EXAM ESSENTIALS

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This week I’m passing on some basics for showing your best on the exams you’ll be writing this week and next. You’ve done the prep. Each night you’ll be reviewing the highlights for the next day’s exam. You may well be in a state of mild to moderate or greater anxiety/anticipation. What can you do? You can plan, and you can walk the plan.

Here are some basics my students have found useful. These tips aren’t magic. Their main function is to help you keep from tripping yourself up. Let’s walk through the twenty-four hours before and through an exam.

The Night Before the Exam

First, take a sheet of paper or large file card, and make up a plan of what you need to do, and what you need to bring to the exam.

Now plan your plan with a list. Your list might include

  • Gas up the car.
  • Eat a light dinner.
  • Review study summary.
  • Complete help sheets that are allowed.
  • Set out breakfast.
  • Pack snacks, lunch and hydration for tomorrow.
  • Charge phone.
  • Charge tablet/computer.
  • Charge calculator.
  • Make sure student ID is in wallet.
  • Make sure bus pass or parking pass is in wallet.
  • Make sure cash, credit cards, and license are in wallet.
  • Make sure wallet is in purse or pants you’ll be wearing.
  • Pack extra pens/pencils.
  • Pack a timepiece (that may be your phone).
  • Check weather forecast.
  • Set out clothes for tomorrow.
  • Pack back pack with everything except food and items charging.
  • Eat a light snack if that is part of your regular food plan.
  • Place packed backpack out of sight next to your door.
  • Set your charged or plugged in alarm and put it out of reach of your bed.
  • Set alternate alarm.
  • Visualize writing the exam.
  • Visualize walking out of the exam room.
  • Put away the day with your bedtime routine and calming exercises.
  • Go to bed and sleep.

The Day of the Exam 

  • Go through your morning grooming routine.
  • Eat a light breakfast.
  • Pack phone and charger into your backpack.
  • Pack tablet/computer and charger into your backpack.
  • Pack calculator and charger into your backpack.
  • Pack snacks, lunch and hydration into your backpack.
  • Check your wallet contents and ensure it is in your pants or purse.
  • Grab your keys.
  • Go to the exam site. Target to arrive 15 minutes before exam time–too early is almost as bad as too late.

At the Exam Site

  • Go to the bathroom.
  • Avoid lingering near the entrance to the exam room, picking up the chatter and fear pheromones from other students.
  • When the exam door opens, find your seat, arrange your ID, supplies, and  timepiece.
  • Breathe. Calm.

Writing the Exam

I have dealt elsewhere with techniques for writing different types of exams and different types of questions, and will be happy to discuss particulars with you. In the meantime, the basics are

  • Use every minute. Do not leave early.
  • Answer every question. If you don’t know, a best guess (or any guess) has a better chance for marks than no answer unless the question is right minus wrong.
  • Read the introduction to the exam. It may have critical instructions, such as “show your work,” “answer in complete sentences” “show your outline.”
  • For every question, read the whole question before you start to answer.
  • Quickly answer the questions that are easy for you.
  • Note which questions are worth the most points, and allow enough time to give yourself time for them.
  • Keep your eye on your timepiece. 
  • Outline essay questions before you start to write the essay–but keep your eye on your timepiece.
  • If you run into a question you have no idea how to answer, move on and come back to it later. Sometimes memory kicks in. Sometimes later questions give an idea about how to answer.
  • Check your work once you have answered everything for typos or missing words. Marks have been lost because the word “no” was intended but not entered.
  • Again, answer every question. If you don’t know, a best guess (or any guess) has a better chance for marks than no answer unless the question is right minus wrong.
  • Again, use every minute. Do not leave early.
  • And make sure your name and ID are on your exam.

After the exam

  • Leave quietly.
  • Avoid the nervewracking post mortem sessions with other students at the exit. 
  • Endorse yourself for preparing for and writing the exam in a professional manner.
  • Take time for a reward before heading into preparing for the next exam.

That’s it!  You’re almost there. Modify and make this list your own. 

Let me know how it goes, how you modified these points, and how they worked for you [email protected]