Nerves, stress, knots in your stomach, light sleepy nights and adrenaline rushes, when the questions finally come your way, you are relieved to realize that you know them all. Or almost. University Entrance Assessment (EvAU) dates are not easy for students who have to sit for exams with a pen, calculator and a piece of paper in hand. Many times, your grade is the key to achieving the career you have in mind. And it requires one last sprint after high school.

Since the EvAU schedule is already activated (in some communities it started yesterday, in others it will start in the coming days), we leave you some tips from experts, proofreaders and organizations that will help you perform better in your exams.

Give yourself a minute to get started.. Rush is generally not a good friend. Even less so in EvAU. The key to success is to have studied and be clear about the curriculum; But no matter how prepared you are for the exam, one thing is certain: If you read the questions calmly, without rushing, and manage your time wisely, you will get the most out of your knowledge. To pass the test well, it is very important to have a rough idea of ​​how much you will spend on each question.

As the International Protocol School recommends: Take a breath, make the first reading of the exam superficial to have a global image and start with the questions that are easiest for you. This way you will gain confidence, relax, be better organized and make time for the most difficult questions. You will also start adding points towards the final grade.

Questions one by one. It’s not easy to deal with stress as the exam approaches, but organizing your information will help you. Answer the questions better one by one, focusing your mind on the question you are currently answering. Do not go from one to the other in a chaotic and hasty manner. “Organize your information: try to focus on the current question and do not jump from question to question, because this way the answers will get confused,” states the Comillas Foundation.

There are also some simple tips to help you get to EvAU more easily: Try to go to bed early the day before, check that the calculator, pens and other tools you need are in order, and plan how you will get to school. The center where evaluations are made on the exam day.

Concentration is your ally. We have mentioned this before. Those who come to EvAU do so with many topics and concepts in mind. Some are more settled. Others less so. The important thing is to stay calm, be mentally clear and always focus on the question being answered. UAX even recommends abdominal breathing, visualizing positive images, and relaxing or exercising muscles. awareness.

Ideally, you are new to the exam, so whenever possible, you should avoid delving into excessive concepts or start new topics the day before. This doesn’t mean you can’t review. On the contrary: do it. However, ideally you should use diagrams and summaries. And above all, rest. A tired brain cannot perform well and give its best during the exam.

Clarity above all. Rush is not a good friend during EvAU; clarity yes. It will help you as a student. And to the examiner tasked with correcting your exam. PCE School recommends that you take advantage of the sheets they provide during the test to write down concepts and calculations, making the exam much more readable. Of course, you should try to write well.

And this doesn’t just mean avoiding typos, mistakes that you should of course avoid and for which it is advisable to re-read what you have written. When we say “writing well” we are also talking about calligraphy. Nervous or unnerved, your handwriting should be legible and easy to understand. And if you have to cross out, do it in the simplest way possible, without large passes or annoying erasures.

It’s a bad day to be Góngora. If you like clear and fast-reading text, your examiner will certainly like it too. EvAU is not a good opportunity to use gongorino style and devote yourself to chaining clauses and using pasta syntax; As a result, you run the risk of losing the flow of your ideas.

“It is better (actually much better) to make EXPRESSIONS SHORT and SIMPLE. Complex expressions containing clauses of nouns or other types of complex expressions are NOT recommended,” says Soledad Hernández, professor and former proofreader at EvAU, in ten published decologues. It’s on his website which details the mistakes you should avoid when handling a text comment. And yes, the capital letters are his, which gives an idea of ​​his emphasis.

blessed synonyms. Writing acceptably also includes not being repetitive. With neither vocabulary nor syntax when constructing sentences. This is another of the ideas that Language and Literature teacher María Pereira conveyed to her students during an interview. Country. For example, he encourages his students not to abuse the “since then” formula in their texts. After all, Spanish has many other connectors that enrich writing.

If at any point in the exam you are in doubt about whether a particular word is spelled with a “b” or a “v”, “j” or “g”, using synonyms can help you overcome this problem. Better a good synonym for time than a negative point in EvAU.

Details, details! That’s not Hernández’s only advice. Designed primarily for commentaries on History and Philosophy texts, but transferable to any answer you need to develop in writing, the ten commandments give you some keys that will help you emerge from the exam with more self-confidence.

Most of it can be summed up in one sentence: Pay attention. And look at the details. If you want to leave EvAU with a smile, make sure you spell the first name, surname and jargon of each subject correctly. And don’t confuse periods or authors. Another thing you should pay attention to is personal comments.

Remember: you are not a parrot. At EvAU they will assess that you have graduated from the Baccalaureate with sufficient background to successfully move on to your next stage of education, be it vocational training or university; But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for originality. Especially if you aspire to get a high grade. And be careful, this doesn’t mean beating around the bush. The key is to show creatively that you have internalized the concepts, made them your own, and handled them with ease, not limiting yourself to covering them mechanically like a parrot.

“My impression is that in high schools they give their students too many rules and advice, and perhaps they are too guided. They lack creativity, they are cut off the same way.” Country María José Gutiérrez, a professor at the University of the Basque Country who has chaired the Electoral Tribunal for years. “I really appreciated someone who got out a little.”

Of course, not all subjects have the same margin of originality. Any comments you may make in History, Philosophy or lecture have nothing to do with Physics, Chemistry or Mathematics. writing The English test where you have a lot more room to avoid falling into the mundane and clichés.

Pictures | Pablo de Olavide University (Flickr) 1 and 2

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