Hey, just wanted to get some thoughts and strategies about how to (mentally) prepare yourself on the day of a 4u exam. If you found anything helpful in calming you down and letting you focus on the day of the exam, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!
Things to do on the day of the exam. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lolzdj
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Make sure to sleep the day before properly, that is by far the most important thing. Sometimes you will find it's hard to fall asleep the night before an exam, so I'd recommend going to your bed 30 min earlier than you will usually. So main thing is don't stay up all night because Maths is a subject where trying to cram is kind of pointless as it's not like a written subject where you can just memorise things. Make sure to also pack everything the night before, so put all your calculator, pencils, pens etc. in your bag the night before and check you have your wallet and opal card etc inside it (don't want to be looking for things in the morning).
On the day of the exam make sure to eat a good breakfast so that you have the energy to think in the exam. Drink coffee if it helps you be more alert. In terms of being calmed down it can be helpful to listen to some music on the way there, maybe travel with friends as well because it reduces the anxiety of going to an exam as you can talk to them so you sort of distracted from worrying. Before going in the exam always go to the toilet even if you feel like you don't have to, to avoid having to go in the middle of the exam and wasting time. That's especially important if your exam is 2 or 3 hours.
In the exam it's all about maximising your marks and using the time efficiently. Whenever I do a maths exam at uni I will do the questions first that I know how to do and do them quickly so I will have time to check and spend time on more difficult questions. If I think some question is difficult or I don't quite understand it reading it the first time skip it and come back to it. You can do that because there's no restriction on having to do the questions in order. Never get stuck on a question which is like 2 or 3 marks when you will still have 40% of the paper to do. By wasting time on those 2-3 marks you also limit your ability to do the other questions losing more marks.
Always check your answers. Sometimes if you are solving some equation to find some value, you can sub that number back into the original expression and check the LHS = RHS. Think about if your answers make sense if they are numerical values. And also check to label things like graphs and go back through and re-read questions to check you haven't accidentally missed any pages or questions. A way I keep track of it is by crossing out the question number / part after I do it to make sure I haven't skipped anything by accident