Tips and Tricks for Before an Exam

by Flora Timney, an experienced Biology and Chemistry tutor, currently completing a research project in Animal Behaviour at Oxford University
Posted May 2025

It’s the night before the exam. You have put in the work, and you know your stuff. What can you do to prime yourself to clinch that grade? The key thing, as you probably already know, is to settle your nerves—but you can also take advantage of that wicked short-term memory of yours! So, let’s dive into some tips and tricks for before an exam.

Sweet dreams:

You’ve probably heard that a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for a good exam. While sleeping with your textbook under your pillow may not actually help you subliminally learn the Krebs cycle, sleep does help your short- and long-term memory and is important for memory consolidation.

Some people find it helpful to review a few flashcards of quotes, definitions, or formulae before they wind down for sleep with a ‘for fun’ book or calming album. Try it out, but be honest with yourself: is it helpful or is it stressing you out? You may not find dreams about Jekyll and Hyde, Macbeth, or Lord of the Flies particularly relaxing!

Another thing to remember is that while sleep is, of course, important, it is not the be-all and end-all. It won’t undo all your revision! If you find yourself tossing and turning, don’t panic—and definitely don’t look at the clock counting how much sleep you’re missing out on. I’ve discovered that I can trick my brain into resetting by getting up and pretending I’m going to sleep for the first time again. For me, that looks like washing my face, brushing my teeth, getting a glass of water, and reading another few pages of my book. More often than not, it works like a charm and I’m catching zzzs in no time.

Fuel up:

Nourished brains work better, and there are few things as distracting as a rumbly tummy (for you or your exam hall neighbours!). As with anything nerve-wracking, you may not feel very hungry in the morning—you may even feel a bit poorly. Take the time to figure out what kinds of breakfasts you can stomach on the morning of the exam.

It can be a fun thing—like an experiment, even—to get your breakfasting down to a fine art.
“Hmmm, well jam on toast works well, but what kind of bread? What kind of jam?… ooh, and one slice with peanut butter?… maybe I’d like a yoghurt too?… and juice, but apple or orange?… cup of tea maybe?… all good stuff.”

The same applies to your lunch too, for an afternoon exam. Where you sit can also affect your mood, so play it by ear. Is today an outside-with-friends kind of lunch, or would you rather sit on your own? There is no right or wrong—just do what works best for you in the moment.

Checklist:

I may be boring, but I love a checklist. Especially if there are things on there I can already tick off.

As with any school day, you want to make sure you have everything you need and are wearing the correct uniform (if applicable—nothing like a uniform detention to destroy the ‘zen’ we’ve been cultivating!). For exams, you’ll want a watch so you can keep track of the time, and you’ll need to have a clear water bottle and clear pencil case filled with all your science and maths goodies.

I recommend including a mechanical pencil with a rubber on the end in your pencil case—there’s nothing worse than struggling with a pencil sharpener in the exam. I can just see it now: pencil shavings everywhere, graphite all over my hands smudging my lovingly drawn bar chart, and then the pencil lead breaks anyway and I must start the dreaded sharpening cycle again. Trust me—mechanical pencils for the win.

Your checklist will be personal to you and will differ from subject to subject. Once you’ve nailed it, stick it on the fridge or save it as your phone home screen and you’ll be set. Reassuring yourself that you have everything you need before you head out the door will save you lots of worry and hassle down the line. You certainly want to avoid a breaktime spent running round the maths block in search of a protractor!

Cramming:

While I’m not suggesting you can cover everything that happened in Elizabethan England in the queue for the exam hall, some things can be retrieved from your short-term memory in an exam.

For instance, you could remind yourself that lithium burns with a lilac flame, that John Snow’s Broad St Pump intervention was in 1854, and that y = f(-x) is the graph y = f(x) reflected in the y-axis.

I can also suggest that, as soon as the exam starts, you write those things on the back page before you forget them. For example, for my Maths A level, the first thing I did was flip to the back page and draw out two right-angled triangles with hypotenuse length of 1 (one isosceles, and one scalene with 30° and 60° angles), so I could quickly recall what sin(x), cos(x), and tan(x) were for x = 30, 45, 60, and 90. Clever, huh? Well, I thought so anyway.

Another thing to do is use the specification to write out a list of topics and subtopics in each paper, and you can add ticks next to them as you learn and review them lots of times over the course of your revision. Morning of, take a look at that sheet while you’re having your breakfast and remind yourself of what to expect, and reassure yourself that you have covered the lot—so you’ll be grand.

‘Fake it till ya make it’:

It is perfectly natural to be nervous. Even after all this good work we’ve done, the butterflies might still be flitting around in your stomach. The world is full of suggestions on how to settle your nerves and steady your mind. Some may be more useful than others—so try a few on for size and see how you feel.

Steadying your breathing with a breathing square (in, hold, out, pause—four seconds each) can be helpful, particularly before oral exams and presentations. Similarly, big smiles can relax you, and some people find focus and calm in saying “I am prepared, I am capable, and I will smash this exam” to themselves.

Though contested, some psychologists find that assuming a ‘power pose’—think hands-on-hips superhero stance—can decrease your stress. Whether it works or not, it is a bit silly and might make you smile, which is always good.

Notice the difference between ‘faking it till you make it’ to help yourself feel quietly confident, and being loud and disruptive with your confidence, which might upset other people. Cool, calm, collected, and confident is the goal of course—not arrogant. Maybe keep the power-posing for within the four walls of your own home!

Get started!

Well done! You’ve made it to the final few moments before the exam starts. You are ready, you know your stuff, and you have everything you need to ace this exam. I hope these tips and tricks have helped, and I’m sure you will do excellently well.

P.S. Don’t forget about the mechanical pencil 🙂

Tips and Tricks for Before an Exam

Sweet dreams:

Fuel up:

Checklist:

Cramming:

‘Fake it till ya make it’:

Get started!

Related Blog Posts

Prepare for your Summer Exams

How to cope with Exam Anxiety

Subscribe

Information

Contact

Proprietor (Head Office)