Preparing for Exams

APPROACHING THE PAPER

a. Before the paper

• Review the night before, but have a good night’s rest.
• Don’t eat anything too heavy or oily (eg. hor fun, nasi briyani, etc…) just before the paper; save it for after. At this point in time, you need more of your energy to think, not to digest the meal. But make sure you do eat something!
• Stay relaxed and confident. Tell yourself that you can do your best because you have done the necessary preparation.
• Don’t try to do last-minute cramming while waiting outside the exam room. It might only confuse you and make you more anxious.
• Remember that anxiety is contagious.

b. General pointers

• Spend the first 5 minutes previewing the paper. Allocate time in proportion to the number of marks given.
• Before starting on each question, do a mind-dump. For questions that require writing, write down everything on the topic that comes to your mind. These will serve as cues for your writing later.
• Read the question carefully. Make sure you are answering the question as required.
  

• Leave 10 minutes for checking at the end. Check for
  • careless mistakes;
  • grammatical errors;
  • questions left unanswered when there should be none;
  • facts left out when they are relevant to the question.
    
• This is not ‘Survivor’. You do not get $50,000 for finishing first. Use all the time that is given to you.

• If your exam consists of different sections of different test formats, do MCQs first.
• Do the questions that you feel confident about first. Some questions are deliberately set out to be misleading – make sure you read everything carefully.
• Devise your answer first, without looking at the options given.
• Read all the options for each question.
• If you are still unsure about a particular question:
  • Carefully read the options given. Statements containing absolutes (words such as all, every, never, no) which restrict the possibilities are less likely to be correct. Statements with more moderate words such as generally, most, least may be more likely to be correct.
  • Watch out for extra-long or complicated options: they may be wrong.
  • Manually cross out the obviously wrong choices first.
• Don’t leave any question unanswered. A calculated guess for the most difficult questions is better than no response.

• Determine where the marks are allocated so that you divide your time and energy according to the marks, instead of trying to write 100% to 50% of the questions.
• Focus on what the question is asking for, and make sure you get to the point – answer it precisely.
• If time is short, make sure you cover questions in your areas of strength.

• Check if you are supposed to answer all or only some of the questions.
• Consider the questions you plan to answer. Don’t be too quick to discard questions: think about the topics you are best equipped to answer.
• Give yourself a time-limit for each question, and move on once you have reached it.
• Analyse each question well so that you write on the topic. Draft your essay before writing. Remember to
  • Focus – on what the question is asking for
  • Support – your answer with relevant evidence
  • Organise – your writing with proper introduction, body, and conclusion
• Read through and edit your answer.
• If you run out of time, do an outline of points so that the marker can see that you were able to answer the question.

• Apply the strategies for essay questions.
• Allow time for using the resources that you have brought into the exam.
• Don’t waste time copying quotes directly from the book. Spend more time on substantiating your arguments.
• As part of your editing, check each of your responses to ensure that you have made best use of your resources.

• Remain calm and confident that you have the necessary skills – you’ve done it all before, so you can do it again!
• Use the reading time to plan an efficient schedule for completing the tasks required.
• Be sure to schedule some exam time to answer the questions asked, especially the method used and observations.