Top 10 Exam Revision and Study Advice That Really Works

This article has been republished with the kind permission of the wonderful Esa Alexander Henderson who is working extremely hard in serving his Din and fellow human beings at Project Islam, and Suyuti Institute.

Assalaamu ‘Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatahu Ya Muslimen,

In light of the fact we are quickly approaching June (and the inevitable Exams!) it’s important I make a quick post on Exam Revision and Technique.

First and foremost — do not be stupid. I know, I know. Its hard. But really — don’t do it. I was stupid in the final year of my University and, essentially, left my entire revision (and study time, as I hadn’t attended lectures all year) to the final 9–10 days. It was extrordinarily stressful having to not only learn but also revise the content prior to exams. Thanks to a very dear brother (Franciso, who also reverted to Islam! Alhamdulilah) it was possible and I managed to get through it.

But I do not want you brothers/sisters following me to fall into the lastminute.com trap. You’ll either disappoint yourself or fail — either situations are not particularly desirable. So, I am going to share with you all my method of revising (I also do this for my Islamic Studies) and then pre-exam preparations (as in, right before you open the paper).

First of all, the following are a few points to bear in mind for revising:

1) Always revise in the Mornings just after waking up.

I remember when I studied the Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi (rahimahullah) and this was when I discovered the importance of the first point. I was weeks behind (I’m a terrible student), but when it came to catching back up — I studied immediately after Fajr for 3/4 hours and I managed to catch up within a few days as the knowledge was retained. The final test for the text came and, alhamdulilah, passed with over 90% grading.

Learning in the morning means your memory and mental faculties are increased as you’ve just woken up. If you feel a little groggy, have some lukewarm water before commencing your work.

2) Always start in Wudu’ and with Bismillah.

This speaks for itself.

3) Do not sit and read copious amounts of text.

Its scientifically proven that reading walls of text will cause you to switch off after 5–10 mins because of the sheer in-take. It would literally go in one ear and out of the other. Do not rely upon this method as your primary means of reivision of you’ll finish your chances.

Instead, read through what you want to annotate upon. Then proceed to ‘cut out the nonsense’ and produce your own notes.

4) Produce your notes whilst your reading as it facilitates two forms of learning: i) reading & ii) writing

First read, then read and cut out the nonsense and excess. In my GDL I have managed to reduce was is approximately 40 sides of text from law manuals into 5–7 sides of essential notes. Then from there, you further reduce this to 1 side of notes.

The key to this is that the 5–7 sides means you no longer need to revert back to the original text. When it comes to the 1 side, by this time, as you read the heavily cut text your mind should be filling in the blanks without reverting back to the original set of notes.

5) Re-read those 5–7 sides of notes 4–5 times. Then sleep, then awake and read them again 4–5 times.

It is boring — I know. However, what you will inevitably find after the 3rd/4th time is that you start pre-empting the coming text and this shows your successfully memorising the text.

This really speaks for itself.

6) Sleep!

I do not care how much you may argue — doing all nighters does not work. Its better that you intermittently sleep for an hour or so between revision sessions as this facilitates the transmission of knowledge from your short term memory to long term memory banks.

7) Do not start last minute.

Honestly, I can’t advise this enough. If you have exams in June — you should be making arrangements to study intensively now if you want to make anything of them. Do not save it for the last two weeks or you will only cry yourself to sleep — trust me, i’ve been there and done that.

8) Seriously prioritise your exams.

We all get misdirected into doing other things leading to procrastination (I am the worse for this) but if you truly dedicate your time you will find that you’ll reap so much reward. So tell the lads n lasses to bugger off to enable you to study — its only a week of exams and then your free to go and engage in all the time wasting rubbish you used to do prior to your exam period.

9) Make Du’a.

Ultimately if Allah Almighty makes it easy for you, then you will never fail. Allah Almighty created the Heavens and the Earth without any difficulty; so what are your exams? They’re nothing. Make and always remember your Du’a before studying — it doesn’t have to be a specific Du’a. Just ask Allah Almighty to bestow His Mercy upon you.

10) Revise for approximately an hour and then take a break

(Don’t revise something else, this is rubbish) by watching T.V. — going for a walk — listening to something calming etc. Just to give your brain a rest ready for the next in-take of knowledge.

The key to success is repetition. Its rubbish, but its essential and will grant you success. So ensure that you read and re-read your notes to become very familiar.

Avoid guessing what will come up in the exams. Instead, do what I did in this respect — I purposefully avoided small chunks not to revise knowing that, even if it came up, I wouldn’t select it as a question. This is helpful as it’ll save a lot of time.

However, be careful. Some exams cross their questions into many different subject areas which really hampers your capacity to get away with this.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions and please, please, please… If you found benefit in this — share it!!

P.S. — I really do not say this to brag, however, just incase you want to know if this is tried and tested… In my College days I completed 3 A-Levels and 2 AS-Levels in second year alongside running a national anti-bullying campaign with Channel 4 and being a Director/Actor of a Youth Theatre Company (Yes, I used to act!) and alhamdulilah did very well.

As I’ve said… In my degree I didn’t attend at all the entire year. However, I did this in the last 9–10 days leading up to exams full time and was absoutely fine. This really does work.

P.P.S. — If you do follow this advice and fail… I am not liable. Lol :’)

Esa Alexander Henderson Tweet @esa_alexander

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Originally published at theblessedhub.co.uk on March 16, 2015.