General tips

The best start leading up to exam day is to feel prepared. Refer to the Time Management and Study Skills sections for advice. Don’t pull all-nighters; start preparing your study schedule the first week of classes!

Sometimes instructors will offer review sessions or instructional tests. Make sure to attend these, it is a good opportunity to ask questions note the areas that the instructor emphasizes. Ask students from previous years for advice (although exams may vary year-to-year).

On exam day

Your first thought (and throughout the rest of the day) is: “I can do this”. Keep a positive attitude.

Eat a good (but not heavy) breakfast.

Wear layers of clothing to adjust to exam rooms that are too hot or too cold.

Before you walk out the door, make sure you’ve got the appropriate materials (do you need an ID, pencils, watch).

Arrive early but try to avoid talking to people about the exam, anxiety spreads quickly.

Go to the washroom. It will save you time wasted if you need to get up during the exam.

Just before walking into the exam room, imagine yourself having already passed the exam

Once you have your exam paper:

• Survey: spend a minute flipping through the exam. Note how many questions, how the sections are broken down, questions that are worth more marks, do you see answers to questions already.
• Pace: establish the amount of time per question and. Give yourself 10 minutes at the end of the exam for review, filling in bubble sheets, ensure you haven’t missed questions, etc. Remember to check your watch or clock on occasion to know if you should change your pace. If you get too absorbed and forget to check the time, in the survey step right out the approximate finish time for each page on your exam as a visual cue or simply write “check time”.
• Rest breaks: establish a break every 30 minutes to just take a breath, stretch, close your eyes, whatever you need to just have a mental break for a minute.
• Order: some people prefer to work chronologically from the first question and “flag” questions they aren’t sure of to come back to later. Others may prefer to start with a section of easier questions they know the answer to build confidence. Another option is to answer questions that have more point value first. Whatever method you use, just make sure it doesn’t waste too much time (like flipping back and forth through the exam), or increase your chance for error (not noticing “flagged” items).  At least put some educated guess as an answer in the meantime. Don’t waste time on answers you know you don’t know.
• Review:  review your exam to go back to any “flagged questions”. Re-read the question as well as your answers, you may have misunderstood the question the first round. Also ensure that you’ve not missed anything: did you write your name, student number, fill in your bubble sheet appropriately.
• Change is good: It is a myth that you cannot change your first answer. However if on further review your answer seems wrong, change it. Your twice as likely to change to a correct answer and only a quarter of the time will you change to a wrong answer {Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, May 2005, Vol. 88, 725-735}
• Read again: If there seems like more than one answer is correct, read the question again and make sure your selection, answer all the conditions in the question. What are the differences in the 2 possible answers?
• Trust your gut: It’s not very scientific but it some sometimes it works.