There are few things quite so scary in a student's life as the prospect of an examination. The very word "exam" can fill us with dread with its suggestions of testing, interrogation and judgement. Nobody likes to be put on the spot and have their value linked to the success or failure of a single activity that may go well or poorly depending on so many factors. That said, much of the power that exams can have over us is related to fear of the unknown, and that is something we can do something about.
There can be little doubt that being adequately prepared for an activity takes a great deal of the mystery out of it. If you have seen a film numerous times, then you are likely to be far less shocked when the killer leaps out of the bushes and attacks the hero. If you are familiar with a particular stretch of road you are not going to be taken by surprise by sharp bends and zebra crossings and your journey is likely to be a safe and successful one. If you know a person very well and have been friends with them for years, it is going to be much easier for you to predict their behavior and to avoid doing or saying things that are likely to damage your relationship. More often than not, we fear exams because we do not, feel adequately prepared, and so we face the examination as some sort of mysterious monster with unknown powers that is ready to leap out and consume us. We let the examination own us rather than us owning it.
There are, of course, things we can do to regain control and ownership of our exam, but they do require effort on our part, these are not magic tricks but skills and attitudes to be developed. Some of them are fairly simple exercises of common sense that can be learned, and applied relatively easily, others are more demanding and require long term commitment and application throughout a course of study.
At the end of the day, there is nothing like familiarity to take away the fear of the unknown. The more familiar you are with something, the more comfortable you are with it. In essence, an exam is a test of your familiarity with your subject area, how comfortable you feel with the knowledge and insights you have gained. Familiarity cannot be established quickly, it takes place over a period of time. Think about it in terms of meeting a stranger for the first time and starting on the process of becoming close friends. You could try and fake it by memorizing some key facts about that person, but that is not the same as becoming their friend, and it certainly won't aid you in establishing a comfortable relationship.
Revision is not a learning process, it won't help you build up a comfortable familiarity with your subject. Revision is, as the word suggestions, looking over something you already understand simply to remind yourself of it. It's a bit like preparing to shop for a birthday present for a friend. You may know your friend very well, but sometimes you have to sit down and remind yourself of their tastes, what their hobbies are, what they already have and so on so that you can get them the ideal gift. This process is not the same as actually becoming their friend, a process that takes time and commitment
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