Last updated February 22, 2023

I’ve studied for many exams and have helped many students study for exams. Below are some tips and advice I’ve collected over the years. They are separated into the following categories: preparing for the exam, the day before the exam, during the exam, and after the exam. These are just my suggestions, you get to decide which suggestions work best for you. I hope they are helpful and I wish you the best of luck with your studies!

Preparing for the exam:

• Determine the logistics of the exam.
  • When is the exam?
  • Where is the exam?
  • How long is the exam?
  • What supplies do you need for the exam?
  • What are you allowed to bring to the exam?
  • How many exercises will be on the exam?
    • From my experience, 50-minute midterm exams tend to have 3 – 6 exercises and 3-hour final exams tend to be 10 – 15 exercises.
  • What is a good or passing score on the exam? (VERY important to ask for qualifying exams!)
  • What is needed for a good or passing score on the exam? (VERY important to ask for qualifying exams!)
  • Do you need to make any accommodations for the exam? Make sure to set this up in advance. Contact CAE if you need any accommodations at UCLA.
• How much time do you have to study for this exam?
  • I have personally found I perform better on exams when I prepare further in advance versus cramming the night before. It is also less stressful and I am less anxious during the exam when I have taken time to prepare. I recommend the following preparation times based on my own experience, although this may be different for you.
    • Midterms: 1 – 2 weeks, 1 – 2 hours per day
    • Finals: 1 – 2 weeks, 1 – 2 hours per day
    • GRE / Mathematics GRE: 2 – 6 months, 1 – 3 hours per day
    • Qualifying exams: 3 – 12 months, 1 – 4 hours per day
  • Under a time crunch? Focus mostly on practice exams, reviewing important topics, practicing writing formulas and theorems from memory, and reviewing homework assignments.
• What topics will be on the exam?
  • Make a separate list and add to it as you review other material.
• What extra reference materials do you have? (E.g. practice exams, homework assignments, practice questions, lecture notes, textbook chapters and sections)
  • Make a list of the materials you have. (E.g. lecture notes, homework assignments, practice exams, practice questions, textbook chapters and sections)
• Review starting with the material closest to the exam.
  • Past or practice exams are usually the best source in my experience. (E.g. practice exams, homework assignments, practice questions, lecture notes, textbook chapters and sections)
• If you have access to past or practice exams:
  • Complete all the exercises with notes and materials available to you.
  • What was/were the main topic(s) covered by each exercise? Add them to your list.
  • What important theorems or formulas were used? Add them to your list.
  • What were the steps of each exercise?
  • Repeat the practice exam again without notes and under a time limit, ideally at the same time in the day as your future exam. Grade yourself. How did you do? What exercises did you struggle with? Practice the exercises you struggled with and without notes and materials.
• Review homework assignments.
  • Do you have access to the solutions?
  • Were the solutions the same or different than yours?
  • What mistakes did you make?
  • What was/were the main topic(s) of each exercise? Add them to your list.
  • What important theorems or formulas were used? Add them to your list.
  • What were the steps of each exercise?
• Review lecture notes.
  • What was/were the main topic(s) covered? Add them to your list.
  • What important theorems or formulas were covered? Add them to your list.
  • What examples were covered?
• Compare all the examples and exercises you have seen.
  • Was there anything in common with examples seen in lectures, exercises on homework assignments, or exercises in past or practice exams?
• Review the textbook.
  • What was/were the main topic(s) covered? Add them to your list.
  • What important theorems or formulas were covered? Add them to your list.
• Find additional practice questions or create your own practice exam.
  • Find similar examples and exercises in the textbook.
  • Ask around if anyone has past exams from the same course.
  • I have additional practice exercises for some courses here.
  • Visit the Bruin Test Bank.
  • Visit Paul’s Online Math Notes for notes and extra practice problems (most exercises have solutions).
• Practice during the same time as the future exam.
  • If your exam is early in the morning, practice waking up early so your body has time to adjust. (This is especially important for longer exams such as finals, GREs, qualifying exams.)
  • Determine an eating schedule so that you can avoid being hungry during your study and exam times. (“You’re not you when you’re hungry” – Snickers)
• Practice writing down important theorems, facts, and formulas from memory.
  • I like to compile important theorems, facts, and formulas on an 8.5″ x 11″ paper and practice recreating this paper from scratch several times. (This was very helpful for me for qualifying exams.)
• Make flashcards!
  • Make a flash card for important theorems, facts, formulas, etc.
  • Study for a few minutes multiple times per day.
• Study so that if your partner/roommate/family member were to wake you up in the middle of the night and give you an exercise to do, you could do it.
• Gather your supplies.
• Make a plan.
  • What topics do you feel the most confident in?
  • What topics do you feel the least confident in?
  • What exercises do you want to do first?
  • What exercises do you want to save for the end?

The day before the exam:

• Get enough sleep before the exam. I recommend 8 hours of sleep.
• Make your stomach happy for the exam. Drink plenty of liquids and eat food as needed so you can focus on the exam. Avoid being hungry during the exam. (“You’re not you when you’re hungry” – Snickers)
• Set an alarm and backup alarm so you know when to wake up and/or leave for the exam.
• Be familiar with the exam location as much as possible.
• Plan to arrive at least a few minutes early at the exam location.
• Pack your bag with all your exam supplies AND backup supplies in advance. (E.g. if your exam is in the morning, pack your bag the night before)
  • Pack multiple sharp pencils for the GRE exams, it makes a HUGE difference when you have them readily available and can switch quickly when they become dull.
  • Always have multiple writing utensils just in case your pencils breaks, your pen runs out of ink, etc.
  • Bring backup batteries for your calculator if a calculator is necessary for your exam.

During the exam:

• Read the instructions. Some exams may require a signature or copying of a statement in order to be graded.
• Do the “data dump”: Before looking at any questions on the exam, find a blank area on the exam and take 1-5 minutes to write down as many formulas, important theorems, facts, etc. as you can think of.
• Read through all the exam questions and make a plan. Do not start with the first problem on the exam without making a plan, it could be a time waster!
  • Which exercises do you know how to do?
  • Which exercises do you not know how to do?
  • Which exercises do you feel the most confident in?
  • Which exercises do you feel the least confident in?
  • Which exercises do you think will take the least amount of time to complete?
  • Which exercises do you think will take the most amount of time to complete?
  • Which exercises look the “easiest”?
  • Which exercises look the most difficult?
• Make a plan.
  • Start with the exercise you feel most confident in, “easiest”, or will take the quickest to complete.
  • Save the exercises you feel least confident in, most difficult, or will take the longest to complete for the end.
  • Budget time to review your work. This may be more difficult for shorter exams like 50-minute midterms but may be more feasible for 3-hour finals or qualifying exams.
  • Budget a time limit for each question so you can attempt each question. For example, if you have a 50-minute exam with 5 exercises, you might want to budget 9 minutes for each exercise with 5 minutes remaining to review. If you spend longer than 9 minutes on one exercise, move to another one. You can always come back if there is more time later.
• Show as much work and detail as possible.
  • It’s easier to make mistakes if you do a lot of series of calculations in your head.
  • It’s easier to catch mistakes and follow through with corrections if you have all the work written out in front of you.
• Partial credit is better than no credit.
  • Do you know the exercise requires a formula but you’re not sure where to go? Write down the formula.
  • Are you stuck with the calculations but you know the remaining steps? Write down the remaining steps.
  • Does the exercise statement give you a hint about what to do but you’re not sure where to go? Try to follow the hint as much as possible.
• Save tedious calculations for later.
  • Did you finish the majority of the calculation but are wasting several minutes simplifying your solution? Save the simplification for later and come back to it at the end.
  • Note: some professors or lecturers may dock points if there is no simplification, so your results may vary.
• Practice positive affirmations.
  • “I can do this!”
  • “I know how to do this!”
  • “I’ve prepared for this, I have the tools to figure this out”
• Practice box breathing throughout the exam.
  • Inhale slowly for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, exhale slowly for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds.
  • Youtube link explaining box breathing.

After the exam:

• Give yourself a pat on the back. You did it! You are all done! The exam is over!
• Do something nice for yourself. (e.g., go out to dinner, eat a cupcake, take a nap, watch your favorite movie or TV show, etc.)
• Get some rest.
• Do some reflection:
  • What went well?
  • What didn’t go well?
  • Did you feel prepared for the exam?
  • What preparation helped you the most with this exam?
  • Did you spend enough time preparing for the exam? Should you have done more or less preparation?
  • What do you wish you had done differently before the exam? During the exam?
  • What can you do better next time?
• Sometimes exams do not always go as planned or turn out the way we hoped. That’s okay. They do not measure your worth as a person. Don’t be afraid to talk with others about it. Contact CAPS at UCLA if you need to talk to someone.