7 Ways Students Can Boost Exam Performance by Solving Previous Year Question Papers

Himansu Swain
LectureNotes.in
Published in
4 min readJan 24, 2020

A student must attend classes regularly to acquire knowledge and understand concepts. But every student must access a wide range of content outside of the classroom to boost exam performance. In addition to referring to lecture notes, the students must solve previous year question papers to prepare properly for the upcoming exam. The questions change from one question paper to another, while the syllabus remains unchanged over the years. Hence, students can understand what to expect from examiners by solving previous year question papers. Also, the previous year question papers help students to improve exam grades in a number of ways.

7 Ways Previous Year Question Papers Help Students to Improve Exam Grades

Students can easily get a good score by solving previous year questions

1. Understand Key Areas of the Syllabus

While preparing for an exam, a student must divide all topics or chapters in the syllabus into two distinct categories — compulsory and options. She must put extra time and effort to cover the topics belonging to the compulsory category. The previous year’s questions with solutions help students to identify and segregate various topics in the syllabus. The student can easily identify and prioritize the key areas in the syllabus by accessing previous year question papers.

2. Understand the Marking Scheme

A student must understand the marking scheme unambiguously to get higher marks in an exam. The previous year question papers make it easier for students to the marking scheme and the weightage given to individual topics. Also, the students can easily identify the relevant and demand topics while revising the syllabus. Thus, previous year question papers help students to identify the most relevant topics along with understanding the marking scheme.

3. Assess Level of Preparation

In addition to focusing on the relevant topics, the students also need to measure the amount of knowledge retained by them before taking an exam. The previous year’s question papers help students to review and assess exam preparation on their own. The self-assessment enables students to identify and work on their weaknesses. The students can easily improve exam grades by working on their weaknesses while revising the topics.

4. Answer Questions Properly and Timely

While exploring ways to secure more marks in an exam, students must focus extensively on both speed and accuracy. They need to answer each question precisely and accurately. At the same time, they also need to answer all questions using the most appropriate format according to the topic. A student can boost both speed and accuracy by solving previous year question papers. The can further compare their answers with previous year questions with solutions to learn the most appropriate way to answer various questions.

5. Improve Time Management Skills

Often students fail to improve exam grades due to their inability to implement a sound time-management strategy during exams. Every student needs a sound time-management strategy by focusing on a slew of important factors — topics, questions, paper, and exam. The previous year’s questions with solutions help students to manage time more efficiently during an exam. The students can further answer the questions in time by checking if they are on the right track.

6. Understand the Nature and Types of Questions

In addition to depicting patterns of topics, the previous year question papers also help students to understand the type of questions asked from individual topics. For instance, a student can easily know if the examiner will ask conceptual or problem-based questions from a specific topic. The understanding will help the student to revise the topic in the most appropriate way. Also, she can answer the questions accurately during the exam without being surprised or panicked.

7. Eliminate Exam Stress

No student can improve her exam performance without dealing with exam stress successfully. The students can eliminate exam stress in a number of ways. But they can eliminate exam stress effortlessly by solving previous year questions. The exercise will help them to understand the question-pattern and learn the best way to answer the questions. Hence, it becomes easier for students to take an exam without any anxiety or stress.

In the age of digital communication, students can easily access previous year questions with solutions through the robust platform provided by LectureNotes. In addition to providing a wide range of study notes and video lectures, LectureNotes enable students to access previous year questions with solutions according to their course and syllabus. The students can further access relevant previous year questions with solutions by subscribing to LectureNotes Prime.

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