I’m just finished writing a short series on Exam Technique for the British Medical Journal (BMJ), which I hope will be published in a few weeks. Now I can’t copy it here word for word due to copyright restrictions, but I will let you in on the basic ideas contained in the four articles.

You can think of exam preparation in three stages " study (lasting several months, hopefully); revision (a few weeks) and performance (the last 24-48 hrs). However, before getting down to any of these, we need to address the matter of attitude. With a positive attitude, you can address the challenge with a bit of energy and verve. With the wrong attitude, the most effective strategies or tactics will fall flat.

The psychologist Albert Bandura introduced the concept of self-efficacy, which is central to meeting a challenge like an exam. Self efficacy is more specific than just feeling good about yourself (that’s self-esteem), it means having a belief in your ability to make things happen. Without that belief, it’s difficult to motivate yourself into even trying to get anything done. Self-efficacy is strongly correlated to success both at work and in academic settings. Although it’s preferable to have a self-image based (at least largely) in reality, if you overestimate your abilities a bit, it will probably become a virtuous cycle, as your strong belief in your abilities motivates you to try harder, and so leads to more success.

How do you develop a sense of self-efficacy? Well it’s partly about just starting to realising that you have a lot more power in your life that you may think " the examiners may set the questions, but you are in control of how much study you do, how well you manage your time and stress, and so on. Once you realise that you have some power, use it. In a teaching context, taking an active rather than passive role can improve your enjoyment as well as the educational benefit you get from it. Ask questions, challenge ideas, think about what you’ve been told, rather than just accepting it all.

If you believe that your success is largely down to things outside of your control " your teachers or luck in getting the right questions, remember the story of the world champion golfer (this story has been variously attributed to Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jerry Barber, but the point of the story is the same, whoever said it).

A golfer made a brilliant shot near the end of a difficult round, and someone in the crowd was heard to remark,
“Oh, what a lucky shot!”
The golfer turned to the spectator, and smiled:
“Yeah, and you know what?” he said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get!”

Get lucky " put in some practice for those exams!