Time Management In Exams

There are several things you should consider before you go into examinations.

It is important that you are able to answer most of the questions that come up in the examinations you are taking.

As well as being able to answer most of the questions, you should always try to answer them in good time, leaving long enough to check through your answers, and reattempt questions you have left out.

When I went into some of my exams, I looked through the paper, to identify the parts of the questions that give the easiest marks i.e. the questions which take the least time to work out. Although this may take around 5 minutes to do, I found it very useful. Because most of the questions are on different topics, there are usually sub questions of different difficulties for the range of candidates. Therefore there is usually a part of each question which the bottom level candidates can answer, which is often quick and easy for the more able candidate to answer. Using this method, all of the easiest marks are pick up at the beginning, leaving more difficult questions towards the end. If you do not finish the paper, moving through each question in turn, you may lose easy marks in some of the non answered questions towards the end. As some of these questions may only take a few seconds to answer, you could potentially pick up many extra marks.

Naturally this method would not be advantageous to everyone, as time management affects people to different extents, but I feel it is worth considering If you find you are struggling to complete papers within the time limit. It can of course be practised before going into the real examination.