The best way to do well in exams is to make sure you are well prepared and have done your revision. For help, see our advice on Revision strategies and memory techniques. For online assessments it is especially important to plan your time during the assessment period and to ensure that you stay focussed on your exam (see our pages on dealing with distractions).
You may be given a choice of questions to answer. Make sure you:
Answering MCQ exams is very different to essay based exams. Often the marks are evenly weighted for all the questions, however, some are bound to take you longer than others to answer.
Write down any working out in a clear logical order- it could get you some marks even if your final answer is wrong. If you find yourself running out of time and unable to work through to the answers, write down which formulas you would have used to get there.
The tips below may seem obvious, but reading them through now will help you to remember them when writing your exam.
Make sure you are clear about how many questions you need to answer. If questions are divided into multiple sub-questions check whether you have to answer any one of the sub-questions or all of them. Check the back of the paper for further questions/sections.
Read through all the questions before deciding on the best combination. Make sure you understand what the question is asking you. Underline the key words or phrases.
Plan the time you can spend on each question and allow time to re-read at the end of the exam.
Check how many marks are available for each question. If the same number of marks is available for each question, then make sure you allocate roughly the same amount of time to each. Don't spend so much time answering your 'favourite question' that you write only scrappy notes for the other questions you choose.
Jot down skeleton answer-plans, on a page which you will later cross out as rough work, before writing the actual answers to be read by the examiners. This will help you to make sure your answer is clearly structured.
Note from the examiner: Most students believe, incorrectly, that the overriding criterion is the number of correct facts in the answer. On the contrary, the logic, clarity and organisation of the work are at least as important as its content.
Make sure you answer the question that is on the paper and not the one you hoped would be there!
Note from the examiner: The most common fault in any written work is a failure to keep to the point and not to answer the question. When you write an examination answer or an essay you are engaged in an assessment of what is relevant. What does the question ask?
When you discuss ideas/techniques associated with specific individuals, mention their name and if possible give an indication of the book or article title.
Illustrate theory with concrete examples. (This is a point which obviously depends on the topic and may be inapplicable to some topics).
Note from the examiner: If there is a `stock example' which the textbooks or the lectures always quote, give a different example if you can. Quoting a stock example just shows that you have remembered it. Quoting a different example (provided it is a true example of the issue it is used to illustrate) shows that you have understood that issue well enough to identify an example for yourself; it is much more impressive.
You should aim to complete your answers well before the close of the exam but it is wise to use any extra time you have to check your answers and correct any mistakes.