How to pass your entrance test

High achieving schools use entrance tests for Form One recruitment.

Be sure you maximise the opportunity to avoid the situation whereby you move from one school to another as has become the norm in Zimbabwe by parents and their children to be guaranteed a Form One place the following year.

Since to many of you it might be your first exam in life to determine your destiny here are tips to make it in your entrance test.
Make sure you read the requirements on the invitation letter for your entrance test before you go. These include the entrance fees, accommodation and other requisites.

Be on time not in time. Many pupils might be coming from faraway places especially those schools in the outskirts better be there a day before or in time to avoid hold-ups and traffic jams on the way and make sure you arrive with time to spare so that you can go in calmly rather than in a frantic rush.

Get a good night’s sleep; do not stay up till late revising unless you feel this is vital.
A final review of topics and a review of your “strong” and “weaker” areas would be best.

Get your resources together otherwise you might end up panicking before the test. Take sufficient pens, pencil, rubber, ruler, etc. Make sure you know what you should be using before you go in.

Make sure you listen very carefully to instructions that are given or any announcements that are made. If anything is unclear, ask questions before you start as this may save you a great deal of time later.

Take a wristwatch but make sure any alarms or hourly chimes are disabled. If they provide you with a screen watch make sure you follow theirs to avoid situations whereby yours might be incorrect.

Try to follow your normal routine as this will help you relax though it might be a bit different since you will be tested to qualify for another level, so try to be normal.
Read through the paper and all the instructions carefully, check that you know exactly how many questions you have to answer and carefully note any constraints such as

“Answer one question from each section” or “Answer two questions from Section A and one question from Section B”, etc.
Do the questions you feel most confident about first (it rarely matters which order you answer questions in).

This will help to build your confidence and you may find yourself remembering more things.
Make sure you mark the questions you want to answer or those you have attempted on your rough paper to avoid skipping other questions and confusing yourself.

In a given question, concentrate on what you know rather than what you don’t know to avoid wasting precious time.
Be careful also when attempting multiple choice questions. Do not worry about the sequence of your answers because examiners might choose the same letter successively for the correct answer. You might start feeling confused and worried.

Do not change your answers because examiners might do it deliberately as this is a real test of your comprehension and reduces the possibility of scoring by guessing.
Wish you all the best.