Notes not to be missed
The 10th grade high school entrance exam in Hanoi is approaching. In the final sprint phase, besides consolidating knowledge, many 9th grade students are focusing on practicing test-taking skills to avoid losing points unfortunately, especially in English - a subject that worries many candidates because of the large amount of knowledge and time pressure.
Talking to reporters, Ms. Tran Hien Anh - English teacher, Thong Nhat Secondary School (Hanoi) said that the school divides the review process into two main parts including topics and exam questions.
In the topic section, students will be systematized for each specific type of exercise such as pronunciation, stress, grammar, sentence conversion or reading comprehension. After mastering each type of exercise, students move on to the stage of generalized exam questions.
Currently, students have been trained from about 50 to 100 exam questions to get acquainted with the exam structure and practice the speed of doing the test" - Ms. Hien Anh said.
According to the female teacher, one of the common mistakes of students is trying to do the test in order from question 1 to the last question. This easily makes them spend a lot of time on difficult questions from the beginning and affects their psychology when doing the test.
“With English, students do not necessarily have to do questions 1, 2, 3 in turn... Instead, take a quick look at the questions first to identify easy questions and do them first. Then return to process difficult questions” - Ms. Hien Anh noted.
Students need to pay attention to underline important keywords in questions to avoid confusion. This is a particularly necessary skill for reading comprehension exercises or finding the right and wrong answers.
Especially after finishing the exam, students should spend 5-10 minutes to re-check the exam. Students are easily confused in switching answers from the exam to multiple-choice answer sheets.
Break down study time to keep focused
Not only focusing on test-taking skills, Ms. Hien Anh believes that building a reasonable review plan is also very important in the upcoming exam period.
According to the female teacher, instead of studying continuously for many hours in a row, students should break down the study time so that the brain has a necessary break. "Students can spend about 20 to 30 minutes reviewing each type of test, then rest a little before continuing. For the test preparation part, they should focus on about 60 minutes to get used to the time pressure like when taking the real exam" - Ms. Hien Anh shared.
The important thing is that practice must be maintained regularly every day instead of studying intensively close to the exam day. When practicing questions regularly, students will become more familiar with the structure of the questions and improve the speed of doing the test.
Besides, students should also not force themselves to study continuously for 3 to 4 hours because that can easily make the body tired, reduce the effectiveness of absorption and create unnecessary psychological pressure. "Students should choose the time when they are most awake to do the exam, for example in the morning. When the spirit is relaxed, the ability to concentrate and remember will be better" - the female teacher added.
In the final stretch, besides studying, teachers also encourage students to maintain stable psychology, get enough sleep and balance rest time to have the best state before entering the 10th grade exam.
