How to Study for a Bookkeeping Exam

Taking Your Time

This method is to be applied when you have sufficient time to read before the open book exam. The method emphasises the fact that open book exams are not the same as ordinarily closed book exams and thus would require a different study approach. Here are the steps that will guide you to prepare when you have sufficient time before the exam.

Start studying for exams beforehand as open book exams are all about how you retrieve or apply a concept and thus don't expect to find quick answers by reading the book or notes during the open book exam as your time will be limited.

Collect your Resources: Get your textbook, related reference materials and class notes (if you have any). If your teacher uses slides to teach then get your subject slides too to read. (A Computer will be required to read the slides or any other thing that can read slides/presentations)

Familiarize the Test Portion: Know your syllabus and tick the chapters for the exam. Now start with the first chapter, Break up the chapter into co-headings. Now go through your slides for the first chapter in quick succession and note down important formulas or points pictorially and compactly so that you can easily revise and remember things positioning. You can also underline the important concepts and theories in the textbook for easy retrieval during revising. Maintain a notes book to note these down and number each page number which will help you when you create the easy retrieval guide index.

Start Preparing: Now you will find the textbook easier to read and you can skim through it and can focus on doing problems. Try remembering important formulas and concepts as it's always good to remember then just noting them down it gives you a time advantage during the exams as you no longer have to search for the formulas and concepts. Practice by questioning yourself of what possible questions could be asked and how you would interpret them. Note down your mistakes to avoid them during the exam. Note down your mistakes, possible questions and interpretations in your notes book to get an advantage during the exam.

Organize your knowledge: Similarly, study for other chapters and write down important points from both slides and book in a pictorial manner (you can also include page numbers for keywords). Maintain an easy retrieval guide index for easy accessing of concepts and formulas during the exam. Here is how to make an easy retrieval guide index: Firstly write the chapter name and number. Under the heading write down the important concepts and formulas and index the page numbers where they are available. This will allow quick retrieval during exams. You can distinguish between concepts, headings, subheadings and formulas by designating some symbols to them which in turn will allow quick specific retrieval. For example, formulas can be given a star symbol and concepts can be given a flag symbol. Also index the Page numbers of notebook pages under the respective subject headings and write the page numbers in a different coloured pen to help you realize that the point is present in the notes that you created. You can put a cross symbol beside the mistakes or possible danger points in your notes to help you stay alert on not making mistakes.

Now your chapter maps and mind is organized enough to write an open book exam.

Cramming

This method is for those students who have insufficient time to prepare for open book exams. Though this method doesn't allow a full-throttle performance that you could have achieved by Method-1, still we will help you prepare for the best in a short amount of time. In this method, we will be using an R-N-I-R approach. (Read-Note-Index-Revise)

Collect your Resources: Get your textbook, related reference materials and class notes (if you have any). If your teacher uses slides to teach then get your subject slides too to read. (A Computer will be required to read the slides or any other thing that can read slides/presentations)

Familiarize the Test Portion: Know your syllabus and tick the chapters for the exam. Check out the syllabus and consult your friends and teachers about the chapters which are the most important to know for the exam. Prioritize your chapters based on their importance for the exam and start with the one at the top. Anyhow, we will be reading all chapters so you need not worry much about prioritizing while reading, but this will help when it comes to revising as you never know what can happen in an open book exam.

Start Reading (R): Start reading your slides and notes to get a brief review of the concepts and formulas involved. After this, you'll have an idea of what the subjects are about. Now go to your textbook and just skim for the important points and mark them. Books usually contain lots of explanations and stories so skimming is a good idea to save time.

Take Notes (N): Here notes' taking is very much different from the one in Method-1. In this step write down the summary of the chapters in a pictorial manner along with the page numbers if possible which will, in turn, become the Indexing (I) part of your preparation. Pictorial representations will simply boost your preparation and will eventually fill up the lack of preparation time.

Revise (R): Now as you have organized your preparation, simply work out the old or previous year question papers. While maintaining an exam environment as mentioned in the “Final Call” step of Method-1. Check with the solutions released with the paper. Note your weak points and eradicate them by revising them again. In case you missed something in your Indexing then do note them after the trial test while studying. Reevaluate your performance and preparation by writing more such trial open book exams.