Exam Attack Plan - Part I

First things first, determine how long you have to take this exam. If you have a solid deadline set already, then that’s the big date. If not, come up with one.

Check to ensure that the exam is offered on your ideal test date if it’s one you must schedule. If not, make sure you don’t have any conflicting engagements and that you won’t miss a deadline (as an example, many colleges have a particular deadline for admissions packets). If the test is for your career, make sure your test date is scheduled early enough so that you can start looking for your dream job before you run out of money.

So let’s set up a date.

Let’s say your test date is exactly 60 days from today. That gives you about 8 weeks to prepare. You may have more time, or you may have less, but let me show you what you should do once you’ve figured out when you will take the exam.

Whatever your test date is, you need to count backwards from that day and determine how many days and weeks you have left to prepare. In my example above, I have 60 days or between 8-9 weeks to prepare.

Figure out how many days and weeks you have to prepare.

Once you have that number you should divide it up into thirds. In my example; I have about 20 days (almost 3 weeks) for each third of my total time.

Dividing your total time up into thirds is handy because you can break your prep time up over three major steps or goals.

I suggest that the first step is dedicated to learning the basics, the next is for learning the details, and the last is for taking practice exams.

So what that means for me in my example is I need to cover the basics from day 1 – 20. Next, I need to cover the details from day 21 – 40. Finally, I need to be working through actual practice exam questions (if there are any) from day 41 – 60.

This is the basic outline of how you should divide your time. Your exercise between now and next time is to determine when your test date will be if you don’t already know. Then count up the total number of days you have between now and then (make sure to count weekends because you may need to spend your weekends studying).

Divide your study time into thirds as I explained above. Write out the exact dates you will be spending on each third. In my example above, if I’m studying for the ACT exam (which I’m not) and I plan to take it on the January 19th test date, then that is my target date. Following with the example above, if I have 60 days to prepare for this exam, then today must be right around November 21th (again, it’s not). So this is what I would write out…

• Target Test Date – January 19th
• Start Practice Exams - December 31st
• Start Detailed Study – December 11th
• Start Basic Study – November 21st

If I had a day planner, I would write these dates out in it.

So go ahead and do this for your situation. And it’s fine if you have a lot longer to prepare. 60 days is not enough to do well on all tests. You may need considerably longer or you may have considerably less time. We’re going to adapt based on your schedule.

» To learn what you should do during each session just click here …