Preparing for a history exam can be a lot of fun and you can end up learning a lot. The trick is not to be lazy, but to jump into it wholeheartedly.
Instructions
Prepare for a History Exam
1. Read the chapter or chapters in the textbook which you will be tested on. If you own the textbook and you may do so, underline whatever you think the important points are.
2. Rewrite each of the important points into your notebook IN YOUR OWN WORDS one at a time. Do not do all your reading first and then write. Read, notice an important point, and then write it into your notebook before returning to reading. Your notes must be in your own words so that you can understand them and understand what was really going on in history, not just write answers on an exam which are meaningless to you.
3. After you have gone through all the material you will be tested on in this way, reread your notes. Then close both your notebook and your textbook, and tell yourself, preferably out loud, what this material is about. Try to include as much of the facts as you can remember.
4. Now reopen your notebook and read your notes over again, making note of anything you might have missed in your verbal summary. Then close your notebook again, and again, summarize the material, including whatever facts you may have left out the first time.
5. Repeat this process as many times as needed, until you have included at least 90% of the information that is in your notebook in your verbal summary.
6. Now to further impress the information in your mind, sit back, close your eyes, and bring yourself to whatever historical period you are studying. Imagine you are a character living during that period, for example, visualize yourself as an indentured servant in the colonies near the beginning of the Revolutionary War. What is your life like in this role? For whom do you work? What are your duties? How do you feel about the coming revolution and on whose side are you - the wealthy colonists for whom you work or the British?
7. In your imagination, go through a day's worth of activities that may have been typical for a person living in that period. Feel what his or her life was like. History is not only about facts; it is also about the feelings that arose in people as a result of those facts. Now you have not only studied the period; you have gone there. When you come back in time to sit for your exam, you should score at least an A!
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