Learn Habits and Hacks of Top One-Percentile of Test Takers

Course details

What is the course about?

Have you gone through that depressing feeling after bombing an exam, and with that an important opportunity? Have you scratched your head trying to figure out why, despite no slack, you have not been able to measure up against your own expectations in tough exams? Or, even regular curriculum.

If yes, then it is the right course for you. Even if you are not in the process of writing an exam, and are planning to write one in the short to medium term, you can make some of the methods mentioned in this course a part of your preparation and avoid some of the common mistakes.

By the way, what exams are we talking about in this course?

Tough nuts! These are the ones which usually belong to the national and international stage, and have high odds of making it.

But, do these methods hold for exams which are not national or international? Yes, they do. If you can apply these methods at the highest level, you can definitely apply them at other levels too, say, high school or college.

We have been constantly fed that it requires Genius and Talent to be a top test-taker. I can say from my experience that Genius or Talent have only a small role to play in this. This is just my experience. However, a growing body of research too is supporting this. I highly encourage you to read the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success authored by Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, in this regard. And if you want to explore more, read this: How Children Succeed authored by Paul Tough. Just as driving, sculpting, or tennis has learnable components, test-taking too has. You learn these components individually, integrate them, and practice them to become better at them.

In this course, I will talk about several such learnable components that anyone can learn. These components are not just about the best academic practices, but they are also about getting edge in productivity and mindset. Surprisingly, majority of us does not know how to get there, and are content working sub-optimally for want of adequate guidance.

How is the course structured?

I have structured the course into eight sections:

1.Course overview

2.Hygiene factors: The Must haves for tough tests

What are the important factors without which you cannot expect to be a top test-taker?

3.Getting started with the prep

How do you kick-start your preparation and make sure that you are on the right track?

4.Productivity hacks

What are some non-academic productivity hacks that will help you perform at your optimum level?

5.Executing the plan

What are some best practices for preparation, how do you motivate yourself when stuck, and what other things can you do if you are preparing alone?

6.Answering different types of questions

What is the best way to answer different types of questions objective type, subjective type (with a differentiation between those based on application of some principle or theory and those which are not)

7.Buildup to the exam

How do you plan the few days before the exam so that you are in the right frame of mind and are optimally prepared?

8.Exam day

On the exam day, what should be your approach before, during, and after the exam?

Besides the video lectures, I have included few documents in this course. Important ones are:

1.Summary

This is a seven-page document, and also the last lecture which covers the most critical methods that top test-takers adopt. Besides mentioning what these methods are, the document also recommends action points to adopt these methods

2.How to answer subjective type of questions which require application of a theory or principle?

This document, through few examples, walks you through the best way to answer subjective type questions which require application of a theory or principle. It also contrasts the best way with the normal way of answering these questions

Ideally, you should cover all the sections of this course in 3-4 sittings over a period of 2-3 days, and make your own points that you would want to practice during your preparation. If you already have some level of know-how in test-taking, you may start directly from Section 4.

Lastly, I have used 'test' and 'exam' interchangeably in this course, so do not get confused by this intermixing.

If you have any questions to ask or doubts to clarify while going through this course, feel free to write to me. If you want, you can even discuss your test-prep strategy with me.