My tried and true exam week routine

Exam week has a way of making everyone panic. Suddenly it feels like there is too much to learn and not enough time, so the natural response is to stay up late, cram every night and hope enough of it sticks.

That rarely works well. The students who do best in exam week are usually not the ones who study the most hours that week. They are the ones who arrive at each paper rested, prepared and calm.

We share a simple exam routine, the steps that help you walk into the exam hall ready to do your best.

1. Stay rested, and do not cram

The last thing you want on exam day is to sit down feeling sleepy and foggy. Yet that is exactly what late-night cramming does.

Staying up late to study costs you twice. First, you lose sleep, and a tired brain is slower to recall what you know and quicker to make careless mistakes. Second, the stress of cramming follows you into the exam. When you are anxious, it is much harder to read questions carefully and think clearly, even about things you know well.

The work that really prepares you for an exam happens in the weeks before, not the night before. By exam week, your job is to keep what you have learned fresh, and to protect your sleep so you can use it.

Try this: set a firm bedtime for every night of exam week, and stop studying at least half an hour before it. Take proper breaks during the day, too. A short walk or a meal away from your desk helps you come back sharper than grinding through without stopping. Our note on night habits that ruin your sleep has more on getting a good night’s rest.

2. Revise, and focus on what you got wrong

Rest does not mean doing nothing. Set aside time each day to revise, but make that time count.

• Go over your notes and key concepts, especially the ones you still do not fully understand. Now is the time to ask a teacher or a friend to explain them.
• Look through past papers and practice questions. Pay the most attention to the ones you got wrong, or got right by guessing. Similar questions often come up again, so understanding why you went wrong is one of the most useful things you can do.
• Test yourself rather than just rereading. Try a question before looking at the answer, or write down everything you remember about a topic and then check your notes.

Revising like this helps you hold on to information, and it shows you exactly where to spend your remaining time. Our note on studying smarter, not harder goes into these techniques in more detail.

Try this: keep a “mistakes list” for each subject. Every time you get a practice question wrong, write down the question and what you should have done. In exam week, that list is the most valuable thing you can revise from.

3. Make a last-look sheet

Before each exam, pick out the most important things to remember for that paper: a few key formulas, definitions, facts or reminders you tend to forget. Write them on a single small piece of paper.

Right before the exam, while you are waiting to go in, read through it one last time. Those points will be fresh in your mind when you turn over the paper.

Making the sheet is useful in itself, too. Deciding what is important enough to make the cut forces you to think about the whole topic and what matters most in it.

Try this: the evening before each paper, make your last-look sheet. Keep it short: if it does not fit on a small card, you have not chosen yet. Include a reminder or two for yourself as well, such as “read every question twice” or “check your units”.

4. Pack your stationery the night before

There are few worse feelings at the start of an exam than realising you forgot your calculator or your only pen has run out. Even the worry that you might have forgotten something can shake your concentration.

Try this: make a checklist of everything you need for each paper: pens, pencils, eraser, ruler, calculator, and anything else the exam allows. Pack your bag the night before, and bring a spare of anything that could run out or break, such as an extra pen and extra pencil. Then you can walk in knowing you have everything, with one less thing to feel nervous about.

5. Eat a good breakfast

On an exam day, breakfast matters more than usual. Your brain needs fuel to concentrate through a long paper, and an empty stomach makes that much harder. Hunger is also a distraction you do not need in the exam hall.

Choose something that gives you steady energy rather than a quick sugar rush followed by a slump. Fruit and wholegrains, such as oats or wholegrain bread, are good options, and many people find a lighter, healthier breakfast helps them feel calmer.

Try this: decide what you will eat on exam mornings in advance, and prepare as much as you can the night before. That way breakfast is one less decision on a morning that already feels busy.

Walk in ready

Exam week is not the time to learn everything from scratch. It is the time to keep what you know fresh, look after yourself, and remove anything that could trip you up on the day.

Get enough sleep, revise from your mistakes, make a last-look sheet, pack your bag early and eat a good breakfast. Then walk in calm, knowing you have done what you can. That calm is worth more marks than one more late night of cramming.