Most students do not know how to tackle exams. They don’t realise that many of the skills used in formal essays can, be transferred simply to exam essays or that exams can be planned and prepared for far more than they think. Instead they seem to approach them as random and out of their control – as depending entirely on their revision, the questions that come up and their mood on the day. In fact doing exams well is a skill that can be learned. If nothing else a few tips can be offered to maximise your achievements. 

• Know the exam requirements and read the instructions. Follow these to the letter. If you have to answer two questions, for example, then do not just answer one. Even if you got 70 for that question that would only give you 35% overall and you would fail.   
   
• Plan your time and stick to it rigidly. If it is a two hour exam and you have to answer two questions then you have one hour per question. Plan this time further, dividing it up into reading and thinking time (5 mins), introduction (5 mins), information required (20 mins), analysis (25 mins), and conclusion (5 mins). As in an essay, write to a plan and stick to it. 
   
• Don’t go over your allotted time per answer. An extra 20 mins spent perfecting one answer might get you a few more % but it leaves you far less time to answer your other question. As the bulk of marks are picked up in the first half of the essay and as it then gets harder to get the last % points it is not worth chasing those few when you could get more by getting on with your next essay. Think about it, a 70% and a 44 % would give you 57% overall whilst two 58% answers would give you more. 
      
• Good handwriting helps the marker. If they struggle to read your work it will make less impression upon them.
   
• Spelling and grammar are still essential in exams. It is easier to make mistakes in exams in the heat of the moment but these look very stupid when read in the cold light of day by the marker. You don’t want them to be remembering your worst mistakes when they come to put a grade on your answer book so don’t make any. In the worst cases an inability to write in sentences renders large sections of an exam book unmarkable and unpassable.
   
• Make sure you know how to spell all key names, concepts and terms relevant to the subject. Many of these will actually appear on the exam paper and so there is no excuse for misspelling them.
      
• Make sure that you don’t misattribute book titles, dates and concepts to another author – again this will look like a serious error when the marker comes to it later. These simple mistakes are easily avoided by good revision.
   
• You don’t need to have a bibliography or to reference in an exam essay but there are many things I would advise. It isn’t hard to learn the titles and dates of key texts to mention – all of which adds more detail to your essays and gets you better marks. Also you should learn simple 1-2 sentence quotations which can be used to make your essay stronger and indicate that you have worked and know the subject literature.
    
• As in essays, it isn’t enough to just learn your notes: you are expected to have added to them. Make your essay appear more informed about your subject and its key texts and your grades will improve. It isn’t hard to find something in one of the books that wasn’t in the lecture. The marker will know and will be more impressed. Find new information, new detail, new analyses, new arguments and new quotations and mention your sources as you write to get more credit.      
   
• It appears to be even more tempting in exams to crack jokes, to be funny or irreverent, to give personal information, to tell personal anecdotes, to proffer irrelevant personal opinion, or even to address the marker personally. Whatever you do, avoid this. It is usually only the weaker students who resort to it and it always has the unfortunate effect of making their answers even worse.
      
• It also appears to be more tempting in an exam to resort to material derived from last night’s telly, your new CD, that DVD you rented at the weekend, whatever was in the tabloids this week, and whatever popular cultural phenomenon or catch-phrase is currently doing the rounds. It is obvious that this is a substitution for the work that should have been done and always appears crass and irrelevant. Markers have an absolute, unerring eye for waffle. Try working and revising hard enough and you won’t have time to fill the last pages of an answer with rubbish. You’ll also get a better grade. 
   
• As in an essay, only include examples if they are relevant. Also keep them under control – don’t spend three pages giving an example of a point that you spent two sentences making as you won’t get that many extra marks for your effort. Make sure you’ve explained everything you should in suitable detail and with full quotations before you give examples. Examples should always add to the points you are making and not detract from or eclipse them.
    
• Really do not ever use lists, slang, or (especially) note form in exams. Don’t use the + sign for ‘and’ and don’t use ‘arrows’. Markers want to mark English not hieroglyphics so write in full sentences. 
   
• As in an essay, stick to an essay plan. Write a brief, simple, one paragraph introduction then get stuck into giving back the bulk of the factual information that the question implicitly expects and which you have studied. After that move onto the analysis or comparison or evaluation – what the question expects you to do with the factual information in order to turn it into an answer to the question. Again don’t write about things that you do know and want to write about if it isn’t what the question wants and if it is instead of the subject you should be discussing. Don’t offer evaluations and opinions that have no relationship to the critical literature or discipline.
    
• Finally, give an extended conclusion. As in an essay, this should be an intelligent, academically expressed opinion that directly answers the question. Plan it in advance and end with something good – a strong point or argument or claim. Revise a good quotation that leaves the marker thinking. It is surprising how many people don’t plan their conclusions and just make up something on the spot – often waffle, banality, ignorance or rubbish. If you know the subject you are answering a question on then you can plan what your conclusion might be or several possible conclusions, ready to apply to the specific question. If you end an exam essay with absolute rubbish and moronic generalisations and prejudice then this is what the marker remembers when they give a grade. 
     
• Don’t leave the exam room early. Unless you really do have nothing to write then you should stay in the hope that you might be able to add more to the essay - especially if it is likely to fail unless you do.
     
• Don’t bother cheating – it’s easy to be caught and the repercussions for your whole degree aren’t worth it. Just do the work. 
   
• Don’t fail. If you do, you only have to resist the assessment and do the work eventually. Save us all the bother and the time by working when you should and passing. 
   
• One good piece of advice is to practice exam essays. Ask the lecturer what kinds of questions might be asked on a subject and write an essay - or several essay – based on those. Many lecturers will also look through this for you if they have time. If the same issues come up on the actual paper it is far easier to write the essay well, and, if you plan several essays, then they will almost certainly be of some relevance.
    
• As in an essay, as you write think about what your essay will be like to mark.