Winning at exams, tests, elections and referendums

With a referendum on Scottish independence expected in 2018 and school exams coming up in the next few months, I thought some first-hand experience of passing exams would be useful for school pupils, politicians and activists wherever they are. We don't want any more shocks like #indyref (Scottish Independence referendum 2014); #brexit or #trump now do we? Passing exams has a lot of similarities to winning elections - both have the opportunity to head towards 100% and get as close as possible by minimising obstacles.

This article is about passing exams and tests. In a later article, I will show how this translates to business scenarios for quality improvement (six sigma) and winning referendums and elections. It's a combination of quality, planning and using emotions for a purpose.

If you like short articles rather than lots of detail (hello Millenials!!) then please feel free to skip to the end and you can cover the detail later - I'm old school sometimes and like to show my workings.

School days

I would like to say at the outset that I do not consider myself a genius or outstandingly intelligent. To do so would be rather conceited and there are plenty people out there who are leaders in their fields or who have PhD's, Professorships, Nobel Prizes or outstanding achievements that have changed humanity that deserve such an accolade.

This story began when I was in school and I found that for some subjects I ended up teaching myself. I went to Dunblane Primary school and Dunblane High School, the latter being one of the top state schools in Scotland. For somethings though I just ended up teaching myself. I bought books in primary school on science which taught me things that weren't taught in the classroom. I got a calculator with scientific calculations that helped me learn about calculus in primary school and I was generally inquisitive. Learning PI to 20 decimal places and solving the Rubik's cube faster than anyone else in the school weren't particularly useful skills but they were outlets for curiosity and problem solving. I had to teach myself how to write as the primary school was obsessive about how to hold a pencil the "correct" way which for me being left handed was completely the wrong way and also smudged the ink when I progressed to pens. School taught me that learning facts is important, but learning how to learn is more important. I was generally in the top class for some things (however was useless at PE, English and Art) but not top at anything until it all changed in 5th year.

In 5th year maths I was generally in the top 10% for Maths but never in the top 5%. I was good, but not great. After 7 years of primary school and 5 years of High School, I changed and without any books or private tuition. The result of this change was the highest mark in the history of the school across every subject. When the marks came out the school called to congratulate me. Now this was just me getting somewhere between 90% and 100% for an exam which was a record for the school, but there are plenty other people who have got such a mark, so not particularly brilliant. Still it was a big deal at the time and given my previous good but not great results was a bit of a bolt out of the blue.

Lessons learned 1

First, a self-belief that I could actually get 100% in an exam and having the determination to do so backed up by a revision programme that worked.

Secondly, an appreciation that the more efficiently I could use my time the more I would get out of it. We all get the same 24 hours in a day, it's how we use it that counts. Time is like money, you only spend it once. The key is spending it in the most efficient way.

I discovered at school that by teaching myself and reading ahead I covered the class material before the class did. That meant when we covered it in class it was revision for me but new for everyone else. In class, I had the opportunity to ask questions and close the gaps in my knowledge. If I was doing the same as everyone else, then I might not discover questions until I did the questions at home where there was no-one able to help me. That was an impediment which I corrected by studying ahead.

5 years at university

I went to Edinburgh University and this story takes a twist now as I didn't do particularly well. There were a number of personal factors for this including changing degrees partway through the course and an utterly unrealistic workload that was more of a test of how little sleep you can survive on and how quick you can write in lectures (often little more than writing competitions) than how much you actually learn. All night shifts in the machine hall was not what I signed up for, especially with an overloaded IT system during the day. That was a long time ago and most people have now moved on. I hope that the student experience now is a lot better, especially since the laptops students have now are 1000 times more powerful than the departmental systems then shared by 50 users. However. I left with a degree that was not a reflection of my ability. I knew that and went on to prove the point. I was then given an opportunity to correct this for my Master's degree and to show the High School achievement wasn't a one off. It took 5 years of work though and a second degree which gives me the opportunity to say that although a failure isn't the end of the world, it can take a lot of time and effort and money to turn things around and so it is far better for important exams to get the best result at the first attempt, you sometimes don't get a second chance (we're stuck with Trump folks!) hence this article.

The result of my postgraduate degree in 1994 was quite a turnaround from my undergraduate degree in 1987. I went from near bottom of the class to top with distinction and class medal. I learned a new subject (Object Oriented computing), I believe it was the first full time degree in this subject in the UK and some years later I represented the university in their "50 years" year book as the student representing 1994. Five years at work had taught me a lot of personal and study skills which I applied in the degree as a mature student and which did me well, especially as I was dealing with an emotional separation during the course as well. It was a challenge of time management and effort over emotion and personal commitments outside of the degree. I took a long-term view and achieved a balance that meant the most important things got enough time but there were still time for other things too. It's all very well getting kudos points for turning around a set back, however it is better not to have big set backs at all. In agile we talk about "fail fast". This is wrong, it is better worded as "if you are going to fail, then fail fast - but it is better not to fail at all."

When the teaching part of the course had finished and I was into the study time in preparation for my finals, rather than charging on with revision I developed a plan. It took 2 days to develop this plan but it then allowed me to get more out of the remaining time - it's about working smarter and getting the most out of the time to achieve the objective -see my earlier comment about we all get the same amount of time, it's how we use it that counts.

Lessons learned 2

What worked here for exams was using what I'd picked up through a course I did at work. Tony Buzan's books on memory and speed reading allowed me to read books faster and remember them better. I went over the books I already had, practiced their techniques for 2 days and put them into action together with a study plan which meant I had a clear plan for the study period and enough time allocated to each subject the day before the exam and enough time to revise my knowledge with a time allocation proportional to need. The two day investment in a learning strategy paid off. This meant I could spend my time efficiently with more time allocated to the subjects that needed it. This is exceptionally important because of one fact:

If you make no mistakes in an exam, you are guaranteed to get 100%. The only thing between you and 100% is errors. So eliminate them.

The objective from school and developed further at University was not to revise what I already knew, but to look almost entirely at what I didn't know and to relentlessly focus on minimising errors by repeatedly going over stuff I didn't know, to get the error rate as close to zero as possible. This is similar to the principles behind Six Sigma which produces a maximum 0.00034% error rate (i.e. 99.99966% correct). I bet a lot of students would be happy with that mark!

The point of revision is to discover what you don't know and to focus on eliminating these areas whilst ensuring you consolidate your existing knowledge.

In 2015 I repeated the strategy whilst recovering from 6 months of serious illness and embarked on a management diploma. Whilst recovering from the illness and having a persistent cough for a month, I completed the diploma with my second distinction and again got the highest marks in the class - 120 digital leaders across the UK. Three times (school, postgraduate degree, diploma) I came top because I made the most of my ability to revise, do well on the day and improve where I was making mistakes.

A technique of applying time effectively, having an achievable goal and eliminating errors worked. These principles apply whether you are passing degrees, school exams, winning referendums or trying to achieve your goals. Identify the obtacles and eliminate them.

I said it was about eliminating obstacles but it is also about the effective use of time - a finite resource which should be used in the most effective way for the best outcome. Some further tips:

State of mind is important. Our emotional state and how we feel affect our ability to think clearly, remember facts and recall them. It affects our fast "system 1" thinking, explained by Nobel prize winner and Professor of psychology and public affairs, in his best selling book thinking fast and slow. Our system 1 thinking is more emotional and influences our system 2 more complex and rational thinking. If you're trying to do a difficult task such as revision (system 2 thinking) and your system 1 (emotional) thinking is stressed out, distracted, upset then you won't get very far. A positive emotional state is necessary to get the most out of our analytical minds and achieve complex tasks. See exactly how stress messes with your attention span, focus.

Some people prefer music when revising. I think an experiment is called for, study for an hour with your favourite study music, test yourself. Then an hour without music and test yourself. Go with what produces the best result, not what you like the most!

Summary

1. The objective is to gain maximum marks. You do this by minimising mistakes. No mistakes means maximum marks. It worked for me three times. I didn't always get 100% but I aimed for 100% and came first. You can too.
2. Analyse what you know and discover the gaps. Spend your revision time in proportion to the gaps. Look at each subject area and see how far you are from getting 100% in each. The difference between where you are now and 100% is your gap. Look at the gaps across all the subjects and then apportion your study time in line with the size of the gaps. You know a subject well? Only spend a small amount of time there. You don't know it well? Spend more time there.
3. A positive state of mind which is energised by a realistic goal works wonders to set something you can go for. Being anxious or worried might hamper your short term memory.
4. When allocating a timetable, set up a timebox, such as an hour, a morning or a day. Ask the question - what is the most effective use of this time to achieve success by minimising the number of mistakes? Revise this strategy so you keep learning what gets you the most out of the time available. Take appropriate breaks, over work is counter-productive. Drink plenty water. Get plenty sleep. Your brain works best when your body is healthy.
5. Learning how to learn is a transferable skill which you can apply across multiple subjects and in multiple situations. School, university, work. A mind that continues to learn will improve at being able to learn and this will have unexpected benefits you perhaps can't foresee yet.

I hope this helps all those studying for exams, it certainly helped me.

Part 2 here

Craig