency	inclination	trend
term	cycle	duration
thrift	conservation	prudence
tough	aggressive	unyielding
transfer	convey	exchange
tumult	agitation	commotion
turbulent	disordered	violent
vain	boastful	inflated
valid	authorized	legitimate
variety	assortment	diversify
verify	authenticate	substantiate