Essential Tips for Preparing and Passing Your Exams

The October / November IGCSE and A-Level examination session is officially open which can cause a state of stress for students. We have compiled our best advice to get you ready and confident for your exams. 

1. Estimate time left and things to do

The time between you and the exam day is now counted. You will probably find it easier to focus on the essentials and distance yourself from distractions. Try to set yourself a goal of being ready a few days before the start of the session in order to give yourself a few days of rest. 

With this objective in mind, list everything you have left to do and  estimate the time that each of these tasks will take you. This will allow you to identify priorities and leave aside what is less crucial.

2. Go to the latest courses

The last lesson is often devoted to questions from students. It is important to have reviewed your course before this summary and to prepare questions on the points that are not clear. Pay attention to the questions of your classmates and try to answer them. This is a good test to know if you have mastered the material. More generally, pay attention to all the tips the teachers give you.

3. Sleep, rest, relax, eat

Do not underestimate the importance of taking breaks. An exam is tiring. You must therefore be on the attack and not tire your body and your memory unnecessarily, in order to keep as much energy as possible for the exam. We advise you to keep your nights intact and to favor, if possible, eight hours of sleep. If you can't sleep, get up and read something simple, relax in a quiet, cool place if possible. Avoid revising as a means to pass the time, this activity will stress you out and make you tired. Avoid television and computer screens, the light they diffuse does not promote falling asleep, on the contrary, it disturbs the quality of your sleep!

During your days, take regular breaks, especially if you are memorizing which is a highly tiring cognitive activity. Remember, a real break of at least an hour at noon will allow you to regain strength for the rest of the day.

4. Avoid cramming

If you want to "take care of your memory", only feed it small amounts at a time and regularly. Understand by this that ingesting too large amounts of information in a short period of time does not allow you to assimilate the information and, above all, it prevents you from mobilizing so-called "in-depth" learning strategies. You are only skimming the material without consolidating it. To store the information in your long-term memory, you must review the material several times, if possible at different times. At the last minute, you no longer have time to consolidate the information and you are very likely to forget things or get confused on the day of the exam.

5. Review all the material 

We know that it will be difficult for you to rest the last days before the exams and that you will tend to revise until the last minute (even if it is not advisable!). If you want to get back into your classes the day before or the day of the exam, try to favor a global approach. Review the set, plan and/or overall structure. It is also a good time to make a mind map in order to summarize all the information and to forge links between them.

6. Test yourself

Take time during your revisions to test yourself. On the day of the exam, it is too late to notice that you have deficiencies. You can create review groups where everyone is quizzed on part of the course. Try to really answer questions, orally or in writing, in order to really identify the gaps (if you have any). You can also compel yourself to answer one or two questions in writing, in the same format as what is expected on the exam. This will also help you practice writing a response. Having good ideas and mastering an answer is good, knowing how to organize your ideas in order to show teachers that you have the answer is better! For an oral exam, practice delivering an answer to someone. 

7. Practice with mock exams and old exercises 

Whenever possible, try to get sample questions related to the course to test yourself in the most realistic way. Put yourself in the conditions of the exam, time yourself and test your knowledge on concrete examples. 

8. Anticipate exam content

Try to imagine the questions you might be asked. They necessarily relate to the course and are not created in order to annoy you. So identify the important parts and themes. Once this is done, try to formulate questions as if you were in the teacher's shoes. 

9. Calculate your time during the exam

One of the classic pitfalls during an exam is the lack of time. To avoid this trap, before starting the exam, review all the questions and calculate the time you have for each of them (according to their length and complexity – or points awarded). Look at your watch regularly so as not to overflow and set aside time for each of the questions, as well as for a final proofreading. For a MCQ, you only have a short time for each question. If you don't know, go to the next question, you will come back to the questions that are problematic later, the goal being to earn as many points as possible and therefore not to miss any question for which you know the answer.

10. Do not rethink of your exam after you finish: what is done is behind you

It is very common to have a negative impression at the end of an exam, to doubt yourself. Unfortunately, you can't change anything anymore. So move on, remembering that impressions are often negative but not always indicative of reality. Do not lose your concentration and focus on the rest of the session by telling yourself that your preparation has been good and that you will succeed. Positive thinking can be a good ally during this tough time!

With this good advice, we wish you an excellent exam session and, above all, success!