This article is part of Uni Enrol’s SPM Masterclass to be held in November 2020. Register now at unienrol.com/spm-masterclass
Raise your hand if you have friends who always tell you they did not study much but consistently score As in their exams.
Are straight A students being modest or is there truth to how they prepare for exams that is different from most students?
From studies done with many top students, researchers found that they do not focus on memorizing and revising over and over but approach studies more strategically.
If you are preparing for your SPM, read on to learn 3 POWERFUL STRATEGIES top students use to shortcut their way to top results!
#1 Don’t Memorize Everything! Identify Important Topics to Focus Based on Past Year Papers
Questions that come out in past year papers is an indication of what examiners feel are important topics about that subject and where you should focus your time and energy on.
Although you should have a good understanding of facts and concepts, not everything in the syllabus will be tested.
Before you start studying or practicing any questions, flip through the past year paper questions and take note of which topics they fall under, especially those that come out frequently.
This way you don’t spend too much time trying to cram the entire syllabus but only strategically focus on understanding popular topics. Only if you have time, then you may go back to cover less popular areas.
#2 Practice Past Year Paper Questions
What is the closest thing to mastering the upcoming SPM papers? Doing the past year papers!
One of the recurring themes from top students is that they make it a point to practice on as many past year papers as they can.
For SPM, the past 5-10 years will be relevant.
Top students use past year papers to identify patterns of how frequent certain questions come out, which year was the last time it came out and how likely it is to come out in the upcoming exam.
For example, questions that came out the year before would unlikely be repeated so soon. You should also take note of the different variations that questions can come out for particular topics.
Topics and questions that rarely come out may also make an appearance from time to time.
When you practice on answering past SPM questions, you are also training yourself to complete them quicker if similar questions come out.
Nevertheless, read the questions carefully before hastily answering them.
In the upcoming Uni Enrol SPM Masterclass, our experienced teachers have done the work for you in analyzing past year paper trends and provide their insights based on the trends.
#3 Answering Techniques Based on Exam Schemes Will Maximize Your Scores
Examiners follow a certain marking scheme as a guide when allocating marks to the answers you provide.
For written subjects such as Bahasa Melayu, English and Sejarah, there are certain keywords, points and structure to the answer, if provided will enable you to secure the maximum marks.
For sciences subjects, mathematics or accounting, providing the correct terminology and deriving the proper steps in your answers will help you capture every mark allocated for these questions.
In the model answer section of your past year paper exercises, you may have noticed the recommended answers and how marks are allocated for certain points provided.
Some of your teachers in school (who could secretly be examiners) may repeatedly highlight certain topics or emphasize certain ways of answering questions in class. So pay special attention to what and how your teachers conduct their classes.
It is not about how long your answers are but hitting the right keywords, points, structure or steps in your answers can be the difference in getting a B+ and A, or A and A+.
Our SPM Masterclass is designed to cover answering techniques such as this by our experienced teachers who have perfected their techniques and notes that have helped many of their students score A.
Go to unienrol.com/spm-masterclass to quickly sign-up as seats are limited or call
03-5613 7225, Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 6pm.
Get extra 10% discount with this coupon code: SPMSABAH10