Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Answering written questions clearly and effectively can be challenging! In this blog post we’ll review some practical tips to help you understand what’s being asked, how you can organize your thoughts, and how to make sure your response hits the mark.

Preparing for Your Test

Half the battle is in how you prepare for your test!

In terms of time management, set SMART Goals and prioritize the studying that needs to be completed. Consider using a grade calculator to set a goal of the mark you want to achieve. You can also try out things like the Pomodoro Method, making a study schedule, and making sure you give yourself lots of breaks! For more on these topics check out our blog posts on SMART Goals and Time Management Skills.

Studying For Your Test

In general with any exam, make sure you know the material. It can be very useful to do practice questions too. Make sure you do these practice questions with all of the steps so you don’t miss out on any marks the day of the exam! Get into the habit of writing down formulas so it’s second nature by the time you go to do your test.

It can be super helpful to try and predict what the questions could be, so here are a few tips for this:

• Review past exams and assignments → your teacher may test you on past material, or this may give hints that if they’ve tested you on it once, they aren’t going to test you on it again. Try to put yourself in your teacher’s shoes and imagine what they would do.
• Identify key themes and topics in the course
• Review any study guides your teacher has provided you with → if your teacher hasn’t given you a study guide, consider making one or making your own practice questions.
• Discuss things with your classmates and try to predict question

The Day and Night Before The Exam

• Summarize the key points of the course, creating a study guide
  • The day before the exam you don’t have time to cram all the little details into your head anymore.
  • Instead, make sure your understand the broad stokes and connecting themes within the course so you have a better understanding of the big picture.
  • If you have a study guide make sure that you know all of the learning outcomes on it and if you weren’t given a study guide, consider making one. Think about what you would put on it if you were the teacher.
• Review your notes and do practice problems
  • With limited time left, make sure you’re selective on what you review and the practice problems you do.
  • Make sure you do a variety of practice questions, not just one type.
• Focus on things you weren’t understanding
  • Again, if it’s the day before the exam you really don’t have too too much time so make sure you prioritize the things you were struggling with so that when you do the test it’s fresh in your mind.
• Fuel your body
  • Throughout exam season, but especially right before exams you need to make sure you’re providing your body with the energy it needs.
  • Your brain is working overtime with all of the studying you’ve been doing so make sure it’s getting everything it needs so it can continue to absorb information and concentrate.
  • Do your best to eat healthy and make sure that you are actually eating! Giving your body physical energy will translate into mental energy too
• Relax and destress, visualizing success
  • Before you go to bed there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success
  • You should do your best in general to practice self-care and stress management throughout the year in general but especially during exam season.
  • Give yourself time to relax amongst the business of studying and writing tests, considering what types of activities help you destress after a long day. Maybe it’s reading a fun book or playing an instrument, playing some video games or letting yourself bed rot for a little while on tiktok. Whatever it is, allow yourself the opportunity to de-stress.
  • Giving yourself this time might seem like a bad idea since it could mean less time to study but your body needs breaks and the relax, especially the night before an exam. 
  • Another helpful thing before you sleep can be to visualize yourself succeeding in your goals. There’s a rule that “everything happens twice.” Once in your head when you are mentally rehearsing how it’s going to go and then a second time when you physically do the task. If you are going into that second part of the rule having already visualized that things will go well and end in success then you are more likely to do well. There are lots of psychological studies on the benefits of mental rehearsal and enhancing actual task performance. It’s also just a nice way to boost your confidence too
• Organize your materials (pencils, erasers, calculator, etc.) so you aren’t scrambling to find things in the morning
• Set multiple alarms
• Get a good night’s sleep!
  • Harvard Education has shown that students who prioritize sleep instead of last minute cramming are likely to see an improvement in their academic performance
  • For more on tips for a better sleep, check out our blog post here

Calculating Your Time

Many students also find it helpful to estimate how much time they have for each question. This way you can monitor your time during the exam to make sure you don’t fall behind. For example, if you know you have 25 multiple choice in 50 minutes, you have about 2 minutes per question. This includes time to read it, answer it, and then review it later. Be smart about getting the maximum amount of points you can in the time you have! If one question is taking too long, skip it and revisit it later.

This can be extremely beneficial for anyone who struggles to finish their test on time.

How to Stay Calm While Writing Your Exam

Before jumping into multiple choice test taking strategies, how can you stay calm when writing your exam?

• State and trait → Before writing your exam, study in an environment that replicates your test environment; check in to our study habits blog post for more on the benefits of this
• Mental rehearsal → Visualize yourself taking your test and achieving your goal of passing, or getting the grade you’re hoping for
• Get there early! Or don’t → Obviously you don’t want to be late to your exam but do what’s best for you to minimize stress; if this is arriving 15-20 minutes early, or even earlier than that to ease your stress do that! On the flip side, if arriving early is going to add to your stress, plan to arrive only 5-10 minutes ahead instead to avoid last minute cram studying attempts
• Practice positive self-talk → Before, during, and after your exam it’s important to practice positive self-talk. In practicing authentic positive self talk you can build up your confidence.
  • Some examples of positive self-talk would be something like “I’ve overcome challenges before, I can overcome this exam.” Or something like “I am going to do my best and be proud of my efforts no matter the results – all I can do is try my hardest”
• Practice grounding techniques to stay present and focused → for more on grounding techniques like the 5-4-3-2-1 method and diaphragmatic breathing, follow this link or check out our blog post on mindfulness
• Manage your time in your exam, taking breaks if needed

How to Tackle Written Questions

Use clues to get as many points as possible! Ask yourself: What do I need to include in my answer to get all of the points I can? This can then be broken into 2 questions:

1. What is the question out of? While this might seem obvious when you aren’t in a stressful exam, students often forget to check what a question is out of and jump right into answering it. Slow things down. Look at what the question is out of before you even look at what the question itself is. 
Looking at what a question is out of, and then breaking down the question further can give you an idea of how in depth your answer should be, as well as what you should include. For example, if a question is out of 1 point vs. 6 points, this may an indicator of how long your response should be. Additionally, if a question is out of 5, and part of the question asks you to list 3 things, this may cue you that the other part of the question is only worth 2 points.

2. What is this question really asking? After you’ve looked at what it’s out of and now know a little bit more about what the grader is going to be looking for, read the question carefully. If needed, try rephrasing the question like we mentioned in our blog post on answering multiple choice questions. The last thing you want to do is read the question and hastily answer it, only to re-read the question and realize you didn’t actually answer what it’s looking for 

For example: Name two characteristics of spider lilies. Explain their cultural contexts and provide an example of a common practice associated with spider lilies ( /4)

What is the question out of? → 4 points

What is this question really asking? → It’s asking for 2 characteristics of spider lilies, their cultural contexts, and an example of a common practice associated with them

Example of an answer to the question above: “One characteristic of spider lilies that they thrive in warm climates. Another is that they have slender, long petals that resemble spider legs, hence their name. (2pts). In Japanese and Chinese cultures, the red spider lily is thought to guide the dead towards reincarnation so they are often associated with death and mourning (1pt). In these cultures, it is common for spider lilies to be planted in graveyards due to their symbolism and also to keep scavengers away. (1pt).”

As you can see, it can be helpful to note where you think you’ll be getting your points from. When doing written questions, breaking things down into points can also help prevent you from under answering, but also from going overboard with an info dump. If you don’t think adding an extra sentence to your answer will help you get more points or demonstrate your understanding better, then don’t take the time to write it out. You only have so much time to answer questions during an exam so make sure you are just providing short, succinct answers to get your marks and then move on to ensure you have time for all of your exam.

Other Reminders

• Don’t leave anything blank – Even if you don’t have the complete answer, if you remember something, write it down! You could get partial credit and even half marks add up and can really help your overall grade

• Give general answers if you don’t know the specifics, e.g., the 1900s, instead of 1904 – If you aren’t sure of the specifics, give a broader answer. Even if the marker is looking for the specific number, or year, etc. chances are that you’ll still get partial credit for giving an estimate (unless for a question requiring calculations)

• Write down formulas and show your work! – Super important in any science and math courses you take that have written questions, make sure you are writing down your formulas and actually showing each step of your work. You have to do the work anyways so you may as well write it down and get your marks for it! Also, if you do end up getting the question wrong, it’s easier to correct what your thought process was for future tests if you left yourself what you did this time around. 

• Check your significant digits – Not rounding things to the correct significant digits can cause you a lot of “easy marks” when you already had the answer correct, but are now getting part marks because of a small mistake

• Label graphs and other diagrams – Especially in science exams where this can be a simple way to guarantee marks. Remember: the x or independent variable like time, is always on the horizontal axis and the y or dependent variable (what is being affected by x) is always on the vertical axis

Good luck on all of your exams and happy studying!

———————————

Blog post adapted from the McKinney Psychology Presentation: Test Taking Skills as part of our Student Series. For more on our student series and other mental health blog posts, check out this link. For more information outside of this, please contact our office.