THE NIGHT BEFORE AN EXAM

One of the most important ways of ensuring you do well in an exam is to make sure you are relaxed and refreshed before you start. This means getting a good night’s sleep beforehand.

As you may guess, on the night before an exam a good night’s sleep is not as easy to achieve as it sounds. You will no doubt have been working hard revising for the exam for most of the evening and your mind will be actively thinking things over. It will also be focusing in on the areas of the subject that you are less sure about hence making you want to work on later and later and maybe even through the night. Stop!! Don’t do it. You may feel that carrying on working will be to your benefit but in most cases it will actually do more harm than good. An alert mind is far more use to you in the exam than an exhausted one. Whilst you may not know the subject as well as you might it really is too late now to do anything about it. So make the best of the work you have done. The benefit of your mind being active and alert far outweighs the value of any extra revision you would have done late at night when you are already tired.

Whatever happens stop work about 2 hours before you intend going to bed, (and don’t make it too late!). Put your books and notes away and spend some time winding down and relaxing. Don’t even let yourself think about the forthcoming exam – you’ve worked hard for it and you will be OK. Watch some television, visit a friend, (but don’t discuss work), or perhaps read a book. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you clear your mind of the work you’ve been doing.

When you’ve spent a couple of hours relaxing you should be in a much better mental state of mind to get a good night’s sleep than if you had stopped working and gone straight to bed.

You may find that as you lie in bed drifting off to sleep that you are unable to stop yourself thinking about all the little problems you’d still like to sort out. If this happens then make a note of what you want to do and set your alarm to wake you up an hour early so that you can sort the problems out. (Don’t get up any more than an hour early – you’ll tire yourself and destroy all the good that’s been done by a good night’s sleep).

If you don’t do anything about these little problems then they will play on your mind and stop you getting to sleep. If you write them down, then your conscience will be clear as you know you will be sorting things but in the morning. I always used to keep a pen and paper by my bed for noting down any problems that came to me. I found that quite often the very fact that I was in a position whereby I knew that any problems would be dealt with helped me to relax and made my mind less active anyway.

Make sure that the final session of revision you do on the night before an exam is for the subject you are to be examined in the following day. This gives your subconscious a chance to chew things over while you’re asleep and will ensure that you are better mentally prepared for the following day. It follows that if you have an exam in both the morning and the afternoon then your last session should be for the subject of the morning exam.

Summary

Get a good night’s sleep
Stop work at least 2 hours before going to bed
Relax and unwind before going to bed
Have pen and paper by your bed for noting down last minute problems
If necessary get up an hour early to sort out problems

2.2 MORNING EXAM

The morning is the best time of day for an exam. You are hopefully refreshed after a good night’s sleep and you haven’t got time to work yourself into a panic by doing hurried last minute revision.

Should find yourself with a list of problems to sort out from the night before, the very earliest you should get up is an hour before normal otherwise you will tire yourself out before the exam. If you do have problems to sort out then work for this hour, then break and have some breakfast and then take a final glance over your revision notes. In no way should you spend more than an hour on this extra work. I’m sorry to say it but it’s too late now and you will do more harm than good by making yourself more nervous and panicky than you are anyway.

If at all possible the only revision you should do is to have a quick glance through your revision notes, not to learn anything new but simply to get your mind tuned in and ready for the subject in question.

Finally, make sure you have a good breakfast. It sounds petty but you will be using a lot more mental and nervous energy than usual and there is nothing worse than finding yourself ravenous halfway through an exam.

Summary

Don’t get up too early
Glance over your revision notes
Have a good breakfast!

2.3 AFTERNOON EXAM ONLY

An afternoon exam with a free morning beforehand should be treated with care. Whatever happens you should allow at least an hour, (and preferably longer), for lunch and some relaxation before briefly reading through your revision notes and setting off for the exam.

If you really have to revise in the morning for a subject other than that of the afternoon’s exam then only do so for the first couple of hours. Then you should switch your revision to the subject of the afternoon exam so that you get your mind tuned in and ready for action.

If you wish to spend the morning revising solely for the afternoon exam then don’t revise any new topics. Simply spend the time polishing up what you have already learned. Once again this will give your mind a chance to tune in to the subject. Revising anything new now is dangerous because the clock is ticking ever closer to the time of the exam. If you are not careful you will start getting panicky and do more harm than good. The nearer the exam gets, the harder you try to learn the new topic. The harder you try the less you seem to learn and you soon find yourself in an endless spiral. Your time is much better spent fixing what you do know more firmly in your head rather than doing some rather patchy learning of something new.

Finally, make sure you don’t go overboard and work so hard that you tire yourself out, (both mentally and physically). You need to save everything you’ve got for the exam itself.

Summary

Relax for at least an hour before the exam
Don’t revise new topics
Revise for the subject of the afternoon’s exam

2.4 MORNING AND AFTERNOON EXAMS

Of the three possible combinations of a day’s exams this is the worst. What could be more exhausting than 2 exams in one day, especially if they’re on different subjects? Let’s hope that you don’t have too many days like this. There is one advantage to this combination however – at least your brain will have been well exercised in the morning and should therefore be fit and ready for action in the afternoon.

The morning exam should be treated exactly as I described earlier. Whatever happens don’t plan to do any new revision in between the two exams. You may think that there is enough time to squeeze in a bit of last minute revision but you will find it next to impossible. You will be tired after the first exam and will certainly need to spend some time relaxing and unwinding. So have something to eat and relax a bit and then you should be in a good frame of mind to start thinking about the afternoon exam.

The only revision of any use at this stage is a glance over your revision notes and perhaps a look through a few questions from past papers to get your mind in tune with the new subject. As I said earlier, any new revision at this stage is more likely to do harm rather than good.

The most important point to stress is that the short time in between the two exams should be used to refresh yourself, to forget about the first exam and to prepare yourself for the afternoon ahead.

Summary

Don’t plan new revision for the time between exams
Try to relax and unwind
Read through revision notes and past papers

2.5 THE FINAL MINUTES

The minutes you spend travelling to the exam and standing waiting outside the examination hall are probably the worst. After all there is nothing you can do now except wait. Here are some tips to help you through those final minutes.

Make sure you leave early enough to get you to the exam in plenty of time. There’s nothing worse than getting into a panic before the exam has even started by worrying if you will get there on time or not. And although it may sound stupid, make sure you know where the examination is being held. It would be silly to miss the first 20 minutes simply because you went to the wrong building. If you are taking a large number of exams it is very easy to get confused as to the times and places of the various exams. Believe me – I’ve seen it happen!

Don’t get too wound up with the importance of the exam. Although people will continually tell you how important it is that you do well they usually fail to point out that if you don’t do as well as you need to then you can always re-sit, and re-sit, and re-sit until you get the grade you require. OK it would be nice to pass first time but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. Some people get so concerned that they might fail that the worrying itself makes them so nervous that they do fail. If you have a laid-back couldn’t care less approach then you will feel much better and will do much better as a consequence. It will also have the effect of annoying your colleagues. “How come you’re so calm,” they will ask and this will make you feel even better! Remember it doesn’t matter how you really feel inside just so long as you come across as calm and collected. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel just from putting on a confident act.

Stay well away from the crowds of people waiting to go into the exam, even your friends. This is a very dangerous time when people love to get together and discuss what they do and don’t know and try and get help on their last minute problems. The last thing you need now is to be a part of this. All you need to hear is a chance remark about a particular topic to set you thinking “Oh no! I forgot to revise that” or “I don’t know that as well as I should”. Similarly a discussion about a particular topic with different people giving different opinions will only confuse you. The best thing is to stay away from everyone and then you won’t get involved. This way you will avoid being made confused or more nervous.

Don’t do any last minute learning or revision while you wait to go in. At this late stage you are more likely to put yourself into a panic than do anything useful. If you feel that you must do something then just glance over your revision notes and get your mind thinking over the subject.

Try and stay as calm as possible while you wait. Take your mind elsewhere by thinking of things nicer than exams. For example think about the holiday you’ll be going on in a few weeks time when all this is over. Breathe deeply to relax yourself. The calmer you are when you go in the better you will deal with the exam.

Don’t let other peoples confidence put you off. Usually it’s just a front since very few people have no fear of exams. Everybody is nervous before they go in and some people cope with their nerves by putting up a confident front even though deep down they are not in the least bit confident. Whilst this might worry you and make you feel worse it makes them feel better. So why not follow their example and make yourself appear confident. You’ll find you actually feel much better for it!

Summary

Get to the exam hall in plenty of time
The exam isn’t that important – you can always re-sit
Stay away from discussions
Avoid last minute revision
Breathe deeply an stay calm
Don’t be put off by other people’s confidence