Studying for the National Bible Bee qualifying test can be very stressful, especially as the Summer Study draws to a close. In this post, I will go over a few things that might help you as participants prepare for the qualifying test.
- Make a plan and stick to it. No matter if it’s an hour a day, or eight hours a day, make a plan for how much you want to study, and do your best to stick to it. If you don’t make a plan, you might not study as much as you want to: and if you don’t stick to a goal that you gave yourself, you’ll feel discouraged and your next goals will seem harder.
- Know your materials. This might seem like an obvious one, but there is a lot to study and remember. Make sure you review both your Discovery Journal and your memory passages, as well as your greek words and cross references. I would suggest reading the study passage numerous times until you are very familiar with it. Unit 8 in your Discovery Journal is a great review of the study and I suggest going over it multiple times.
- Use community study tools. The online community can be an amazing place to study! Many people make study tools that they share to the community and utilizing those can really help in your studying.
- Get familiar with classmarker. If you’re not already, I would definitely take the time to get familiar with how classmarker works, and maybe even take some practice tests to see what you need to focus on.
- Try not to cram too much. Although cramming can be a great way to pass a test, when you’re cramming, most of that knowledge goes in your short-term memory: so definitely try not to put off all your studying until the last week.
- Get enough rest. The night before the test, make sure you get plenty of sleep. On the day of the test; eat a good breakfast, and don’t study too much, just a light review.
- Pray. The goal of this summer study is to get closer to God: before your test, pray and ask him to help you remember what you studied this summer.
After you take the test it’s easy to worry about how you did. Just remember, the test is over, you can’t change your answers now, and no matter how you did, if you qualified or not, you used your summer doing the best thing you could do: growing closer to God by hiding his word in your hearts. So while you’re waiting for your test results, go have fun, play a game, spend time with family. You will never regret spending your time memorizing the word of God.
Written by NBB Alumnus: Philip Minica
