Be prepared, know thy self and other good exam advice

BEING WELL PREPARED for an exam is the best, strategy to adopt. As with any other undertaking, the more you know about the familiar exam in advance, the more you are with the papers and their layout, what is expected of you, the better you will perform.

If you know in detail what you are going to be confronted with, this removes much of the stress and the element of fear and surprise from exams - and working out a precise strategy in advance is also vital.

Regardless of how much you know or how much revision and study you have done, your likelihood of performing well in the exam is increased if you have familiarised yourself exactly with the format of the paper and prepared a careful strategy in advance.

Much of this work will have already been done in class by teachers and many students have been doing practice papers with their teachers since Easter, but the following last minute check list could be useful.

. Feel confident to manage the run up to the exams in the way you feel most comfortable. If long walks and fresh air with short study spells are what suit you best, fine. But if you are the sort of person who likes to throw herself wholeheartedly into revision up to the last moment, by all means do so - just make sure that you get a good night's sleep.

. Arriving late for an exam is disastrous, as is getting the time or day wrong - and people do, believe me. Take out the exam timetable from this issue of E&L and write into the personal timetable section all your exam subjects and the times they take place. Then stick it in a prominent place at home. Ideally stick up two - one for yourself and one for the rest of the family!

. Starting time of exams may be different from normal school times so check the times and work out how long it takes you to get from home to the exam centre in both morning and afternoon traffic patterns can vary a lot, for example.

. Make arrangements about who is to call you in the morning and make sure you have a back up alarm clock.

If you arrive late, you will not be admitted into the exam hall.

. Check now that you have all the necessary equipment in order - pens, pencils, rulers etc. Don't wait until the last moment.

. Think about what clothes you will wear. Dress in layers, so that if it gets hot and sticky, you can peel off some layers. Even if you have to wear your school uniform, think about how you can manage this. It is very important to be comfortable.

. Draw up a final revision/preparation plan which takes into account the order in which you are sitting your subjects. If you are lucky enough to be sitting something like classical studies or engineering at the end of the exams, don't waste time revising them in the first two weeks - you'll have spare days at the end to do that.

. You should be completely familiar with previous years' exam papers. Most students will have copies already. Take out last year's paper in each subject the night before the exam and look over it to make sure you are completely familiar with each section, so that there will be no surprises in the paper - except the actual topics of the questions!

. Check which sections are optional and which are compulsory. Work out roughly - it will depend, obviously, on the topics that come up - which optional sections you intend to answer; this avoids wasting time in the exam and getting confused.

. Be aware of the sub sections in each question and the "answer either (a) or (b)" bits. By checking this out the night before, you are less likely to make mistakes the next day.

. Do a rough plan of the questions, and sections you intend to answer and jot it down the night before. Obviously, you will be flexible on this, depending on the topics that come up, but it helps to have a planned strategy.

. Check the amount of time allocated to each paper the night before and work out the amount of time you should spend on each question (this is sometimes written on the paper for Junior Cert). Add the timings to your plan.

. On the day of the exam, do not rush into starting the questions when the supervisor hands out the papers. Take some time to read through all the questions before deciding which to do - otherwise you may start answering a question only to realise later that you could have done another one better.

. Start with the questions you know best. It will give you great confidence to have something done and done well, right at the beginning. You don't have to do the questions in the order in which they appear on the exam paper - but do make absolutely sure that you write the number and section of the question absolutely clearly in the margin.

. Do not be tempted to overshoot the time you have allotted yourself for each question, regardless of how much you know about the topic. Keep to your previously worked out timetable.

. One of the most common mistakes students make is to spend time writing reams about a topic they know well, and then find themselves with no time to answer the final question. You get no marks for a missed question and you cannot get more than the allotted marks for your star question, no matter how much you write.

. Remember to wear a watch each day to help with the timings.

. Make sure you are answering the question you have been asked and not the one you think you've been asked (see Key Words, opposite page).

. Never panic. Take a deep breath, pause for a few moments, read over the paper again and it will begin to look a bit more friendly.

. Never think, "I know nothing about this question, I can't do it." You almost certainly know more than you think. Sit and think about it for a few moments. You have sat through classes for several years, you're bound to have picked up something - let it seep back through your consciousness.

. Think positively: "I know something about this, now let me remember what it is." If you jot down one point on your rough sheet another will come to you; one leads to another and you will gradually build up a picture. Eliminate the irrelevant points and assemble the others into an answer.

. It is worth having a guess, if all else fails. You'll lose no marks for being wrong, and you might just be right. This is particularly so in the short questions. In maths you will always get points for having a go at working out the problem.

. Make the most of the few facts you have don't just throw them down on paper. Write a few sentences around each one, engage in a bit of analysis and discussion, placed them in context. You'd be amazed how respectable a few limited facts can appear if well presented - in maths, science, geography or the practical subjects a diagram or drawing can give an additional good impression.

. Above all, do not give up or try to leave the exam early in despair. You, never know what will come back to you if you sit and wait. Outside the exam hall, you achieve nothing. Sitting quietly inside you still have your answer book there and it is still possible to salvage something.

. Be sure to leave yourself enough time at the end to go back over your answers and check for mistakes, misspellings etc, for which you will lose marks. It would be a terrible shame to lose marks on silly little things for want of checking back.

. As you progress through the exams, keep an eye on your revision plan for your other subjects. It's important to keep them in perspective and not lose sight of the overall exam picture in the concentration on the next day's subject.

. Once you've finished the exam in a particular subject, forget about it immediately and focus on the next one. What's done is done and there is absolutely nothing to be gained from wasting time moaning "if only I had remembered to write that . . ."

Sure, immediately after the exam you will all be comparing notes as to what each of you wrote; but once you go home, forget about it and concentrate on the next day.