How To Attempt Your Exams Well - Exam Preparation Tips

Synopsis: Though preparation is vital, a common query of students is “How do I do well in exams?” Many students find it hard to deal with exam nerves and write the answers with confidence and skill, mostly because they’re pressed for time and don’t have a strategy to tackle the exam paper. But, all this can be remedied by knowing and implementing the top tips for exam success. Read on to know how to attempt your exams well and see the immediate difference that these exam tips for students can have on your grades.

Few things in life evoke feelings of dread like the thought of taking exams. For many students, attempting exams can feel like going into battle. They prepare sincerely and familiarise themselves with the study material. But when the time comes to prove what they’ve learned, and do it against the clock, even the best of students often fold under pressure and are unable to do justice to their weeks and months of exam preparation. Many who go in come out stressed and more confused than when they went in. “How do I do well in exams?” is not so much a query then, but rather a cry for help.

Not being able to do well in exams is less a result of inadequate preparation, and more a consequence of unhelpful exam strategies (or even no strategies) and nerves. Assuming that you’re already familiar with the subject, and have all your tables and formulae memorised, all major ideas and heuristics remembered, and have gone over the subject content fairly well, all you need is some good time management skills, some calm, and a good battle strategy. Read on to know the top tips for exam success and gain the confidence and clarity necessary for exam performance.

Be Prepared And Well-Armed (Have Everything You Need)

Firstly, and needless to say, you should carry with you every single thing that you will possibly need. Asking others for small things like a pen or a compass can be distracting, not to mention a possible cause of misconduct in the eyes of the invigilators. So make sure you have all the stationery you’re going to need, including things like a water bottle and a sweater if necessary, so you remain hydrated and comfortable, and a watch, so you can keep track of time.

Know Your Enemy (Read All Questions Carefully)

Because there’s always limited time, students make the mistake of jumping straight to answering questions as soon as the exam begins. This may not be the best strategy as you don’t get to see the overall structure of the question paper and thus, cannot plan accordingly. Even a cursory look at the questions can provide enough information for you to start rummaging through your brain for answers, even before you uncap your pen.

While you’re answering the first few questions, the knowledge of what the later questions are going to be like will orient your subconscious mind to recall all relevant material. This ensures that once you get to that question, you can start right away without wasting any time.

Battle Strategy

We all invariably have a strategy to tackle exam questions. Some like to start from the beginning, where the questions aren’t the hardest, and progress chronologically. Others might start with a bang and go straight to the hardest question on the test. Let’s consider what each of the strategies looks like and which one you should adopt.

Easy Kills First

The idea of starting off easy, and answering questions that carry less weight, is often the go-to strategy for many students. This is also what students resort to when they haven’t given any strategy too much thought. Nevertheless, answering a few small questions quickly can whet your appetite for more and allows you to gain much-needed confidence in the early part of the test. This also ensures that you don’t miss out on any easy marks - a common problem for students who’re too focused on harder questions.

Diving Into The Deep End

Another strategy is to tackle the hardest questions first and leave the manageable ones for later. This is a good strategy if you’re itching to lay down all that you know as soon as possible and be done with the pain of hard questions when you’re fresh and ready for anything. Though not always recommended, diving into the deep end straightaway can help you undertake difficult questions with a little more depth and enough time to cover all their important aspects. This strategy is particularly helpful if you have ever been rushed to prematurely finish an answer because you either didn’t have much time left or forgot the information by the time you got to answer it.

Time’s A Tickin’

One of the best exam tips for students is to learn to manage time. Regardless of how you approach the exam, time will always be against you. If you don’t budget your time and ensure that each question has been allotted the time needed for its completion, you’re going to walk out of that exam hall disappointed and with a host of unanswered questions (that you actually knew).

The first thing to do, then, is to go on in the exam hall with a watch strapped to your wrist. Even though all examination halls have a clock on the front wall, and invigilators are more than happy to let you know the time if you ask them, it is better to minimise these distractions, for all you really require is a glance at your wrist to know how you’re doing on time.

Budgeting your time should effectively be done in the first five to ten minutes of the exam - when you’re reading all the questions - and allot each question the time you need to finish them. Simply mark the number of minutes that you should ideally spend on each question on the question paper whilst ensuring that you leave at least ten minutes aside to proofread and double-check your answers once you’re done writing.

Trust Your Training (Be Calm)

Lastly, have faith in yourself and trust the months of preparations that you’ve had. Students are more likely to do well in exams when they feel calm and confident in their abilities. Still, the exam environment and the thought of doing well in exams can cause jittery nerves and anxiety.

It’s completely natural to be a little nervous. In fact, some amount of stress can be good for exam performance and keep you on your toes. But beyond a certain level, stress can cause problems and take the better of your judgments.

One trusted strategy to combat anxiety is to take a deep breath, hold it in, and let it go slowly. Do these four-five times and you’ll feel right as rain. Because exams require one to sit through three-hour long stretches at a time, it is a good idea to leave aside five minutes for a break as well. Use this time to stretch your fingers, have a bathroom break, stretch your legs, and come back refreshed for the second bout.

Knowing how to attempt your exams well is just as important as preparing for them. As this is a rite of passage through which all students must eventually pass, implementing the top tips for exam success can benefit immensely. We wish you all the best in your exams and hope that you found this article helpful and informative in better attempting your exams.