4 Things You Should Do After Getting Back A Test Paper

1. Do your corrections

In school, your teacher will usually go through the paper in class and get all students to do their corrections. Don’t treat this as just another task to do - but as a learning opportunity! Your teacher will share common mistakes made by students who took the test, as well as important elements that are needed to score higher marks. These might be certain keywords that must be included (especially for science subjects), or certain workings you need to show (for math subjects).

As you do your corrections, take note of these important areas highlighted by your teacher. You can take notes separately of what examiners are looking out for in good answers, and try to include them next time in your answers.

2. Review your paper with your tutor

Most teachers don’t have time to go through students’ papers individually. However, everyone’s performance is different and you may have specific issues that the teacher could not address in class. Thus, you will benefit even more if you can schedule an individual consultation with your teacher or a private tutor to go through your answers with you.

Your tutor can identify key trends in the test paper and provide tips on how you can improve moving forward. As this is an individual consultation, you will get feedback that will definitely be relevant to you and this will help you focus on the areas you need the most work in.

3. Take note of areas for improvement

After reviewing your paper in class and with your tutor, it’s easy to forget what you talked about if there were many points discussed. Condense the most important areas for improvement and write them down. These would be the areas that caused you to lose the most marks, rather than small, one-off mistakes that are comparatively insignificant.

4. Set follow-up action plans

Don’t sit on your mistakes and commit them again in the next test! Now that you know which areas you need to improve in, set a plan to work on them. If it is a particular topic you are still unsure about, schedule more study time to work on those topics or consult your tutor to clarify your doubts. If it is a particular skill or question type you have not mastered, find similar practice questions and do them until you understand how to do them well.

Having a tutor is good for this purpose as they can help you follow-up and track your progress moving onwards from the test. Our tutors at Future Academy would also be able to select and dispense suitable practice questions according to the students’ needs, helping them improve rapidly in their weaker areas.