I found an exam guide on my school's website, but I kinda don't want anybody to know where I live, so I'll point out some key elements it entails:
Before you can excel in any exam, you must:
1. Be Prepared: You should have mastered the material you learned in class.
2. Develop Before-Exam Strategies: What to do prior to the exam.
3. Master Taking the Exam: What to do while you're writing the exam.
Strategies before the exam:
Mental Aspect
It is a commonplace to see students telling themselves that they will fail, or not do well on the exam, which contributes to their unsuccess. You must believe in your ability, and encourage yourself.
"I'm prepared!"
"I am a capable student!"
When you hear yourself thinking negatively, breathe deeply, relax and replace those statements with more encouraging ones.
Some other key points:
- Arrive at the exam calm
- Do not panic when a question is difficult
- Be confident that you will find the correct answer
- Get enough sleep, at least two nights prior to the exam. This will keep your mind alert and sharp, since most of your memories are retained during rest.
- Arrive at the exam early. You must avoid any sources of stress.
- Do not listen to your friends if they are panicking. Negative comments will bring you down.
- Do not review the whole course 1/2 an hour before the exam. A light review is acceptable at most, since you will rarely retain any of this information.
- Listen to the instructions provided by the teacher.
During the exam:
- Before you respond to any questions, look over the whole exam first, and prioritize certain questions.
- Build your confidence up by beginning with the easiest questions
- If you have a piece of information in your head and you think you might forget it, jot it down on the exam (you probably will forget it).
- Do not spend too much time on a single question. Skip it and move on to the next.
- Make sure you know how much time left in the exam, to determine if you should pick up the pace or not.
- Leave yourself enough time at the end to check over your exam. You may have made some unintentional mistakes.
- If you panic, stop what you're doing and breathe deeply for one to two minutes before continuing with your exam.
Multiple Choice Exams:
- Underline all the key words in a question. You may be tricked if they ask something like "Which is NOT an example of...".
- Be wary of words that are too positive (all, best, etc.) and words that are too negative (never, worst), which make a statement usually false, as well as unsure words (most, probably, etc.)
- If you are stuck on a question, and have eliminated the least probable answer and already reviewed it, your best bet is to guess. There's no risk in guessing.