Preparing for Exams

Exam Success: Taking Exams

Right before the exam:

• Review summaries and outlines rather than trying to cram at the last minute.
• Make sure you’ve packed everything you need to take to the exam, including pens, colored pencils, and calculator.
• Avoid contact with anyone who might cause you stress.
• Arrive a few minutes early to the exam.

Read the entire test first.

• Confirm that you have the whole exam.
• Note point distributions and special instructions.

Plan and apportion your time.

• Allocate the amount of time you spend on a question based on the credit you’ll receive for answering it correctly.
• Answer easy questions first and then move to harder ones.
• Mark any question in the margin that you need to come back to.

Problem-solving sections:

• Highlight, circle, or otherwise indicate what your final answer is, but don’t obliterate any work that you’ve done. It may be the source of partial credit.
• Make diagrams and graphs big and easy to read.
• If you get stuck, make a note to yourself in the margin about what you need to do and come back to the problem later.
• If you’re worried that your answer is wrong, explain the process by which you arrived at that answer. This can be a good source of partial credit.

Essay sections:

• Underline key terms in the questions.
• Make sure that your essay does what the instructions call for (common verbs in instructions are: analyze, trace, explain, discuss, compare, contrast).
• Write an outline at the beginning of your answer or in the margins. This will help you structure your response and may be a source of partial credit if you run out of time.
• Answer every part of the question.
• Provide textual examples, references, data, graphs, etc.

Multiple-choice sections:

• Don’t overthink questions.
• Read every answer.
• Eliminate answers that you know to be wrong or that are highly unlikely.
• Trust your first instincts and change an answer only if you actually remember the correct one.

Short answer and identification sections:

• Be clear and precise.
• Cite significance of thing, person, place being identified.
• Define key terms.
• Don’t spend too much time on any one question.

If you get stuck...

• Mark that question in the margin and come back to it later.
• Answer what you do know first. This might help you think of more information.
• Write down what you do know. It may help you remember more.

Retrieved from Princeton: Exam Success