TIPS IN TAKING THE BOARD EXAM

1. Brush up on your reading comprehension skills

UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU READ!

Your ability to understand whatever you read is no doubt the most important aspect in
the board exam ( and more importantly , in your careers). Every word that appears in
the question that you read serves as clues to the right answer.
What to do: READ READ AND READ! Increase your vocabulary!

2. Be physically and psychologically prepared

Always remember that your body has limits. Being physically prepared during the
review is as important as being physically prepared during the board exam. Avoid
exhausting yourself by having a long, relaxing and restful night sleep before the exam.

Attend to your physical needs before the examination begins. Depending on the
strictness of the assigned proctors, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GO OUT THE ROOM
ONCE THE EXAM STARTED. So watch what you eat and drink.

3. Expect the Unexpected

Do not expect everything you have read and studied in your review will come out in the
exam. We can safely say that only about 30 to 50% of what you have read, studied and
memorized during your review have appeared in the actual exams.

The remaining 50 to 60% would comprise a combination of the following:

- Things you learn only from actual first hand experience
- Things that are a bit trivial but you might have an idea ( but not really sure)
- Things you have not encountered in your review but might have been tackled in
college or highschool
- Things you have encountered in your review but could not recall
- Things you really don’t know squat about
4. What you have written, you have written

In chess, ITS TOUCHED MOVE.

You would be required to use pencils to shade answers in your exam before answer
sheets are checked using the lead sensor machines. Erasures are prohibited. Once you
have shaded an answer, you cannot change it and pick another one. Erasing a
previously shaded answer will leave spots of lead on the paper. This means that when
your answer sheet is processed by the machine, it will detect two answers and will
automatically mark that item wrong.

5. TAKE YOUR TIME

Study your exam schedule alongside with the syllabus. Compute the number of minutes
required to answer per question. Answer first the easiest and items you are
comfortable with. Keep track of your time. Wear a wrist watch. Don’t use the
cellphones.

6. Practice ACE ( Analyze, Compare and Eliminate)

Exploit the weakness of multiple choice questions. Practice the art of elimination to
increase this probability esp. for questions you don’t know.

7. Logical Reasoning Really Helps

As Sherlock Holmes put it, having logical skills is a valuable tool to deduce an answer in
certain questions you are not familiar with. These, in particular, are recurring questions
with similar choices.

8. Read Questions very, very carefully – Be aware of stingers

Read the question twice, thrice or even four times before you answer. Do not be a high
speed answerer by just reading the first few lines of the question and assume you
 already know what is being asked. You might miss important words that give hints to
the right choice. You also have to look out for the STINGER WORDS like the words NOT
and EXCEPT.

9. Categorize your answers to gauge your score

All of your answers can be categorized into three parts, namely : Very Sure Answers,
50/50 Answers and Wild Guesses. After having all the answers in the questionaires and
before you start transferring them to the answer sheet, alaways calculate the possible
scores by marking questions into these categories.

The point in doing this is not only to see what your possible score is but be able to re-
check and re-evaluate your answers esp. those that belong to the 50/50 category. So get
back at those questions and spend more time rethinking about your answers before you
transfer them as final answers in your answer sheet.

10. Questionaires first, Answer sheets later

Set aside first the answer sheet. Focus on the questionaires. Read, read and read the
questions until you fully understand what it is asking for. You can put some notes,
encircle clue words and put your answer first on the questionaires. After which, transfer
your final answer to the answer sheet.

11. THE FINAL CHOICE IS YOURS- Dread it or excel it?

The question dares you to accept the challenge of being a loser or be a winner.
When you decide to answer it, be honest because you are the only one who can do it. It
will only be you inside the exam room, holding the exam pen and facing the exam
paper. Would you like to be on the success side or be one of the losers. Look at things
as challenges and opportunities for you to learn and grow.

If you believe that you will excel in the board exam, then YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO
CREATING YOUR OWN MILESTONE.

GOOD LUCK AND AIM FOR THE TOP ONE, NO OTHER!