The Advanced Tax exam is now 10 days away and all my students are deep in revision. An excellent technique is to pick key questions on each tax and work through them under timed conditions. Examples of questions to pick are questions like Brad, Ray and Shanira or Heyer Group .

Step 1 : Work through the question using your notes as a guide writing out the key elements of your answer.

Step 2 : Look at the solution and extract the key points you missed -edit your answer adding in the extra material

Step 3 : After 3 days review your answer again. It should take you half the time to carefully review your answer .

By repetition, you are creating neural pathways in your brain and hotwiring your memory to remember key facts. It is natural to feel impatient and many students tend to have unrealistic expectations. Be patient and gentle with yourself. All exam questions have easy marks and difficult marks. By giving yourself time to think and process the information, you will begin to understand the technical material and recall it when you encounter another similar question in the exam. Don’t worry about covering everything or getting the entire question right. You only need 50% to pass the exam.

Some days will be good and some days will be bad. At times, you will feel like you are not making progress. Stick with it. Keep going. Success is messy. The important thing is to keep ongoing. It will all come together in the end. Credit to successpictures for the illustration below.