President's Guide to Exams

It’s that time of the year that everyone dreads, the exam period. It’s coming and it’s coming fast. Luckily for people like me who have no exams, we just get a nice break, mwahaha. But for the rest I decided to use my previous years of exam experience to use and give you a few tips for exam period.

First of all, let’s start with obvious study, study a lot. When it comes to cramming three seconds before the exams however it becomes a bit of a grey area. For subjects that involve a lot of facts and question-answer learn-by-rote stuff cramming if fantastic. 3 seconds into the exam and you find the question looking for a word you read 6 seconds ago, awesome. However for subjects that involve formulas, complex concepts and a generic “understanding” of topics cramming is a disaster. Your minds still going over what you studied three seconds ago but the question is on a different topic, you’re screwed.

Cramming is the tool of a stressed person, but it usually helps, cramming works much better for some who is calm and confident, or at the very least resigned to their fate. For stressed out people I recommend the other approach to pre-exam prep, food. Nothing calms you down like a McFlurry. Added bonus is the sugar rush you get during the exam itself.

However no matter what your attitude or strategy is one thing remains the same: don’t get comfortable. Even if there is a train that arrives at the hated Caulfield Racecourse 10 minutes before your exam, don’t take it. It’s much better to take the one that arrives an hour and a half early, trust me, you’ll feel much better. And no matter what always check the date, time, and seat number at least 10 times the week of your exam(s), those are the things you can’t afford to bugger up.

Now on to the exam itself. For essay-type exams, god save you. Your tutors expect you to write 1000 words per hour, but your hand will start to cramp up within the first 15 minutes. The only advice I can offer you is to plan your time well, never finish an essay, but make sure you use the correct amount of time to consider it, then move on to the next. Always leave yourself at least 15 minutes to go back and add a conclusion to each of your essays.

Question-answer based examinees? You should be familiar with this: do the short/long answer questions first. Thems where the points at. You can always half-ass the multiple choice at the end and still get a decent amount right. Another thing: use the correct amount of space. If there is a lot of space free it usually means you haven’t done enough, double-check your formulas and working out. However before attempting a question make sure you’ll have enough space, if there isn’t enough you might be over thinking it. Or you can find/get a spare space somewhere else so you don’t make a mess of your exam paper.

Now you can finally breath, but don’t worry about if you did this wrong, or that wrong, it’s all over now, one way or another. I hope this helped, good luck everyone.

Stephen Wynton