Creative Colibri

This is the first in a series of three posts on how to study to pass your exam the first time you try. 

Most students start studying for their exams with some knowledge of how to drive on a road, what different signs, signals and road markings mean, and what the rules of the road are. At the same time, these same students don’t know how that knowledge fits in versus what is required to pass the exam, and therefore study everything rather than just the areas they need to focus on.

We believe that the best way to study is to always focus on the weak areas - this will enable you to improve the fastest with the least amount of effort. 

Step 1: Take a test that represent the full exam curriculum

The first thing you should do when you start studying for your exam is to take a mock test that represent the full curriculum. This mock test should have at least 50 questions split between the different sections of the exam curriculum. The exact curriculum will vary by exam, so the key thing is to take a test that has balanced set of questions from the entire exam curriculum.

Creative Colibri sites have multiple mock tests that represent the full exam curriculum and that are great examples of how the real exam will look and feel. The examples below are from two of our sites: practising for a learner’s licence test with African Licence in South Africa and practicing for a theory test with Take The Theory in the UK. 

Step 2: Score the test and analyse the results to understand where you need to focus

Once you have completed the first test, score it and analyse the results. What’s particularly important is to identify the areas areas where you have done well versus where you need to improve. In practice that means summing up your results for each chapter of the learner’s licence curriculum and scoring the chapters individually. That way you can understand which chapters you can focus on. 

Doing this manually, can be cumbersome. The good news is that our Brush-Up feature does this work for you – take a test and see where you need to study further to pass your exam! The below examples are from African Licence. 

In Analyse, you can see which areas are strong and which you need to improve. 

In Review, you can check out the questions you got wrong and read up on the right answers.

In Focus, we give you an overview of the chapters you need to continue to focus on to pass the exam first time.

Now get back to studying and take your first test - best of luck!