Study Skills

Some of your exams may be timed so it's important to plan how you will use it.

You need to allocate time according to the marks per question or per section.  If a question is work more points, you need to spend more time answering it.  If it's work less points, you need to spend less time on it.

To work out exactly how much time to spend on each question or section you need to:

1. Change the hours available for the exam to minutes.
2. Subtract the reading and checking time.
3. Divide the total number of minutes by the maximum grade possible.
4. Then multiply the time per mark by the number of marks for each question.

For example:

2 hour exam

Section A: Multiple Choice      20 points
Section B: Short Answers       30 points
Section C: Essay                    50 marks

Step 1: Change the hours available for the exam to minutes.

3 hours = 2 x 60 minutes = 180 minutes

Step 2: Subtract the reading and checking time.

Allocate 10 minutes for reading the exam at the beginning and 10 minutes for checking your answer at the end.
180 - 20 = 160 minutes

Step 3: Divide the total number of minutes by the maximum grade possible.

160 minutes divided by 100 points = 1.6 minutes per point.

Step 4: Multiply the time per points by the number of points for each question.

Section A = 20 x 1.6 = 32 minutes
Section B = 30 x 1.6 = 48 minutes
Section C = 50 x 1.6 = 80 minutes

Usually you are given time before the exam to read it through.  You should also leave time at the end of the exam to check your answers - are they legible? Have you remembered to answer everything?  But unless you can see an obvious mistake, it is best not to change answers as your first guess then to be correct.