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Reasons Why You Should Take Practice Tests before an Upcoming Exam

Exams not only help assess and analyze an individual’s knowledge, but also enable an employer or organization to test their skills. When it comes to applying for jobs in civil services, these exams are all the more important. This blog post will talk about the importance of taking practice tests before appearing for a services exam.

Why Are Civil Services Exams Important?

Working for a government organization or department is a huge responsibility, and these departments can’t hire just anyone. To be able to work in these departments, you require some knowledge and skills. Apart from that, you have to show that you’re better than other candidates. Every year, thousands of candidates appear for these exams, but only a few succeed. For any government department, exams are one of the most important tools that they use to test these candidates, and select the best among them.

How Are the Exams Designed?

Many candidates are unsure about what the exams include and what they’re being tested for. While civil services exams may vary for every department, they are all designed in essentially the same way. The good news is that you’re not expected to possess any prior knowledge of the job you are applying for.

The purpose of these tests is to assess your basic knowledge and cognitive abilities. The written exam is more or less like any other aptitude exam you might have given. However, the pattern and style is different. The exam is divided into different sections to assess your reading, comprehension, and writing skills.

What Are Practice Tests

Practice tests, often also referred to as mock exams are usually past examination papers that previous candidates appeared for. They give you an idea of what the actual exams look like. Some institutions with experienced teaching staff also design their own practice mock exams to assess students.

Why Should You Take a Practice Test?

Whether you’re appearing for a services exam, or for any other exam, giving a few practice exams can help you familiarize yourself with the exam. Moreover, it can remove any doubts or confusions you might have about the exam, and help you feel more confident when you give the actual exam.

Above everything else, a practice exam is the best way to analyze where you stand and how prepared you are for the exam. It helps you identify which areas you need to improve upon.

Let’s explore some of the top reasons why you should take a practice exam.

Set Priorities

When you give a few practice tests, it gives you an idea of where you lack. Based on the results of your practice test, you and your teacher can set priorities and come up with strategies to make improvements. For instance, if you notice that you’re scoring well in comprehension but not in the writing section, then you can start dedicating more time to writing essays.

Reduce Anxiety

It’s common for students to get anxious and stressed out when exam dates are approaching. Often, uncertainty is a major cause of this anxiety. Students aren’t sure what the exam contains and how prepared they are. Giving a practice exam can remove this uncertainly and help the students deal with their anxiety.

Boost Confidence

When a student sees themselves scoring well on the mock tests, it automatically boosts their confidence and further improves their performance. Research shows that when a student is confident, they are more likely to score better on the tests.

Help With Revision

Often, students aren’t sure how to do their revision. After spending months studying for their exam, they often feel like that they’ve forgotten everything and need to revise everything from the beginning. However, that isn’t true. According to the psychologists, everything that we read or learn is stored in our implicit memory and we recall it as soon as something related to it stimulates our brain.

Giving practice exams can help activate your implicit memory and test it. They give you an idea of what you need to revise, and what you’re already good at.

Timed Practice

Often, students mess up their exams because they fail to dedicate appropriate time to each section. The best way to avoid this is doing timed exam practice to see whether or not you’re capable of finishing the exam in time.

Tracking Progress

As you keep giving practice tests, you can keep a track of your progress and see where you stand after every few weeks or months. For instance, you can spend a week studying and improving your skills, and then attempt a practice test at the weekend to compare the results from your previous tests.

This gives you an idea of how you’re progressing and whether or not you need to pace up.

Identify the Exam Pattern

Attempting multiple practice exams can help you identify the pattern of your exam. You may identify some commonalities between all exams and develop a short cut or effective strategy to attempt your exam.

At Civil Services Success, you can benefit from our prep classes for civil services and past exam papers. We also offer similar training and preparation opportunities for NYC firefighter department exams ,NYS Court officer exams, Suffolk County Police Exams, or any other civil services exam, you wish to appear for.

We have prepared thousands of candidates for their services exams in different departments. All our teachers are highly experienced and help students in every way possible. You can get in touch with us to learn more about our course material, exam preparation classes, sample exams, and much more.

 

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