If you want to pass physics (or just about any academic course), you need to pass the tests, hopefully with a good grade. For quite a while I have been meaning to put something on test-taking online. This I have finally decided to do even though I am sure that I will have to continually revise it as I remember what I've learned about students taking tests and learn new stuff through continued experience. A lot of this advice will also apply to other academic tests. When applying this advice, you should take into account your own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. What works for someone else may not work as well for you. So, without further fanfare, here is:
I am covering this topic first because it is often overlooked, especially by students. You will very likely not do well on a test if you are tired, sleepy, and "psyched out". When you go in to take your test, you should be, as much as is possible, rested and confident.
Don't spend the night before a test cramming. I have known smart students who have done this and ended up failing miserably because "everything I learned was just gone".
If you have ever had to get up and make a speech, you may have learned that the key to doing a good job is to be confident in your presentation, and this implies you are well-prepared. If you get up in front of all those beady eyes unprepared you may panic and end up with an embarrassing experience. There will be more about test preparation below, but the point to be made here is that you must avoid panicking by whatever means (think preparation!) you can muster. A panicked person is virtually worthless, whether it's an emergency situation or a physics exam. And don't let one problem on a test initiate a panic response. If you come across a problem - it may even be the first one - that you don't know how to approach, take a deep breath, go on to another problem, and save this one for later. Work the problems you feel more comfortable with first. This (1) assures you will get the points you deserve for those problems and (2) will calm you down, knowing you have made progress. Never spin your wheels on a problem that's difficult for you at the expense of taking time away from solving others. This is just smart test-taking strategy, and having an effective strategy is another key in avoiding panic.
OK, what is the absolutely worst thing that can happen to you when you take a physics test? (Besides the physics building blowing up due to some grad students horsing around.) You can fail. Then the worst thing that can happen to you as a result of this is to fail the course. So, you may have to retake the course, which does not seem such a bad fate if you compare that to the millions dying of AIDS worldwide. This is another DON'T PANIC!! directive. Working yourself into a state that threatens your health, marriage, job, etc., is not worth it. Lots of students have had to take courses over once or even more times and then have gone on to successful careers. Don't sweat it.
Here's another good confidence builder. When you approach a test with a battle plan, you should be able to avoid the panic mentioned above. Following are some possible strategic elements.
I mention again the technique of taking care of the easier questions and problems first. Get as many "easy" points as you can.
What about those problems that are more difficult? If your professor allows for partial credit (and I think most do - or should!) then do the best you can on them. If one approach seems to be leading nowhere, try another. If you get stuck, go to another problem you are having difficulty with. Don't spin your wheels! but make sure you have something to show on your paper for your efforts.
If the test includes discussion questions, be sure to use a variation of the approach discussed just above. Even if you can't think of the exact, appropriate answer, write down something that is at least peripherally related, if possible. You may be closer to the answer than you think. Or, it may even be that once you start writing, relevant information will pop up in your mind by association. After all, this is how we remember lots of things - by association. Even something that is off the mark may be worth a few points if it is well-expressed. (I don't know how many points I've been able to cop on tests in all different kinds of subjects this way. What's that? Excuse me but "bulls**ing" is not a nice way to describe this technique.)
Even if you can't take a break (well, maybe a bathroom break) during a test, you can take a break at your seat. This could be the pause that refreshes. There are different kinds of breaks. The ultimate break is to just rest your head, close your eyes, and go to sleep. No, just kidding. Don't go to sleep, but clear your head by trying not to think of the test for a few minutes. Or, it may help to draw back from the test paper and the equations and just rethink a problem in general terms. Or, see if you can recall a similar problem you may have worked or seen worked as an example. Or, see if you can think of a simpler but related problem that you know how to solve; it may be the key to turning on that light bulb. Don't limit yourself to just one way of thinking about a problem.
If you have time at all, go over your test. Going back to a problem you worked earlier might enable you to spot an error or something you overlooked. There is a myth that if you change your answers on a test, you will usually get them wrong. I have seen no evidence of this. Don't hesitate to second-guess yourself so long as you are not in a state of anxiety or panic when you do it. (These states definitely can cause you to choose incorrectly.) With preparation and a good test-taking strategy, you may have time to go back over your test in a calm state of mind. I have added numerous points to tests I have taken this way. Don't be lazy and just leave when there is still time on the clock!
By far the most important element of a test-taking strategy is to be prepared! However, this deserves a major discussion of its own.
This is a skill you should develop in homework and quizzes and get better at with each passing test. The major impediment to acquiring this skill is anxiety and impatience. Students want to have the solution NOW and want to immediately pick out an equation to plug numbers into in order to accomplish this. This is an excellent road to being a C student or worse. Think before you stink.
It happens all the time. A student works out a problem he or she thinks was being asked because the student didn't read the problem carefully. Or, the student overlooks doing part (d) and loses points even though parts (a)-(c) make it clear the student knew how to solve the problem in its entirety. Or, the student can't solve the problem because he or she failed to notice that something he or she was trying to compute was actually a given in the problem. And so it goes. Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.
But somehow students think they do. They look around for the magic equation that they can plug numbers into and get the correct answer. These students sometimes turn in the most ridiculous answers that have nothing to do with the problem at hand. Not even anything there for a single point of partial credit. What you have to do is think about the physics of the situation. You can't pass physics without learning some physics. This is not cookbook, plug'n-grind stuff. Try to visualize what is physically happening. Once you have an idea of what is going on, only then think about what equation(s) might apply.
After you have visualized the situation the problem describes, the best thing you can do for yourself is to draw a diagram. Here again, students are too impatient and/or anxious to do this, and this usually results in spending much more time trying to get the solution (or quickly getting the wrong solution). The type of diagram depends on the type of problem. You may want to use arrows to show the direction of forces, motion, acceleration, etc. You may want to show "before" and "after" positions of objects involved. In thermodynamic problems, you might use wavy arrows to indicate heat flow. The better the diagram reflects the physics involved, the more help it will give you. Drawing diagrams is a skill you need to develop as the semester progresses.
There is almost always more than one way to solve a problem. A related matter is that you shouldn't assume that there is one equation to use to get the answer. You may have to get intermediate answers - in fact, you probably will. You may not, at first, know which intermediate answers provide part of the path to the solution. So do the trial and error thing. Compute something you know how to get from the data in the problem. If that doesn't turn on a light bulb, compute something else. Eventually, you may put it together, sort of like getting parts of a jigsaw puzzle together to make progress toward the final solution. All physics problems are not solved by the same cookbook-like steps, but there are classes of problems that have much in common. Knowing what the intermediate steps are is therefore learned by experience.
When you have finally produced an answer to a problem, don't do what 99% of your fellow students do: breathe a sigh of relief and abandon the problem as if it were a stinking carcass. Before you move on, give your solution the old "Sanity Test". This means to evaluate your answer based on how reasonable it is. Did you calculate a runner as going 400 mph? Is the force acting on a wagon pulled by a youngster 20 tons? Did the time of the car trip come to 3 × 10-17 seconds? Since much of science these days is done in the international system of units (SI), in order to evaluate what your answer means you must...
The metric system is used all over the world to the exclusion of all other systems, except, of course, in the good ol' USA where we insist on maintaining the British system. Not even the British do this. No wonder they still refer to us as "the colonies". It is absolutely mandatory, if you are to shoot for a decent grade, to learn about meters and joules, kilograms and kilowatts, millinewtons and millipedes, minivans and miniskirts. (Quiz: Which of the previous metric units are bogus?) You also need to learn the prefixes like "mega", "giga", "micro", "kilo", etc. So just do it!
This piece of advice is much like the one about the Sanity Test. The great thing about SI units is that you will always get the correct units in your answer, because SI is a "self-consistent" set of units. There is a down side to this in that it encourages students to ignore units until they are needed to express the answer (as in, for example, "The range of the projectile is 24 meters.") However, if you carry your units all through the calculation, you may not get the correct units if you make a mistake. By learning physical units and carrying them through every step of the calculation, you have a check on the correctness of your solution. If you don't get the right units, you have definitely screwed up somewhere.
Preparation is really the key to being calm and confident when going in to take any test. As mentioned previously, being well-rested is part of that preparation. Here are some more pointers.
Begin studying for the first test the first week of class. Start studying for each following test a few days after the previous test is over. (You do need a little break, of course.) Review your notes and read the corresponding part of the textbook soon after each lecture - the same day if possible. Don't wait to the last minute to work on the assigned problems. Keep it short enough that the routine is not burdensome. Try to break your homework up into two or more problem-solving sessions if you can rather than doing them all at once. Form a study group or join one! This is an excellent way to make sure you keep up with your study schedule. Then the day before the test review notes, text, and problems to refresh your memory (NOT for the first time) and get a good night's sleep. Now, I realize how difficult it may be to really follow through on this schedule, but you will probably spend less time studying in this fashion than waiting a day or two before the test. AND, you will definitely make a better grade.
Of course, you're not going to do any of the stuff I recommended just above. Except do the study group thing! But you really do need to have your studying done prior to the day before the test. However you manage it, make sure that you are well-prepared early so that you can get a good night's sleep on test eve night.
Not your love life, your physics problems. Some of the most successful students I have had were the kind that wanted to know not only what to do but why you would do it that way. You haven't made much progress if you have only learned the steps needed to solve particular problems. If, on the other hand, you go over problems (homework, quiz, example, review, etc.) with the aim of figuring out why the steps to the solution were made, you have fortified your brain for the upcoming test, training it to counter any evil blasts your professor might launch at you. You can try figuring it out yourself, using your study group, or, if all else fails and you are on the precipice of utter destruction, you might even go visit your professor.
If you want a good test grade, you are probably going to have to "go the extra kilometer" and practice for the test by working out some problems in your textbook that weren't assigned as homework. Of course, choose problems that have the answer provided in the back of the book and pay special attention to types of problems that have given you difficulty in the past. Be sure to insult ...er consult your professor if you get stuck.