After all of your hard work and revision, it is finally Exam Day. Having spent days, weeks, even months revising day and night, brushing up on what you need to know, it comes down to this. Everyone’s worst nightmare is to have put all their effort into revising only to fail on Exam day.
So what can you do to ensure you do the best you can? Below you’ll find Tutorful's top tips on exam performance, this is what all your hard work has been for so make sure you don’t let yourself down on exam day.
Double check the Exam time and Venue
Possibly the most important of all the tips - double check the Exam details. The night before the exam, check what time it starts, what time you need to be there and where you need to go. Turning up at the wrong venue or being late is definitely not the best start to your exam.
Prepare the night before.Not by cramming, not by panicking but by having a decent meal and an early night. Reread your flashcards, listen to one of your home-made recordings, try to relax.Remember, there is no such thing as failure. If you don't pass this time then you have learned what not to do next time.And if you have tried your best with your revision and you can honestly say you did the best you could, pat yourself on the back and tell yourself this is just one step towards success."Linda Hobbis, editor of Mother Distracted.
Pack your bag the night before
You get to your exam, you sit down feeling confident you’re going to get 100%, the paper gets placed in front of you and you realise you’ve forgotten your pen!
Trust me, you don’t want this nightmare to become a reality. The night before your exams, look through which exams you’ll sitting and organise what equipment you’re going to need for all of them. Pens, pencils, rulers, rubbers, calculators, make sure you gather all of these items and pack them in your bag the night before. This way, you know when you get to the exam, you aren’t going to be missing anything important...Unless you forget your bag!
Wake up nice and early
Now you know where you need to go and what time to be there, make sure you set an alarm nice and early! You want to make sure you wake up and have enough time to get ready, have breakfast and get to the venue. The last thing you want is to be in a mad rush on the morning of the exam.
Eat Breakfast
Ah, the age old advice that you’ve undoubtedly heard thousands of times.
However research has shown that students who ate breakfast before exams performed better. The best breakfast before an exam should include slow-release carbohydrates. These help keep your blood sugar levels more stable during meals and won’t make you feel full or stodgy. Some examples of slow-release carbohydrates are whole grain bread, oat bran, rolled oats and apples. A quick online search will find you a list of all slow-release carbohydrates.
This will also stop you feeling hungry during the exam. No-one wants to get hungry during an exam, it makes it incredibly hard to concentrate and you definitely don’t want to be that person whose belly rumbled the entire time.
Stay Hydrated
Similarly to making sure you eat your breakfast, staying hydrated is really important before and during an exam. Dehydration can make you feel tired, make it difficult to concentrate and give you headaches, and none of these things are what you want while you’re solving equations!
If it’s allowed, take a bottle of water into the exam with you. If you get nervous or haven’t drank much, it’s easy to start getting dehydrated. Having a bottle of water in there with you can help stop this from happening, although make sure you don’t go overboard and start drinking too much or you’ll be dying to go the bathroom all the time!
Try to stay calm
Naturally lots of people get nervous before exams, it’s an understandable reaction as exams are important. Finding the perfect way to destress and stay calm can be vital in ensuring you do your best on exam day. Whether it’s focusing on deep breaths, listening to your favourite music or going for a walk, make sure you use your best relaxation techniques before your exam. You can view more stress management techniques in our previous chapter (INSERT CHAPTER AND LINK HERE)
Don’t get caught up on one questionHowever hard you revise for a subject there will always be that one question that crops up and throws you!The key is not to panic when you come across a tough question. If you have read it through a few times and it is really stumping you, leave it and move on to the next one."Suzanne Day - @SuffolkSuzi.
Check, Check and Check again
We’ve all experienced those exams where you finish with loads of time spare and most of us are probably guilty of using this time to daydream about the summer holidays or whichever Netflix drama we’re currently binge watching. This however, is not a very practical way to spend this time (sorry to be a buzzkill, guys!)
Use this spare time you have to check your answers, then check again and then check again. Don’t just check the answers, re-read the questions and make sure you’ve actually answered what it’s asking! It can get real boring re-reading the exam over and over, but you may stumble across a few incorrect answers you missed or might find something extra to add on to another answer. Checking through your exam gives you the best chance of making sure you get the best grade possible and make all your revision effort worthwhile.
So there you have it, our best advice on how to make sure you perform the best you can on exam day. It may not be the easiest time in life or the most exciting but when the exams are over, you can go out and enjoy the summer, celebrate finishing the exams and have a well deserved break!
Giorgio Cassella, Marketing Manager at Tutorful.
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