How to Learn Easily/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
EXAMINATION-PREPAREDNESS
All kinds of instructors who hold examinations frequently suggest that the direfully dreaded "exams" will take care of themselves if systematic work be done vigorously and conscientiously throughout the course. This statement may be cordially emphasized, although, however true and important it may be, there is little hope of making students, male or female, young or old, married or single, civil service or naval, in the elementary school or in the university, indolents or "greasy grinds", believe it long enough to act upon it to any appreciably profitable extent. They never have done so (save one or two wise ones here and there) and they probably never will! Nevertheless the fact holds that if we do study properly and conscientiously and scientifically, the examinations will take care of themselves. There are a number of reasons why the matter is important, but one that is very important concerns the effect of worry on the mind. But work counts too. On the marking system of E upward to A, if we take our ease we shall get E's and not A's. Ease and E's go together.
The chief requirements of proper study for this specific purpose of "making good" on exams. may be divided into three parts. (1) The entire necessity for conscientious, thoughtful study; for an adequate amount of real study with the attention complete. It seems surprising that students do not effectively take for granted this matter of plain common sense. (2) The keeping of our notes posted up daily in the brain, and thus everything we learn integrated with the preceding acquirements. If we have taken no notes, we should begin to make some from our lectures and our textbooks, and from our memory, for these will certainly be better than anything else for this examination purpose. (3) To get a good examination mark, we should have somehow a weekly or at least a monthly review, because, as we have seen already, review is the chief means to the integration of any subject in our minds. Notes should be kept on the analytic plan of complexes or symbols which have been already explained, headings, subheadings, and so on, on rational systematic lines.
Such subconscious preparation is theoretically the best and proper way. Examinations are incidents, and not ends, and they are a necessary evil to every instructor, even more than to every student. If study for examination is done along these lines, in this general manner, learning is really learning. In addition there is no worry. No worry-excitement arises in the mind, as the "critical" time approaches, no phobia to disturb and even undermine the mental and bodily processes, and to disarrange the ready association of ideas. There is a vast waste of energy in worry; fear (worry is fear) starves the brain by using up on itself its food over-fast.
On the other hand, the prospect and the certainty of an examination provide the requisite emotional tone to give study its necessary concreteness and practicality. Examination is thus an incentive to vigorous study and therefore more or less necessary educatively as well as merely expedient. If these "ordeals" had not been shown to be necessary by centuries of world-wide experience, it is absolutely certain they would have been abandoned, for they constitute to the conscientious teacher and instructor the most disagreeable and laborious portion of the entire educative work. But at present examinations are undoubtedly a necessary factor in the process of real learning. Nothing can take their important part, nothing, at least, that is now over the pedagogic horizon.
Theoretically, examinations should be always at unannounced times, thus training the student in continual preparedness and insuring a degree of attention to the daily work which can be obtained in scarcely any other way. This expectation develops the important subconscious habit of "attending to business." It trains, too, in the power of suddenly turning our attention and then of using it to its utmost, mental dynamogeny. This, as President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University points out, is required frequently in real life,—this power of clearly and vigorously turning our mind to any required topic on demand at an unexpected moment; many occupations depend on such ability.
Oral Examinations. Oral examination is the ideal form of them all. It is generally far more efficient as a means of testing our ignorance or knowledge of a subject than is a written examination. The universal objection to the oral examination is that it requires too much of the examiner's time, far too much of the time of some costly expert. It requires less on the part of the student than does the written examination, but greatly more on that of the instructor. Any one, however, who has taken a university doctorate examination, in the focus of a concave mirror of kind but searching inquisitors, appreciates that it is the method above all others for finding out how little a student knows about a difficult subject. For this reason oral examination is coming more and more into use. Here it is possible to ask fifty questions instead of five or ten. The examiner can almost see the associational machine work, and therefore can judge for himself whether it be adequate or not; he sees the living mechanism itself, and not only its product. Theoretically, there should be more and more oral examinations in all kinds of schools, in the higher grade-schools, for example, as soon as it may be arranged; this matter is making progress, especially in the medical schools.
Written examinations are a make-shift, but they are much better than nothing. Oral examinations are far more psychological than written ones, and give the really efficient mind and knowledge a much better chance. About as many, I take it, are handicapped mentally by the inability to write explicitly as are disparaged by the inability to talk quickly, briefly, and intelligently. So far as the student's welfare is concerned, there is no good reason to suppose that oral examinations would be a handicap. On the contrary, in the long run, the widely demanded training in self-possession, in repartee, wit, quick reply, would be of much use to almost everyone. This, too, is at heart a matter of adequate physical training, as "skill", already sufficiently discussed. Oral examinations require self-poise above all else save real knowledge. Both require a reasonable expression-intelligence.
Practical Examinations such as are given in physiology, physics, chemistry, and similar subjects are the ideal examinations. Their universal unpopularity shows well enough their value and their difficulty. They are the only kind of examination that show our real and practical efficiency. They make a test of what we can do, actually perform, rather than what we have merely learned about, second hand. Undoubtedly they are overdone in some professional schools. The proper place in general for the practical examination is in the normal school, for there teachers are trained, and they must know how things actually should be done.
Writing Examinations. In written examinations, at least, knowledge as to the range and kind of questions asked in previous examinations is a right and not a privilege. The possible scope and methods are very numerous, and the student, therefore, necessarily has a right to "get the range" of the examiner, and of the subject as he presents it. If the previous examination-papers are on display, it is certainly the psychological duty of each student to get access to them in some way or other; no competent examiner will refuse this, although it will make the thoughtful work of preparing his examinations more arduous.
The personality, too, of the examiner is worth a bit of careful study. Strange as it may seem to young pupils, the usual instructor has fads and habits much like other folks. Here is where general, human, natural intelligence comes to the aid of the students. In certain cases, a knowledge of the examiner is only less important than knowledge of the subject of the examination. This is a personal, confidential point which should not be published widely, for some non-human logicians do not yet understand the need for a knowledge of the motivity of human behaviour and possibly might deny their humanity.
Plenty of sleep for a week or more before an examination is well worth whatever time it costs. Every hour so spent is worth at least treble what you might expect unless you understand the efficiency-advantage of rested brain-units over those that are fatigued. Sleep clears the cobwebs out of the brain and memory, so that the nine billions or so of neurons can work in association far better than when they are fatigued.
General invigoration of the entire organism greatly improves the memory and the reasoning powers. Therefore much outdoor exercise is especially highly expedient during the few weeks before examination-time. In this way we tone up the whole organism and put it, as the athletes say, "on edge." At examination time it is desirable that the digestive tract be in good working order. Thus we may avoid that feeling of toxemic headache and general malaise which is incompatible with clear thinking and with accurate work.
A light breakfast or a light lunch of easily digested food is necessary before an examination, on the physiological principle that the blood, which is limited in quantity, cannot be both in the brain and in the stomach at the same time. On the other hand, a hungry person cannot think readily, (nor can a cold person). This light meal, a short time before an examination, might very well include a cup of coffee or tea, not too strong, provided the student is accustomed to its use. This is obviously not a good time to try experiments as to the personal reaction towards drugs of any kind. Alcohol is harmful to all mental (and bodily) effort.
A student sometimes gains much by looking over the entire material of the examination immediately before the examination-hour. A large amount should be surveyed in a short time,—ten minutes or so on the whole subject matter,—not by any means a long time enough to tire the reader. In practice this is often extremely productive in suggesting partly forgotten facts and principles which (as experience shows) are just those required a short time later.
If the examination is to be written, prepare at least two fountain pens, well filled and clean. Or sharpen four or five pencils which are neither too hard nor too soft. Or have both. If the pencils are too hard, the examiner is apt to be reduced to mild pedagogic anger when he reads the "book"; whereas if they are too soft, it is difficult to make a neat paper. This matter of writing-materials is far more important than the average student is apt to consider, so if "marks" be of any object (and sometimes they appear so to the examinee!) we might follow to good advantage the habit of the newspaper-men who use a large number of soft pencils and write large and legible script. Did students in general take these matters into consideration fewer examiners would sympathize with Ralph Waldo Emerson when he says in his "Journal": "What a pity that we cannot curse and swear in good society. My page about consistency would be better written thus: 'Damn Consistency"—which is good psychology for several reasons.
So much for a few practical points as to preparing for an examination!
The next search is as to the scientific manner of actually doing the examination. Our mental attitude as we actually approach this concrete problem is of the utmost importance. We should set about an important examination with a grim determination to "eat it up" bodily, as the students say. This is what we mean by dynamogeny, which has been already referred to in previous pages. This appears psychologically in the form of a conscious determination, a powerful determination reinforced by a strong self-suggested feeling of encouragement; it is auto-suggestion plus an emotional tone. Since the work in Cannon's laboratory, we realize that this dynamogeny depends in part on the increased amount, however, minute, of adrenin in the blood, but especially, perhaps, an increased supply of sugar there. This "dynamogeny" is a matter of great and practical importance, and no longer the perfect mystery that it used to be. This is an extremely important power, and for the writing of an examination or the doing otherwise of an examination, it may mean all the difference in the world, even all the contrast between failure and success. In the same way the man who is shaken into pneumonia with a firm determination that it shall not kill him, enjoys a far better chance that it really will not kill him than does one who is over-frightened by the prospect of undergoing this sad and irresponsible disease. There is a force in this human organism of ours which it would be difficult sometimes to stay in bounds, and this force can be used in the successful performance of examinations as well as elsewhere. Reduced to scientific terms, it means the more or less controllable force of the influence of the mind over the body to which there is at present no assignable limit.
As we enter an examination-room, if there be any choice, we should choose a good light without having to face the unprotected brightness of the open sunny sky, which would in varying degree irritate the brain. We should choose a place where there is ample rest for the elbows, for combined all of these minor subconscious strains on the central nervous system count in a long and fatiguing examination and help to weary and retard the action of the brain. We should choose a cool rather than a warm place in the room. We should insist that the room should be adequately and amply ventilated, because it is better that it should be open to the air than too restricted. The ideal approximates to good outdoor conditions of breeze and dampness. The best temperature is 65° Fahrenheit, for the excitement and the attention of the work is sure to raise the personal temperature somewhat and this, in combination with a too warm atmosphere, would produce a flow of sweat which would be uncomfortable and so distract thoughtful attention. On the other hand a chilly person cannot think readily.
As in all other forms of long mental strain, the wise student frequently will rest his eyes and the muscles of his head and neck by looking around the room. This changes (lengthens) the focus of the eyes and thereby rests all parts of this extremely delicate seeing-mechanism. At least once in every fifteen minutes a minute or two is used with the greatest economy in looking around.
It is almost impracticable to say much about penmanship. The matter is undoubtedly an important one from the student's point of view, and not less so certainly than from the examiner's. The obvious fact is that plain writing in the long run of emotional examiners distinctly tends toward high marks. The writing must not be too fine or faint, such as that made with a very hard drawing-pencil; and it must not be too difficult to read because of poor handwriting. Relative illegibility puts the examiner in bad humor and that is a bad "policy" for the examinee. It is worth while to put plainly on the examination-question papers given to the students that "the answers should be concise and systematic, and the writing must be plain."
It is inexpedient to enlarge here upon the necessity of good English, yet there is, none the less, a widespread tendency in schools of all grades in the United States to use the English of all written examinations, if not those that are oral, as a test of the general intelligence. This is one of the important things for the advancement of general intelligence. The reading and the grading of examinations is positively the worst of all school-work, especially where the school is large. One instructor I know reads more than thirteen hundred "exam-books" in a college year! Under these conditions we should expect that the feelings of the average examiner would be unable to stand much further strain and remain free from uncontrollable resentment. Therefore write good legible English, on the general principle, if on no other basis.
Do not think that an examiner is going to take anything "for granted"; theoretically he should not and in practice he may not. Details, then and explicitness (facts) are wholly necessary for the securing of high marks. It is statements, true statements, showing knowledge and understanding, that count; the more of them, the more credit-marks a student receives. But observe that not all words are statements! far from it. Using the slang because of its explicitness, all "hot air" should be left out of an examination. It wastes the good humor of the examiner, which is a very costly kind of waste under the circumstances. It is ideas in general, not words, that count: in fact, words that do not express any ideas are rather worse than nothing, because they waste the time and precious patience. of the examiner. It is obvious that in many respects the examination is a test between the student and his examiner.
Pictures and diagrams, especially when labelled and explained by text, are an ideal way of partly writing an examination, and oftentimes students deficient in the power of good English or of good handwriting, can remember pictures and sketch and label them when they cannot describe explicitly the conditions. This in itself is an important power of education, this faculty of remembering, of understanding, and of reproducing pictures and diagrams, and here of great and granted use.
In long examinations where the hours are apt to be crowded, as in many professional examinations, the examiner should not object to the syllabus style. Schematic arrangement is of the utmost importance in writing a paper which is to be high-marked. We have called attention to this matter already—sub-divisions under properly logical headings. We may be sure that an examiner will always appreciate this arrangement, for it relieves him of needless work and shows, at the same time, that the student really understands, in a psychological way, the material which he has offered. Conciseness is important, but conciseness is not necessarily brevity; it means brevity only so far as consistent with fullness and clearness—the omission of unnecessary words.
Good humor is important, as in other situations in life, in this writing of examinations, and still more in an oral examination. Here the native intelligence of many individuals shows itself to the best advantage, as they realize, for dons and professors, and even state boards of registration, are human after all, little as some students suspect it. All our wits and a bit of wit! might be our motto. But not too much humor, and not too much wit, for some examiners think it undignified to smile, and so discount the work of the humorous student. Flattery and titles are absolutely fatal in an examination, for the average examiner will not stand them. In general, confidential notes appealing to some person who is interested or to personal relations of the examiner are not highly productive of scholastic success—nor are graphic pictures on the last page (such as have been seen) showing a weeping female on her knees begging for A's (or at least for a D).
We should plan out the entire time allotted for the examination, allowing so many minutes for each question with an ample time for review—at the end. It is a good plan, having done this, to remember the limit of time to be devoted to each question and, if necessary, return afterwards to an unfinished answer. On the other hand, provided the question can be satisfactorily answered or answered as fully as is possible, we should go immediately to the next question.
It is an extremely common error, and one highly harmful to the average student, to hurry through an examination and not really think, or at least succeed in recalling, what he really knows. Examinations test intelligence and this hurry shows. that there is none of it present. There is no excuse for this, save in highly professional examinations in which the examinee is given just time enough to write rapidly what he should, with scarcely a moment at all for search-thinking or for recall. An examination ordinarily should give some time for thought on each question, and it is highly important that this time should be so used.
It is a common error, also, to think well and hard at first, to push the mind well in the early part of the examination, but to stop the effort when a little tired, although the examination be only partly completed, the latter half, even, being slighted. Examinations test the entire intelligence, or they should do so, and one is not intelligent or a proper student whose mind is so little trained or so weak as to make this mistake. The old trick of writing one-half, or as much as may be, of the paper and then saying the "time is up" or "no time to finish," of course deceives no one. The last question is just as important as the first one, and it is the student's business to be sure that it be answered as well as the first, if he be looking for good marks. Bluffing is dead fatal to success in the long run, even if it does hit the pass-mark now and then. This occurs as a pretense of having knowledge which we know perfectly well we have not, trusting that the hurried examiner will mistake mere words for the statements required. We might expect that the feminine mind would be more successful in this than the masculine. We should not confuse this with intuition, which is appreciated subconscious knowledge. Oftentimes there is more in our subconscious mind than we realize and only by the actual expressive motor reaction of trying to write it do the associations which occur in the mind show themselves in consciousness.
We should not judge an examiner's mind by our own. It is generally true and germane, explicit, ideas that count, and not our particular notions of these essential ideas.
Examinations require above all things else (save learning) self-possession for a highly successful outcome. Adequate physical training, systematic and continuous, will help us to this self-possession like nothing else save actual practice in this highly human educational art. To avoid examinations is to cheat our learning mind; to flunk them, to cheat ourselves.