如何准备一场考试How to prepare for an exam

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Alice…
大家好，欢迎收听六分钟英语，我是爱丽丝。
… And I’m Rob.
我是罗伯。
So, it’s nearly exam time again.And the subject of today’s show is how to prepare well for an exam.
又接近考试周了。所以今天节目的主题是如何准备一门考试。
I’ve got some great tips, actually, Alice.
事实上我有很多小窍门。
Have you really? Can you remind me what grades you got at school?
真的吗？你在学校成绩如何？
Yes, well … [mumbles] …
额……
So, you didn’t get very good grades.
所以，你成绩不是很好。
I probably should’ve started revising earlier. But my learning strategies were very good.
也许我应该早一点复习的。但是我的学习方法还是很好的。
Oh, really? Well, when you revise for an exam you study information you learned before.OK, Rob, I’d love to hear more about your learning strategies, but first here’s today’s quiz question for you.What’s the word for a system, such as use of special poems or rhymes to help you remember something?Is it …a) pneumaticsb) mnemonicsOr c) hypnotics?
真的吗？你什么时候开始复习一门考试呢。好了，罗伯，我很想继续听你说学习方法，但首先回答今天的问题吧。哪个表示借助特殊的诗词或韵律帮助记忆？a) 气体力学?b) 记忆术？还是 c) 催眠药?
I’ll go for b) mnemonics.
我选b) 记忆术。
Well, we’ll find out whether you got the answer right or not later on in the show. Now, according to current scientific research, some study methods popular with students aren’t actually very effective.
好的，之后我们再看你回答得是否正确。根据现有的科学调查，一些在学生中非常流传的学习方法实际上非常没有效率。
Don’t tell me – putting your textbook under your pillow at night doesn’t work.
别告我晚上把课本放在枕头下面没有用。
Did you try doing that, Rob?
你试过？
Yes, I did, but without much success. Maybe I was using the wrong kind of pillow?!
是的，但没有多大效果。也许我用错了枕头？
Well, let’s talk about more conventional methods than the book-under-the-pillow one.These include summarising, highlighting or underlining text to help you remember it… I do love a pack of highlighting pens, though.
我们来谈谈比枕头下放书更传统的方法。包括总结、标亮、下划线标注等方法帮你记忆。我喜欢用荧光笔。
Oh yes, me too.And actually highlighting text was one of my top tips. But I used to get so absorbed with the highlighting I’m not sure I was actually learning anything useful. My notebooks were works of art, though!
我也是。而且将课文标亮是我的窍门之一。但是我过去太沉迷于标亮课文，我也不确定是否学到了有用的东西。我的笔记本就和美术作品一样！
Yes, and that’s the point made by John Dunlosky, Professor of Psychology at Kent State University in the US,who says that you need to do more than just highlight information. You need to test yourself on it. Let’s hear from him now.
这就是美国肯特州立大学心理学教授John Dunlosky提到的重点，不能仅仅标亮信息，你需要做更多。你需要检测自己学到的知识。我们现在听听他说的。
Students who can basically test themselves or try to retrieve material from their memoryare going to learn that material in the long run a lot better.So for instance maybe you start by reading a textbook using your favourite highlighter and favourite colours,but then you go back and make flashcards of all the critical concepts and instead of just rereading those, you basically try to test yourselves on them.
那些经常检测自己或再一次加强对材料记忆的学生从长远来看，对材料的理解能力更好。例如，你开始阅读一本教材，你用喜欢的荧光笔或颜色将其标亮，之后你要回忆一遍，将所有重要的概念制作成抽认卡。而不是仅仅再重读一边，你要经常检测自己的记忆。
Professor John Dunlosky there.So he says trying to memorise the material isn’t enough. You need to do something with it, for example, making flashcards of critical – or important – concepts and then testing yourself on them.
上述是John Dunlosky教授的观点。他说仅仅记住材料是不够的。你需要做一些其他的工作，如制作重要概念的抽认卡，然后自我测试。
By repeatedly testing yourself on something, you strengthen the pathways between neurons – or nerve cells – in the brain.And the more often you do this, the easier it becomes to retrieve information.
通过重复性的自我检测，你会加强脑中神经元之间的联系。越是经常这么做，越容易获取之前记忆的信息。
And retrieve means to get something back.
Retrieve是指重新得到。
That’s right. When you repeatedly test yourself over a longer period of time – for example, over months or weeks-this is called distributed practice – and psychologists believe this is a very effective way to learn.
没错。进行长时间，如几个月或几周重复性的自我检测，这种方法也被称为分布练习。心理学家们认为这是非常高效的学习方法。
It sounds like hard work, though, doesn’t it?I prefer the cramming method – which means to try and learn lots of information in a short period of time.For example, the night before the exam.
听起来很不容易，不是吗？我喜欢填鸭式的学习方法，在短时间内尝试学习很多知识。例如考试前一晚临时抱佛脚。
I don’t know, Rob. We don’t cram to learn other things – like music or dancing, or football or language learning.It’s far more effective to join a conversation class and practise speaking every week than to practise for hours in front of the mirror the night before your oral exam!
我不知道。我们不能通过填鸭式方法学习其他东西，如音乐、舞蹈、足球或语言。每周参加演讲课程，练习会话，比口语考试前一晚在镜子前苦练高效得多。
That’s a good point.In fact, I used to sing irregular French verbs to myself, every day in the shower for weeks before my French exam, and that helped me remember them more easily.
这是个好主意。事实上，法语考试前几周，我每天洗澡时都会自己哼唱不规则法语动词，这样能帮助我记忆。
Excellent! Making different types of associations with what you’re trying to learn– for example, musical associations – is meant to be effective.Let’s listen now to Professor Dunlovsky talking about visual associations.
没错！可以将学习的内容与其他东西联系在一起，比如和音乐联系在一起，是很高效的学习方法。我们听听Dunlovsky教授讲述视觉联系。
I would encourage students as they are reading to try and elaborate mentally using images, as they’re reading, to kind of develop a more vivid picture of what they’re reading. Again, that’ll help quite a bit for some kinds of studies – maybe history and so forth – and a little bit less so for more conceptual studies.
我会鼓励学生在阅读时，尝试详细描述脑中的画面，将所阅读的内容在脑中生成生动的画面。这会帮助他们学习历史等课程，但对学习概念较多的课程帮助较少。
And if you elaborate on something, it means you add more information – in this case, mental pictures.
elaborate on something是指给出更多的信息，这里是指脑海中的画面。
So, creating mental pictures is useful for some subjects – like history or languages.But conceptual subjects – ones based on abstract ideas rather than things – like maths, for example– it might not be so easy to associate ideas with pictures.
在脑海中形成画面，有助于历史或语言的学习。但是对于概念性课程，基于抽象观点的课程，如数学，则不容易与画面联系在一起。
Now what about Albert Einstein?People say he was a very visual thinker.
那爱因斯坦呢？人们都说他善于视觉思考。
Well, you’ve got me there, Rob.I don’t know the answer to that but I can give you the answer to today’s quiz question.I asked: What’s the word for a system, such as use of special poems or rhymes to help you remember something?Is it … a) pneumatics, b) mnemonics or c) hypnotics?
你问到我了。我不知道这个答案，但是我能告诉你今天问题的答案。我问你，下列哪个表示借助特殊的诗词或韵律帮助记忆？a) 气体力学?b) 记忆术？还是 c) 催眠药?
I said mnemonics.
我选的是b) 记忆术。
And you were right!
回答正确！
Great!
太好了！
Well done! Research on mnemonics suggests they are a good strategy for learning certain kinds of things, like how to spell difficult words.For example, the first letters of this sentence: ’big elephants cause accidents under small elephants’ spells ’because’.Now, do you think you can remember the words we heard today, Rob?
做的不错！对记忆术的研究表明，记忆术是帮助学习某种事物的绝妙方法，如学习如何拼写较难的单词。例如这一句的首字母’big elephants cause accidents under small elephants’可以拼出单词because。现在，你还记得我们今天学到的单词吗？
We heard:
我们听到的单词有：
revise
复习
critical
重要的
neurons
神经元
retrieve
重新得到
distributed practice
分布练习
cramming
填鸭式
elaborate
详细描述
conceptual
概念性的
Well, that’s the end of today’s 6 Minute English.Remember to join us again soon!
今天的六分钟英语就到这里。我们下次再会。
Bye.
再见！