How To Prepare English Test

Students who are new to university-level English classes may find it hard to determine exactly how to make the best use of their study time to prepare for an English exam. Generally speaking, English is not a field that requires memorization of certain key facts and figures in order to ace a test -- instead it demands an understanding of the conceptual frameworks that help shape written works. With that in mind, here are some approaches to tackling the material.

Exam Preparation During the Semester
The best exam preparation of all takes place over the course of the semester as a whole. Many students overlook the importance of developing good work habits until it’s too late. Doing the reading, showing up for class, and taking notes is essential. As Cal Newport argues in How to Become a Straight-A Student, "If you attend class regularly, you will significantly cut down on the amount of studying required to get high grades" [Random House, 2006].
Details from the text(s) and key concepts that the instructor mentions on a regular basis require special attention. If the instructor has emphasized something, it’s likely to appear on an exam. Concurrently, any materials he or she breezed through in the lecture are probably not as significant.
Even students who try their best to do all the assigned readings are bound to miss a few things or not give them full attention. At least a week before the exam, these readings need to be completed or at least selectively skimmed, with special attention paid to any supplemental readings that can flesh out the social and historical contexts of the literature itself.

Anticipating Exam Questions
Once students have a handle on the content and context of each work, they need to draw connections between them in order to get a sense of what questions might appear on the test. Marjorie Boulton points out that "the basic technique of an answer on literature is almost always to argue a case, agreeing or disagreeing with a statement in the question, or looking at both sides" [Routledge, 1980]. What ideas do the works share, and where do they differ? What overarching themes are present? Are there certain common threads? What sorts of questions might the exam ask on a typical compare and contrast question?
It may help at this stage to go back to the syllabus and read the course description. What is the class meant to accomplish? This is a checklist that will help students determine whether they learned what the instructor set out to teach, and it can point out gaps that need to be addressed before the exam.

Remembering the Fine Details
As a final preparatory step, students should refresh their memories as to the authors, titles of works, their setting, and the names of characters. The instructor is far more likely to believe a student knows the material if that student remembers that a story takes place in Austria and not Australia. While many instructors are lenient with students who forget a few details, anything more than that suggests a failure to carefully read the course materials.
Students armed with these fine details, with a sense of the content and context of each literary work on the syllabus, and with a general idea of how the works are conceptually related will generally perform well on a final exam.