Self-reflection can be used in every facet of your life, but when used to review your exam experience, it can improve your performance, enhance your engagement, and boost your motivation, explains Edel Walsh
Simply put, self-reflection is the act of taking time to think, meditate and evaluate your behaviours, motivations, and performance.
Self-reflecting on your exam performance, regardless of whether you passed or failed, encourages critical thinking about how you approached the task. It helps you consider what worked well for you in the exam process and what didn’t, and how you can approach this task differently in the future.
By reflecting on your exam performance and experience, you will gather valuable information to help you grow and develop as a learner.
Effective questions for reflection
Let’s look at some useful questions to support you in your reflective practice. We will reflect on your exam preparation, your performance during the exam and what you might do differently in the future. It’s best to write your answers down as they will have a greater impact and can be read again later.
Exam preparation
- What learning strategies were most/least helpful?
- How do you learn best?
- Were you deep learning or surface learning?
- Did you use all the resources available to you?
- How realistic was your study schedule?
- When do you know you have really learned a topic?
Exam performance
- Did you have enough time to answer all the questions in the exam?
- Which topics or subjects were you least/most confident answering?
- How did you feel during the exam?
- Did you use any stress management techniques?
- What did you learn from this exam?
Future exams
- What study strategies will you continue using in the future?
- What changes do you need to make?
- What have you learned from this experience?
- Who can support you going forward?
Addressing common reflections
There are often common themes that come up for students after they have reflected on their exam preparation and performance.
Time management
Exams are designed to be completed within a given time frame. Finishing an exam too early can be as big a red flag as not completing it. You might have accidentally skipped a question or mis-read a requirement.
However, a more common mistake students make is spending too long on one question. You might have been confident about the subject matter and written too much. It’s important to remember that, no matter how much information you can give on a topic, once your time is up, you must move on to the next question.
A good solution for this is to answer the easy questions first. This will build your confidence in time management. You can go back to the difficult questions later in the exam.
When time starts running out, you can get flustered and make mistakes. Slow down, take a deep breath and use positive self-talk. Tell yourself you can do this — and then do it.
Misinterpreting a question
Students often say they mis-read a question or they misinterpreted what was being asked of them in the exam.
During your next exam, take deep breaths when you think you have gone awry. You can get a lot of clarity by taking just 20 seconds to breathe deeply.
It’s smart to highlight the key words in the question and look out for the word “and” in a question requirement. In one question requirement, there might be two questions and you don’t want to miss an opportunity to gain full points.
Stress and anxiety
It is very natural and very common to feel a little stressed or anxious coming up to or during an exam. Because of this, students often say their “mind went blank” during the exam.
For your next exam, be prepared to calm your nerves. Practice breathwork before the exam and it will come naturally to you during the exam.
A simple method is to breath in deeply for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breath out for four seconds and hold for four seconds. By doing this simple exercise, it will calm your nerves and help you focus.
If your stress levels are very high, be sure to talk to someone in your support network or a professional as they can help you with some relaxation techniques or give you some advice to ease anxiety.
After reflecting on your exam performance and experience, make an action plan for your next exam. Consider the following questions.
- What is your goal for your next exam?
- What study/learning strategies are you going to put in place?
- What study/learning strategies need to be changed or abandoned to achieve your goal?
Final note
Self-reflection can come easily to some and not so easily to others. However, even if you’re in the latter category, it is still worth trying it out as it really can improve your performance, engagement, and motivation.