- Keep an eye on your watch.
- Get an overview of the entire paper by scanning through it. Read the instructions VERY carefully, eg. Answer two questions from section A and only four questions from section B.”
- Calculate the time to be spent on each question relative to the marks, if it hasn’t been done for you already as shown below.
| Pacing yourself in an exam | ||
| Examination A | Time 3 hours | |
| Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 | (10 marks) (20 marks) (20 marks) (50 marks) | 15 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes 75 minutes |
| Total time available | | 180 min |
| Reading Exam Paper | | 15 min |
| Tidying up time | | 15 min |
| Total time left to answer questions | | 150 min |
| Time for each question =(marks for the question/Total marks)* Total Time left to answer question | ||
· Decide on the order of question response by starting on the comfort-zone questions and the ones worth most marks first. Leave the not-so-obvious ones till later.
· Analyse each question:
o What exactly is it asking?
o What information is available?
· What does it mean in simpler terms?
· How does it relate to the semester’s work?
· Are any of the other questions similar?
· Are there clues elsewhere in the paper?
· Start answering the multiple choice questions by using your thumb nail to etch the answers onto the paper
