Does it ever happen that during an exam you forget everything you studied the week before out of excitement? Or maybe you went to lectures, but before the session, you had more important things to do than repeat the material? If you have a minimal understanding of the subject – the brainstorming method will help you prepare a decent answer. Collective discussion, however, is excluded, but you can just as successfully arrange it alone – in your head.
What is brainstorming in general
Usually, the brainstorming method is arranged by the whole team, which needs to solve some problem. Participants take turns expressing ideas and opinions, then they come together as a whole. Successful ideas are retained and developed. Thus, the most correct solution is born by joint effort.
Examples of brainstorming in the classroom are joint labs and workshops. Common discussions during a test, when the teacher has left the room, can also be attributed to this method. Brainstorming is the collective solution to a common problem, where every voice and every participant is important.
How to apply brainstorming in an exam environment
Brainstorming in its classic form is very difficult in exams. What to do? You have to play the role of all participants yourself: identify the problem, ask questions, consider the problem (in this case, the question of the exam ticket) from different sides. The method is simple enough and easily broken down into several steps.
1. Asking questions
You can ask both narrow questions (“Who invented this?”, “What is it made of?”) and broader questions (“What have I heard about it?”). Write down all the questions that come to mind, even if they seem completely strange (“What does it taste like?”). Brainstorming problem solving involves as many different perspectives on the problem as possible. The more sides to consider, the better!
In the second part of this step, write down the names of disciplines related to the exam, including those from your school days, if any of the subjects have not yet been studied at university.
2. Searching for answers
Now it’s time to brainstorm! For each question asked, write down all the answers you can think of. You don’t need to describe the phrases in detail – just put the main points. Make sure you write it down – with a lot of information it’s very easy to forget something and lose sight of it.
If you don’t know something, try to guess the right solution based on the information you know. If you understand the subject, it will not be so difficult. This stage will be especially easy for those who are interested in their specialty and read a lot of additional literature.
Depending on the subject, the approach may be slightly different. In higher mathematics, for example, without exact knowledge, guessing can turn out to be erroneous conclusions. So for subjects related to math, economy or finance, finance homework help. But for brilliant answer in anatomy, you don’t need any help, if you have knowledge in zoology and histology.
Try to remember (or come up with) the connection of the topic from the ticket with related disciplines. Thus, any topic from inorganic chemistry can be connected with nuclear physics, almost any section of biology, life safety, and first aid rules. Even if you do not remember anything specific about the question from the ticket with the help of other disciplines, the connections found will help expand the answer and make a good impression on the teacher. It will be clear that you are knowledgeable in all the subjects you are studying.
3. Throwing out the unnecessary
You have complete list of all information related to the topic. Not everything you have written should be in the answer, so the next step is to check and cut out the unnecessary stuff.
If you’re taking an exam in the exact sciences, it’s time to check all the formulas and calculations. In science subjects, you will have to rely only on your logic, so make sure that the written facts complement each other correctly. In humanities subjects, remove contradictory thoughts and theses. And, if you pass a practical assignment, it’s time to choose from all the selected ways to choose the one that seems most optimal. You even search for cheap research papers online
At the same stage, you need to assess how important these or those facts are to the answer. Discard repetitive or far-fetched statements, mark those in which you are not sure.
4. Making an answer plan (or solving a problem)
Now it is time to combine the brainstorming ideas into a full-fledged answer. For an oral answer write either a full text or a detailed outline – otherwise, there is a high chance of forgetting something. And in the case of problem-solving, it is not superfluous to write comments and explanations for each action. Now you remember everything perfectly well and can explain it, and questions from the teacher can easily confuse you.
