Tips regarding exams :

BEFORE THE EXAM

  Make sure that you have completed some previous exam papers as part of your final revision under strict time conditions. Also remember to have the answers (or mark scheme) on hand, it's no use thinking that you have the right answers. Even the most able students will make silly errors when working under time pressure. You need to make sure that you concentrate enough to keep the silly errors at a minimum and also ensure that there are no gaping holes in your math’s skills.

 Take a good look at the previous papers, they are unlikely to provide sufficient clues for you to be able to "predict" possible questions for your exam. However, they will help you to appreciate how examiners phrase the questions and help you appreciate the spread of knowledge you require. The questions sometimes contain clues, which will help you solve them - remember the sort of clues, which crop up and look out for these in your main exam. It's no good only revising part of what you have learned in mathematics. If you want to achieve a good grade, make sure that you can have a good attempt at all questions (even if you can't answer the generally trickier later parts of the questions, the earlier parts should be straightforward marks in the bag).

 Strange as it may seem, mathematics is actually one of the easiest topics to revise - provided that you have understood what you have learned and have solved lots of problems along the way to help you reinforce your understanding. If you have done this then your math’s revision should consist of testing yourself by doing past papers, identifying areas where you've forgotten what it's all about, solving more problems in your weak areas and that's it! No strings of dates or foreign verbs or properties of elements in the periodic table to memorize. Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of thinking that mathematics is so easy that you don't really need to revise at all or you'll be in for a big shock! 

General Tips: 

• Keep up with the course. Don't cram at the last minute.
• Get a good night's sleep. Even if you ignored the advice above and have to cram, limit cramming in favor of sleep.
• Prepare a one-page summary of the material being examined.
• Don't memorize. Your teacher expects you to work with ideas and solve problems, not plug numbers into equations.
• Bring to the exam a calculator (fully charged) and several pens or pencils (sharpened).
• As you read an exam problem, place a check mark beside the given data and underline the unknown quantity to be found. This will help you prepare a strategy and help you avoid answering a question that is similar to but different from the one that is asked.

Make a sketch or graph to familiarize yourself with the situation. Make sure you understand the problem before plunging in.