01
Plan backwards from the exam date
Start with facts, not motivation. Write down every exam, its date and what it covers, using your module outline or study guide. Then count the days between today and each one, and remove the days you genuinely can't study. That number, not the one you wish you had, is your real budget.
Next, list every topic in each module and rate it honestly: confident, shaky or lost. Give the most time to topics that are both heavily weighted and weak. If you have several exams close together, study them side by side instead of finishing one module before starting the next, and keep the earliest exam's subject in every day until you write it.
The time you have changes the shape of the plan. With a month, learn properly first, then switch to practice. With two weeks, spend the first on your weakest topics and the second on practice papers. With only a few days, go straight to practice questions and let your mistakes decide what to revise.
02
Active recall: test yourself instead of rereading
Rereading feels like studying because the material looks familiar. But recognising something on a page isn't the same as producing it from memory in an exam hall. Active recall means practising the second thing: closing your notes and pulling the information out of your own head. It feels harder, and that effort is exactly what makes it stick.
The simplest method is a blank page. Pick a topic, close everything, and write down all you can remember: definitions, steps, diagrams, examples. Then open your notes and mark what you missed or got wrong. Those gaps are your next study session. You can also turn every heading in your notes into a question and answer it aloud before checking.
- Blank-page recall: write everything you know, then check
- Question cards: the question on the front, the answer on the back
- Headings turned into questions you answer before reading
- Worked examples covered up and attempted before you look
03
Spaced repetition: how to study without forgetting
We forget quickly after we first learn something, and each successful recall slows that forgetting down. Spaced repetition uses this. Instead of covering a topic once for three hours, you revisit it in shorter sessions with growing gaps: the next day, a few days later, then a week later. Each time, test yourself first, then fill the gaps.
This is also why cramming lets you down. A topic crammed the night before may survive until morning and then fade, and university modules often build on earlier work. Mixing topics within a session helps too. A few questions from three different chapters is harder than ten from one, but it's much closer to what the exam will do to you.
04
How to study past papers effectively
Past papers show you what an exam actually asks: the question styles, the mark allocation and how deep the answers need to go. Don't save them all for the last week. Do one early, untimed, as a diagnosis. It tells you which topics need work while you still have time to fix them.
Closer to the exam, do papers under real conditions: timed, closed-book, phone in another room. Mark your answers honestly against the memo if your module provides one, or against your notes. Then keep a mistake log, grouped by type: didn't know it, misread the question, ran out of time, careless slip. Each type needs a different fix.
No past papers? Use tutorial questions, end-of-chapter exercises and the examples your lecturer worked in class. You can also write your own questions from the module's learning outcomes, then swap with a classmate. Questions written by someone else feel much more like the real exam than ones you set for yourself.
05
Explain it out loud, as if you were teaching it
If you can explain a topic simply, out loud and without notes, you probably understand it. If you can't, you've found a gap. This is the idea behind the Feynman technique: explain the concept in plain words as if to someone new, notice where you stumble or hide behind jargon, go back to the source, then explain it again.
You don't need an audience. Explain to a friend, a study group, an empty chair or a voice note on your phone. In my tutoring sessions I often ask students to explain a step back to me in their own words, because the moment they hesitate is exactly where we need to work. For calculations and code, talk through each step and why it comes next.
06
Sleep, breaks and the night before an exam
Sleep is part of studying, not a break from it. Your brain consolidates what you learned during the day while you sleep, and a tired brain recalls less and makes more careless mistakes. Most adults need around seven to nine hours. An all-nighter trades the understanding you've built for a few extra hours of panicked reading. It's rarely worth it.
During the day, study in focused blocks with short breaks. The Pomodoro technique, 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break, is a simple way to start, and some people prefer longer blocks. Put your phone out of reach. Short, focused sessions of recall do more than long, distracted ones with a highlighter.
The night before, don't start new topics. Do a light recall session on your summaries, check the venue, start time and what you're allowed to bring, pack it, and go to bed at your usual time. If exam anxiety is getting in the way of sleeping or studying, speak to your campus student support services. That's what they're there for.
07
Exam-room technique: how to manage your time
Use any reading time to scan the whole paper and mark the questions you're confident about. Then work out your pace by dividing the minutes by the marks. A three-hour paper worth 150 marks gives you about a minute per mark, with half an hour spare for planning and checking. A 10-mark question shouldn't take twenty minutes.
Start with questions you can do well, to bank marks and settle your nerves. Read each question twice and notice the instruction word: define, explain, compare and discuss each ask for something different. Show your working in calculations and code, because method marks can rescue a wrong final answer. Don't leave a question blank if a partial answer could earn something.
- Scan the paper and plan before you write
- Budget time by marks, and stick to it
- Answer the question asked, not the one you revised
- Show working so you can earn method marks
- Keep the last ten minutes for checking and unanswered parts
08
Studying for an exam in a short time
Sometimes the plan didn't happen, and the exam is in a few days, or tomorrow. Be honest about what's possible and triage. Pick the topics that carry the most marks and the ones that appear in every past paper. Learn to do the standard questions on those, through practice rather than reading, and accept that some topics won't get covered.
Even with one day left, sleep is worth more than one more hour of cramming. If you'd like a plan and someone to work through it with, my exam preparation sessions focus on targeted revision, past paper walkthroughs and exam technique. And for the habits that stop the panic from happening again next semester, have a look at study skills coaching.
If dense slides are the problem, clear study notes can help. Ethan Naicker (Higher Certificate, Mobile App and Web Development) wrote: "The notes Jorryn put together for me before my exam were unlike anything I'd seen. Clear, structured, and actually useful, not just a copy of the slides. I walked into that exam feeling prepared for the first time all semester. Genuinely grateful."
