Past exam papers: The best way to check if you're ready for exams
The exam study technique I probably rate the most highly.
Hi there,
I first wrote this article over 10 years ago. It was one of the first I ever wrote. And that’s because past exam papers are one of my all time favourite exam preparation techniques. Over a decade later I still consider this post to be one of the most of important.
There is no one right way for your teen to go about studying for exams. Your teen needs to figure out what their Study System is.
But — there is something I think that every teen should do during their exam preparation: Use past exam papers.
Why past exam papers are so amazing
Past exams are an absolute gold mine of information.
Your teen obviously won’t know before the exam exactly what it’s going to be like or exactly what questions they’re going to be asked, but past exam papers are the best indication of what the exam is going to be like.
Past exam papers can give you a really excellent indication of:
what types of questions are likely to come up in the exam;
the lengths of the questions;
the number of questions likely to be in the exam;
the order of questions; and
the layout of the exam.
I used to have a squiz at a past exam paper for each subject before I launched into my serious exam study because I found this helped guide my study, and then sometime in the week leading up to an exam I would answer at least one full past exam paper as a practice run.
The benefits in more detail
 1. What types of questions to expect
There are a lot of different types of exam questions out there; multi-choice; essays; short answer; long answer; the list goes on.
And it’s really important to be prepared about what types of questions are likely to come up in your exams.
There is no point your teen practising multi-choice questions about the novel they have studied if their exam is only going to ask essay questions!
Different types of questions will require a different approach to exam preparation.
2. What content to focus on
When it comes to studying for exams, generally speaking there is what you could call ‘core content’, and ‘peripheral content’.
What I mean by ‘core content’ is the topics that are 99% likely to come up in the exam. These core content topics often feature most predominantly in exams, and are often worth the bulk of marks up for grabs. So for these reasons it's really important that your teen studies these core content topics thoroughly.
Having a look at some past exam papers should give your teen a good idea of what the core content topics for the exam are likely to be (they should already have a fair idea based on what topics they have spent the most time on in class at school).
What topics come up practically every year in questions? What topics feature in the questions worth the most marks? Those are your core content topics.
Contrast these topics with ‘peripheral' content’, by which I mean the content that is ‘nice to know’ not ‘must know’. For instance sometimes teachers mention things in class that might come up in the exam, and if they do those questions might only be worth a few extra marks. Or it’s content that very few students are expected to know.
The point is, your teen needs to use their study time wisely, and that means making sure they have a thorough understanding of the core content, and maybe only cover peripheral content once their understanding of the core content is robust.
It is not a productive use of their time to spend hours studying material that might not even come up in the exam, and if it does will probably only be worth a handful of marks.
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3. How many questions they'll be asked
To avoid nasty surprises, it will help your teen to be prepared if they have a pretty good idea going into the exam approximately how many questions there will be.
This is an important part of your teen using their precious time in the exam strategically.
The number of questions will obviously determine the pace your teen will need to work at during the exam. Are we dealing with 100 quick-fire-type questions or 10 questions requiring long answers?
Depending on the subject and where you are in the world, exams sometimes contain a range of different question types in the one exam. Your teen could have an exam with 20 multi-choice questions, 10 short-answer questions, and an essay all in one.
If this is the case, you would want to have a heads up so you know to prepare for different types of questions.
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4. What the layout of the exam is
By layout of the exam I mean things like the order of questions, how the questions look, how much room your teen will have to provide answers etc.
The more familiar your teen can get with the details of the exam, the less daunting the real exam should be.
Where can you find past exam papers?
It’s obviously really important that your teen uses past exam papers for their curriculum / country / year level.
It’s really common for the administrating body of school examinations to make past year exam papers available online, and they often publish books full of past year’s exam questions which are a fantastic resource.
If your teen isn’t sure where to look I would start by asking their teachers.
I hope I have managed to convey the absolute amazingness of past years exam papers. I rate them so highly as an exam preparation tool that in my view they should be a top priority for any student, regardless of how prepared they are.
If your teen is struggling I would suggest they look at a past exam paper and try to complete one, even if they aren’t as prepared for an exam as they would like. What they will learn will be invaluable and probably help them earn more marks in the exam than trying to cram more information in at the last minute.
Thanks so much for reading.
Clare