This is the second part of my article on collected tips and tricks to help you pass a school or university exam. They are called exam techniques and they helped me and they can help you.

Part B) The Last 24 Hours

7) Don’t be tired.
If you have to stay up all night to do last minute revision, you’ve already failed.  It doesn’t work – you end up so tired in the exam you can’t work anything out.  It might work for the first one or two exams in a year, but you won’t be able to keep it up throughout a whole series of exams.

8) Eat protein before long exams – not carbohydrates.
An exam is just as much a physical exercise as a race.  Well, OK, perhaps not quite as much, but you can’t ignore your body if you want your brain to work at its best.  Stuffing it full of sugar, or some Red-Bull type drink just before will work fine for the first hour or so, but by the end of a three-hour exam you’ll have completely run out of energy.  You need some food that will slowly release energy.  Try pasta, fish or eggs.

9) Get the important facts into short-term memory.
In the last 24 hours it’s too late to try and understand anything new.  What you can do is cram some facts into short-term memory.  This is the time to go through the notes looking at those “key points” sections.  If you haven’t already done it as part of your revision (and you should have done it), write out a sheet with just the key facts.  See how many you can remember.  Then write out another sheet with just the ones you forgot.  See how many you remember now.  Continue until you’ve either remembered it all, or run out of time.

Also, read through your worked solutions for the last three year’s papers.  Then, get a good night’s sleep, or go for a walk and get some fresh air into your lungs.

10) Exercise – get the blood pumping round.
In the last couple of hours, go for a run, or work out in the gym.  Seriously.  Studies have shown that the most creative periods come after a period of exercise, and that the benefits of taking exercise can last for up to two hours.

Exams aren’t just about memory, you’ll need your brain to be in top working condition.

To be continued