If you are a candidate preparing to do the national examinations for senior three and senior six, I would like to share with you some study tips that will keep you focused as you do the countdown of the days to your examinations.

I believe that your teachers have been guiding you on some of the tips but I just want to emphasise them. You should remember that each day which goes is a day nearer to that long awaited moment when you will have to prove that you have been taught adequately and that you are ready to move to the next academic level.

You have reached a critical stage along your academic journey which necessitates you to have a clear work plan that will propel you to excellence. You should ensure that you have all the lesson notes that cover your entire course of study. If you are in senior six, make sure that you have all the Advanced level material and those of you who are in senior three should have all the ordinary level material. If you have all the lesson notes by this time, the examiners will in no way out spot you by setting questions on topics that you have not studied. You should remember that the examiners base on the entire curriculum for a given level to set the examinations for that level. 

It is important for you to be in close contact with your teachers throughout this period so that they can keep guiding you on question approach and essay writing techniques. You may read a lot but without adequate tips on question interpretation and answering techniques you may not be in position to write your examinations in a way that cam earn you excellent marks. During the third term, teachers offer a lot of support to the candidates who are hard working. It is therefore your responsibility to approach them regularly.

You should gather several past papers for both internal and national examinations and make sure that you discuss the questions with your classmates and teachers. Such exposure to a variety of questions will help you build confidence in yourself and by the time you do the final examinations, you will have sufficient experience of handling them. However, before you discuss the questions, give one another time to research so that when you sit down to discuss, each member has something substantial to share.

By this time, you should have a revision time table which stipulates what you intend to read on a given day. It is not helpful to just keep picking on any notes to read because by so doing you may leave certain notes unattended to for long and by the time you decide to read them, it may be too late to grasp the concepts. It is advisable that you come up with a balanced time table that caters for all the subjects that you study. It is that programme that will keep you focused up to the last day.

Note making is vital at this stage because it helps you to check your understanding of what you read other than just reading to complete whatever you have. After revising a given sub-topic or topic, you should always try to recall what you have read by jotting down the key points that you have read about. The short notes that you make enable you to determine whether the information has sunk in your brain or not. As you get closer to the examinations, you may read the summaries you made to be able to remember the details instead of cramming all the content up to the last minute. Cram work may shatter your career dreams.

Keep yourself safe, disciplined and healthy during this period. I wish you a fruitful term.

The writer is a teacher