Every exam technique your teen needs for upcoming exams
Whatever it is I've got your teen covered —from exam strategy and essays to memory techniques and stress and everything in between.
Hi Everyone,
As foreshadowed a couple of days ago, today I am pouring out everything I know about how to sit exams.
With exams imminent for many Northern Hemisphere students, I want to make sure that your teen maximises their chances of getting the best grade possible on exam day. (Even if your teen doesn’t have exams right now, this is going to be a handy post to save for later.)
To do this, I have curated all of my previous exam-related posts below so you don’t have to go trawling through the Archive yourself, but before we get to that, a quick word about the importance of having an exam strategy.
Why your teen needs an exam strategy
The skills your teen needs for the exam itself are separate to the skills of studying.
Sitting an exam is a whole thing on its own.
Your teen might be super diligent in the lead up to exams — study heaps, feel like they really know their stuff. But many a student has overlooked the importance of having a strategy for the exam itself, and suffered by not getting the grade they otherwise deserved.
It’s particularly heartbreaking when a teenager actually does try hard with their studying, only to inadvertently self-sabotage by stuffing up the exam itself.
Without wanting to fearmonger, lots of things can go wrong on exam day. You can run out of time and not finish the exam. You can fail to anticipate the types of questions asked. You can make silly mistakes like not read questions properly.
But your teen can mitigate against all of these potential pitfalls by preparing an exam strategy.
An exam strategy needs to cover off all of the practical sides of sitting an exam, for instance:
How long is the exam; how many pages is it likely to be and how many questions?
What type of questions are likely to come up? Short answer, multi-choice, essays? A mixture?
Should you start with the short answers or long answers? Which questions are going to be worth the most marks?
What will I do if I start to run out of time?
Should I answer the exam booklet front to back?
How much time will there be to write an essay plan before writing an essay?
What do I need to take with me to the exam? A calculator? A watch?
Equally, if your teen isn’t prepared and hasn’t done enough studying, then the need for an exam strategy is even more important.
They won’t have the luxury of knowing everything they should know, so they will have to capitalise on what they do know.
Either way, I want your teen to be as prepared as possible for the exams they’re about to face.
To that end, below are my top articles on various aspects of being ready for exams. I thought I would only be sharing five or so articles, but there is just so much gold in all of these so I have split them up into categories to help with navigation.
Exam-day techniques
Favourite exam technique: Reading through the exam paper
5 tips to start acing multi-choice (MCQs) tests and exams
Exam Strategy: How to get into 'the zone' in an exam
Free templates
More free stuff: Exam Study Timetable Template
Getting Exam-Ready: Free Subject Map Template
Stress
How to help your teen not have a stress meltdown during exams
5 ways your teen can take control of exam-time stress
Essays
Essay Writing: The page where all of my articles on essay writing are collated, including my essay writing master class.
Exam study
The Exam Study Process: An Overview for the Struggling Teen
Mayday! How to still do well in exams when your teen has left studying until the last minute
How to help your teen prepare for January exams amid holiday chaos
Getting exam ready: The essential elements of being well prepared for exams
Under-prepared? 5 must do's to avoid exam failure
My favourite memory techniques for studying and exam preparation
Past exam papers: The best way to check if you're ready for exams
How to study for different subjects
If your teen is feeling stuck, overwhelmed, doesn’t know where to start with their exam study etc, the other resource I suggest you check out and share with them is my How to Study for Different Subjects printout — one of the free printouts for developing your teen’s Study System. It’s purpose is self-explanatory!
You can download your copy now over at cramlab.org/study-system (bottom right doc).
Keeping perspective
So there you have pretty much everything I know about preparing for exams and sitting exams.
If you and your teen manage to get through all of that, they will be very well placed to get the best grade possible on exam day.
And one final thought — it’s no newsflash that exams are stressful. If your teen is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, I would remind them that it’s perfectly normal to feel anxious. Sitting exams is not fun, but it’s a temporary period of time and the worst that can happen is not that bad.
Also, the exam doesn’t have to go 100% perfectly for them to get a good grade.
After pretty much every exam I would step out and suddenly remember — gahh! I forgot to write X! I got muddled about Y! I rushed the last question and they probably can’t read my handwriting!!!
No exam ever goes perfectly, and no one needs perfect grades to do well overall. That’s just not a thing. It’s good to bring the focus back to the big picture — your teen will be fine. Everything will be okay.
If your teen is sitting exams at the moment, I wish them very best of luck.
Clare
P.S. I’d love to hear how your teen is getting on. Are they ready for exams? How’s their preparation going? Is there anything in particular they’re struggling with? Let’s talk it out in the comments.