This post is written with students of the Computer Science Tripos at the University of Cambridge as the audience, but almost all of the principles apply to other standard memorisation-based examinations as well.

Despite being an awful tool, you’ll have to deal with exams (see David MacKay’s “Everybody Should Get an A” for a better system). I don’t judge you based on how you think of exams or your performance - this is because I don’t think how you think about exams reflects values that are good or bad: there are legitimate reasons for both. But if you do care about exam performance - like I did at university - then this post is for you. I was top of the exam papers of the Computer Science Tripos at the University of Cambridge all three years not because of specific skills, but because of figuring out the right strategies.

We can’t all be top of the years, but you can significantly improve your result compared to others by leveraging the below principles. The catch? It’s difficult.

Exams are a game. Here is the winning strategy.

Principles

Mentality

• Set your goal: First or 2.i. If First, then prepare for the minimum number of questions needed with a bit of leeway, learn the material from top to bottom, and do all past exam questions. If 2.i, prepare more broadly, and learn the lecture notes to 80%.
• For example, let’s say you’re a second-year, and you’re looking at Paper N. You might learn just 3 subjects top to bottom and cover 6 questions (5 will be evaluated and you have 1 backup), or you might learn 5 subjects to 80% only but cover all questions.
• Note that actually knowing a subject top to bottom is difficult. The last 20% is as hard as the first 80%.
• You have been admitted to Cambridge because you are a smart person. There is no material you would be unable to understand. If you don’t understand something, it’s always because you haven’t worked enough on it yet.
• If you’re not preparing enough to reach the goal you set, stop lying to yourself. Be intellectually honest: either you want to reach the grade you set and it will be painful, or you don’t want to.
• It is perfectly OK to lower your target: there are plenty of legitimate reasons to do it. But be honest about it to yourself - it will relieve a lot of pressure once you resolve the inner conflict.
• Listen to the inner doubt. If you feel that you might not know something, or if you feel you’re getting lazier, then be honest about it. If you don’t know something, then take the time to dig into it, or find the person who can help. If you feel lazy, then decide consciously whether you want a break or not, and feel good about it.
• Procrastination will still happen, and it’s fine. Be honest about it.
• I controlled procrastination by working in the library, allowing breaks, and by banning myself from work after a cutoff time, guaranteeing some relaxation time.
• Pain is good. It’s a sign that you’re actually growing. Think of physical exercise as a comparison - if it doesn’t hurt, you’re not developing. Learn to accept and even enjoy the pain. (“Pain is weakness leaving the body.”)

Revision and Learning

• Choose subjects to learn for easy marks, not for your favourite subject. Sometimes your favourite is the one where you’re motivated to learn the most, but sometimes they are marked harshly (for example, Computer Graphics). Whereas some subjects are marked easily or are extremely little material to learn (such as Prolog). Whichever you like, you’re worsening your results if you choose Computer Graphics and don’t choose Prolog.
• Understand every bit of the lecture notes. Every bit. Except which specifically say non-examinable - the rest you have to know, all of it.
• Understand, don’t just memorise. Understanding is the long-term way of remembering so much material.
• First learn the notes mostly. Then do exam questions without the notes. Then notes again. Then questions again, now as if they were the real exam.
• The reason you want to do this repetition is that it is impossible to get to the full understanding in one go. One thorough read will get you very far ahead as you’ll understand many layers. But you’ll need questions to recall and apply that knowledge, then another read and further questions to finish the journey and progress to further layers of understanding.
• Studying during the year is really taking the first few layers so you don’t have to do them all in the exam term.
• Recall is the key for memorising. Not reading. Recalling. Try to recall summaries and formulae to really persist them in your memory.
• Helping other students in preparation is great. It’s way more beneficial to you than to them since you’re recalling information and you’re building a sensible structure out of the information, making you understand it even better. It’s also an encouraging feeling as you realise that you understand more than the others - a little sign that your strategy and hard work is paying off.
• Supervisions and revision sessions are your chance to make everything perfectly clear. If you’re unsure about something, say the most likely wrong thing you think so it can be corrected and so you learn. It is not embarrassing to say incorrect things, because that’s the way to fix them and that’s the purpose of supervisions. People who think it’s embarrassing are going to perform relatively worse - is it worth the cost?
• If you’re a third-year student: finish your dissertation in Lent term. Spend the entirety of your Easter holiday and especially Easter term revising.
• The marginal gain on working more on your dissertation is an order of magnitude smaller than preparing for exams.

Answering Exam Questions

• Always measure the time when you solve past paper questions. It will significantly improve your speed and speed calibration.
• Aim for 30 minutes per question. Not 36 minutes per question (180 minutes for 5 questions). 30 minutes per question.
• Include everything in the answer that you can. Think of what an examiner could subtract marks for, and cover it. Include more than you think you should. Include so much that the examiner doesn’t have a chance to mark you down even if they wanted to.
• If the marks are 2, it’s probably 2 sentences. If it’s 8 marks, 2 sentences are not enough!
• Write/structure clearly. The examiner will look for certain key points. Make it super obvious to the examiner to give you lots of marks.
• Write fast.

Energy and Body Management

• Regular long sleep is more important than studying late. That’s when your brain actually persists the relevant memories. It’s also fine to take naps in the middle of the day.
• You also want to be fresh when you’re taking the exams. It is a fallacy, your body fooling you, when you think that you can perform just as well when tired. If you don’t sleep, that’s an immediate 10% performance penalty. Have good amounts of sleep.
• Minimise human contact before exams to avoid getting into a negative emotional state. Human relations have their ups and downs - it's best to stay emotionally steady. The extreme failure mode here is breaking up, which can push you into a depressed state and preoccupy your brain.
• Note that this is optional (but recommended) since some people require human contact to stay sane. If you have to meet anyone, meet stable friends.
• The day before the exam just relax, skim the lecture notes, and revisit the key points. Same on the days of the exams.
• You don’t prepare for a race by running up until the very last minute. You prepare by training over months/years, and you rest before the race to get yourself ready.
• Skimming the lecture notes is useful for refreshing the structure and details of the material.
• Revisiting the key points is useful for keeping material that you struggle memorising (normally rote memory, such as formulae) in your shorter-term memory.
• Don’t eat immediately before the exams. Digestion activates your parasympathetic nervous system.
• Also make sure you don’t starve by the end of the exam. You can consume lots of chocolate and sugar pills right before the exam to help with it.
• Be slightly nervous to increase your focus/concentration, but don’t overfret.
• Don’t burn yourself out. If you lose all motivation, you’ll perform worse. It’s not worth it.
• If you do notice burning out, significantly decrease work for a couple days. It will be worth on the long run.