a few mental notes

Caught up with my study partner this morning. She couldn't sleep last night because of her PSS (pre-exam stress syndromes). Luckily, I'm an excellent sleep-er and normally wind down 2 days before the exam. This strategy has worked for me for all my 19 years of exam life (I grew up in China, right. You are not surprised.) To sum it up - 2 Nevers: Never look at practice questions in the 48 hrs leading up to the exam (unless I'm dragged into it by others); Never look at anything printed or written on the exam day. Ok, perhaps, make it a 3 Nevers - never hang around people who contradict 1 and 2 of the above... Well, there you go, my safe-guarded precious secret...

Ok, on a separate note, the annoyance about law is that 20 years post admission I will still be haunted by my undergrad results. Look at the recruitment ads of top jobs - excellent academics, outstanding academics, splendid,superb, top 5%, cream of the class... It's almost as if once you graduate with an average GPA, you are condemned for the rest of your career life like a peasant-slave under the Tsar. Ok, that's exaggerating. But when my successful middle-age barrister-lecture mentioned (on a passing note) that he wished that he had done better as an undergraduate, it sure woke me up and had me alert for the rest of that lecture . So the rule is damn simple. If I wanna do this, I really have to get a D for each subject. Given I've spent so much time in this law thingy, I might as well.

As a result of my dedication of this post to the law study, the following content may be completely boring. (You may leave now after this disclaimer is announced). So while I'm still motivated, I need to make a few mental notes.

1. Study strategy:
1.1 Prior knowledge: so clearly, I need to read all the subject guides, read the notes of previous students (if available), attempt to make sense of the overall course structure, content, the relation and interaction of the topics; attempt a little detailed reading on the important cases identified in such notes and do up the case notes while reading. This is the warm-up.
1.2 During lectures: tidy up notes as soon as the lecture finishes; I will generally spend a lot less time doing this right after the lecture than leaving it to the end of the semester! Read in-depth about important cases afterward. Do case notes as I read.
1.3 Section summary: at the end of lectures on each section of related topics, produce an A3 page matrix and practise questions; Practise under exam conditions and write down answers fully and within the time allocated to a question of that weight. This process will take up a day based on my recent experience. The absolute advantage of doing this is that I'll foresee where the questions are going to come from (from my recent experience again).
1.4 Pre-exam: memorize the summary, treat it like a close-book, and write down complete answers to past exam questions within the time limit with or without memory aid (the summary). Do at least one mock exam. This is how I know what areas of knowledge are likely to tested.

2. Techniques
2.1 handwriting: I s**k big time with my snail-speed of writing. I'm afraid that the only way I could improve is to literally pick up my pen and paper again...boy, I hope they start computerised exams soon. It's gonna take off the loads on the poor markers who get to read the intelligible chicken scratches proudly presented by the tortured law nerds under a panic stroke that lasted for 3 hours! I hope the only reason why they are not doing it yet is NOT that the 1-finger typists get all the sympathies... Well, I type fast. And it's not an unfair advantage.
2.2 think logically under pressure: I don't experience mental blanks, rather I have information overload when under pressure. My knowledge on everything of the subject rushes to my head all at once and gives me a big process backlog...of cos, while the clock is ticking... I guess the only countermand is to do some brain training and get used to thinking under pressure...How? I need to google it...Maybe it's as simple as taking a yoga breath, and get to the basics, write a clear answer plan first...
2.3 explore the best style of exam writing: google it, check all sorts of sources, practise and establish my own style? Do away with big words...if impossible, try abbr. The quickest way to express an idea is when it's expressed with the fewest words. Get used to that. Ok, maybe to start with, I need to allow myself only a reasonable dose of rattling on this blog...
2.4 join a debate club: I don't know why I put this down...oh maybe it'll compliment 2.2...

Now I sound like a complete freak. Thank you.