Failed Foundation? Some Advice…

If you’ve just failed your amateur radio exam… don’t worry – that was a practice run, and you’ll be better prepared when you sit the exam next time.

Firstly, it’s important to understand where you went wrong – was it:

1. Exam nerves – You’re just not good with the pressure and stress of an exam?
2. You’re just not understanding the material
3. There is an issue making life difficult and you need more help

Let’s look at each one:

Exam Nerves?

This is a tricky one – some of us haven’t had to take an exam for 20 or 30 years, and the idea of taking an exam can be scary. If you’ve recently sat an exam and not passed, at least you’ll now know what to expect in the exam, and it’s hopefully not too scary.

Next time, you’ll know what to expect, and perhaps not be so stressed. Remember, it’s not life-and-death, and you can take the exam again if you don’t pass. By taking some mocks, and not stressing too much beforehand, you’ll likely do a lot better next time

Not Understanding The Material?

This could indicate that you’re not learning in the right way, and either need to ask for some help, or look at other ways of studying.

If you’re taking our online course, and it’s just not sinking in, that might indicate that online learning and watching videos, just isn’t right for you, and you need to study in a different way.

One of the best ways of studying, is with one-to-one help in person – where you can sit down with someone who understands the material and talk through a topic, perhaps drawing diagrams and discussing ways to remember the facts. If you know an amateur (perhaps a friend or family member, perhaps they can help you?)

Otherwise, attending a real training course in a classroom with other students can really help too – you can ask the tutor questions if you don’t understand something, and if there are props, you can get hands-on and see something working in front of you. Touching, watching, listening and talking can all help with understanding and remembering.

Other ideas for studying:

• Reading the course book
• Watching our videos
• Joining our webinars
• Asking for help and advice in our Facebook group
• Meeting up with others to form a study group
• Taking loads and loads of mock tests (online or with the Exam Secrets book)

Need extra help?

We appreciate that people with memory problems, reading difficulties, dyslexia, etc can struggle. The good news is that help is available – both for studying and for the extra itself. For more, see our video guide – Foundation Exam – Need Extra Help

 

We hope that’s been of use. If you need any specific advice, please add a comment below and we’ll do our best to help.