Exam Day Strategy: Use Your Time and Your Paper Well

You can know the material and still lose marks to timing. Here is how to avoid that.

Two students walk out of the same exam. One says, “I knew everything, but I ran out of time.” The other says, “I was not sure about a few, but I finished and checked.” Guess who got the better mark?

Knowing the material is half the job. The other half is how you spend the hours in the exam hall: your time, the order you tackle the paper in, and how you handle the moments when things go wrong. This guide is about that second half. None of it is complicated, and all of it can be practised in advance.

Before the paper starts

• The night before. Pack your bag: pens, spare pen, pencil, calculator, ruler, exam slip, a watch, water if it is allowed. Check where you are going and how long it takes.
• The morning. Eat something. Hunger hurts concentration more than you expect. Arrive in good time, and avoid the corridor conversation where everyone says what they did not revise.
• In your seat. Take a few slow breaths. Do not try to cram in the last minutes. You know what you know.

Read the whole paper first

When the paper is handed out, read all the instructions and look through every question before you write. It takes a few minutes and it pays back: you learn how many questions you must answer, how marks are shared, which sections are compulsory and which are choices, and which questions look friendly.

Reading the instructions twice sounds basic. Many marks are lost by answering too few questions, or the wrong ones, because someone skimmed that part.

Plan your time by marks

Divide the time available by the marks on the paper, to get a rough number of minutes per mark. A question worth ten marks gets ten times that, not one big gulp because it looks interesting. Write the times in the margin, or note a clock time for when you should move on from each question.

Here is a simple example. Suppose a paper is worth 100 marks and you have 120 minutes. That is about a minute per mark. A 20-mark question gets about 20 minutes. Keep ten minutes at the end for checking, so you plan for around 110 minutes of writing.

Start where the easy marks are

You do not have to answer in order. Begin with the question you feel most confident about. It gets marks on the board, settles your nerves and warms up your memory. Then do the next most confident, and leave the hardest until later.

One caution: number every answer clearly, and if you leave space for a question you will return to, leave enough. Many students lose marks to messy numbering.

Do not get stuck

Hard questions are a time trap. If you have spent your planned time and are still stuck, write down what you have, mark it, and move on. Nine times out of ten you will make more marks from the next question than from another ten minutes on this one. When you come back at the end, the answer often looks clearer.

Show your thinking

In maths and science, show your working. Examiners can give marks for the method even when the final answer is wrong. In theory subjects, write in clear points. Short paragraphs, each making one point, are easier to mark and easier for you to check than one long block. Our guide on essay and theory answers goes into this.

Objective questions

For multiple-choice, read the question carefully, then the options. Cross out the options you know are wrong before you choose. Watch for words like “not,” “except” and “most.” If you are unsure, mark the question and come back. And check the instructions: if wrong answers are not penalised, do not leave a blank.

If you blank out

It happens to almost everyone at some point. Do not fight it. Put your pen down, breathe in for a few seconds and out slowly, a few times. Then move to a question you can do. Write down anything you remember about the topic you blanked on, even rough fragments. Once you are warmed up, return to it. The memory often comes back when you stop pushing.

Use the last ten minutes

Do not hand in early out of boredom or nerves. Use the last ten minutes to check. Did you answer the right number of questions? Is every answer numbered? Are your calculations sensible in size and units? Did you read the question you answered? Fix small things, add a missing point, and then hand in.

Mistakes that cost marks

• Not reading the instructions. Too few questions answered, or the wrong ones.
• Spending too long on one question. It leaves nothing for the rest.
• Leaving blanks. A few correct points earn something. Nothing earns nothing.
• Messy numbering. The examiner cannot give marks for what they cannot find.
• Skipping the check. Careless errors are the cheapest marks to win back.

A worked example

Say your paper has two sections: 40 objective questions worth 40 marks, then a theory section where you must answer four of six questions, 15 marks each, for 60 marks. Total 100 marks in 120 minutes.

A sensible plan: 5 minutes to read and plan, 35 minutes on the objective section, 65 minutes on the four theory questions (about 16 each), and 10 minutes at the end to check. Before you start, choose your four theory questions in a few seconds each: the ones where you can make the most distinct points. Write the clock times in the margin, and stick to them. That plan is not clever. It simply makes sure every mark has a chance.