Exam strategies

[MCRoads]

It's Exam time for those of us still in the midst of our education career, YAY!

Ok, so what do you do before/on tests to make sure you do your best? I am taking the AB Calc AP test soon, and based on mock exams based on previous tests, have developed a strategy: If all else fails, GUESS C! I dont know why, but C has a higher percentage of right answers (at least on AP exams), so I just guess C. Also, on most tests, you dont get deducted points if your wrong, but you cant get points on questions you leve blank. So if you are running out of time, guess C on the rest. I did this, and I actually got MORE RIGHT on the questions I guessed, then I got wrong.

As for what I do before the test, I study for a reasonable time, then I take a break for the rest of the night, as I can get SUPER stressed out about tests. I'm not sure if you guys can relate, but that is just what I do best.

What are your thoughts on exams?

[oscar]

I am so glad exams are almost four decades behind me. My last multiple-choice exam was part of my 1981 bar exam. Before then, it was just my law school admissions test in 1977 or 1978. Everything in-between was essays of some kind (most fiendish were the "roll your own and smoke it", where you answered your own question, and were graded on the quality of both question and answer; and a three-hour closed-book take-home in my Philosophy of Ethics class, which favored unethical people who didn't obey either the time limit or the no-looking-things-up rule).

As for multiple-choice exams, my strategy was to try to spot the obviously wrong answer, make my best guess which of the others was the right answer, and if necessary select randomly. Sloppy exam-writers seem to often put the obviously wrong answer at the end of the list, so picking "C" as your probably right answer works only if you're given four or more choices.

[webny99]

To be honest -- and I will try to say this without giving myself too much of a virtual pat on the back -- I never had much trouble with multiple choice exams, even without studying much. You can usually eliminate two options, and as long as you have some content knowledge, it's relatively easy to decipher which one of the remaining two they want you to pick, and which one is the actual right answer. Except for occasional "stupid mistakes", I usually had a brief but well thought out case for picking the answer I picked, so I could defend it if it turned out to be wrong.

Written questions can get old and frustrating fairly quickly. If one has expansive enough of a vocabulary, it is possible to come across nuanced and well-versed by saying the same thing/making the same point in multiple ways. I attribute much of my success (not that I had a lot of success, but you know  ) on written exams to doing exactly that.

I can get SUPER stressed out about tests.

Honestly, the best thing you can do (at least IMO) is not stress at all. I used to feel genuinely bad for my peers that stressed out about tests, because more often than not, their high stress level negatively impacted their ability to think clearly and logically, and they ended up doing worse than they could have. The thing is that not stressing is only possible if you feel confident in your knowledge of the material. This is much easier said than done for some subjects, depending on what your strengths are.

[Max Rockatansky]

In High School I managed a 3.0 GPA really without trying or caring, I didn't put much effort into exam study until college when I was paying for things.  I would usually do the following every semester:

-  Read each chapter that was being covered in the class and highlight sections I thought were important. 
-  Re-type the highlighted sections in a 1-3 abridged Word format.
-  Read my notes ten times a day at breakfast each morning until the class final.

Considering I was 3.95 GPA in college I'd say my method worked pretty well for me.  I ended up keeping my notes which amount to about 400 pages of Criminal Justice and Criminal Law stuff. 

During the test if I got stuck on a multiple choice question I'd skip it and come back to it at the end. That way I wasn't wasting time getting stuck trying to recall an answer I didn't have immediately at hand. 

[english si]

Multiple choice exams? Had them for school quizzes that had nothing to do with grades, marked ourselves, and were just checking we remembered stuff we did in the past. Everything even slightly important was proper answers, even if it was just a sentence (and then really not necessarily a sentence, though there were a few marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar that could be lost if you didn't) or a value.

a three-hour closed-book take-home in my Philosophy of Ethics class, which favored unethical people who didn't obey either the time limit or the no-looking-things-up rule).

Given it was for a Philosophy of Ethics class, maybe the ability to do better skirting the rules was deliberate?

Humanity student friends of mine were often given a take-home assignment in lieu of exams - given something like 48 hours to do the reading/research and write the essay. It was worse than exams they said, because they had life getting in the way, had to meticulously source everything and engage a lot with scholarship (because books, etc are on hand and so you can do it easily, rather than looking at just one or two you've revised and discussing them) and the question was a lot more in-depth than anything they had to write in a 2-/3- hour exam because you are expected to spend ~10 times that on it.

[J N Winkler]

High school was many years ago for me, and I rather liked multiple-choice exams because they spared me writer's cramp (a problem with essay questions) and even if I didn't know the correct answer for a given question with 100% certainty, I could usually work my way to an educated guess by reverse-engineering the question.  Admittedly, there were some exams for which this did not work (AP Chemistry, for example, proved to be an order of magnitude more difficult than Calculus BC, partly because it relied on lab work that simply could not be fitted into seven hours of class each week).

My favored exam strategy was simply to get a good night's sleep in advance and eat a healthy breakfast.  The current culture of high-stakes testing was nowhere near as highly developed when I was going through high school, but even for current high-schoolers I think catastrophizing about potential unfortunate consequences gets in the way of good performance in the present.

[oscar]

a three-hour closed-book take-home in my Philosophy of Ethics class, which favored unethical people who didn't obey either the time limit or the no-looking-things-up rule).

Given it was for a Philosophy of Ethics class, maybe the ability to do better skirting the rules was deliberate?

Whether it was intentional, it was certainly foreseeable. First week of the class was dissecting ethical nihilism ("we don't need no stinkin' ethics!"). Possible some students got stuck on that idea, though since it was a graduate-level course dominated by Ph.D. candidates, I hope that didn't happen.

[noelbotevera]

I suppose that us high (or secondary, if you prefer) schoolers have taken an AP class before, though I'm about to take the APUSH exam.

Unless the teacher is crafty and/or mischievous, there's definitely one wrong answer included that can be easily eliminated. You can eliminate two with a bit more work, but for most multiple choice questions I essentially have it down to a coin flip. Usually I read the question/check the passage once more for a definite/"gut feeling" answer, but if I'm running out of time I just choose a random choice I haven't eliminated. Of course, sometimes I'm not paying attention, and therefore eliminate the correct answer on accident - yes, sometimes I kick myself for that.

TL;DR: Two answers can usually be eliminated; check the question/passage again for a definite answer, if you can't, then pick based on emotion (gut feeling)

For writing, I tend to prepare a mental outline, but I'll probably have to do this for the APUSH exam. Since one of the DBQ* points involves using content to support a claim, an outline will definitely come in handy for that. Same for the LEQ**, but it's easier to prepare an argument for that (no documents to contend with).

*: Document Based Question. Essentially, seven documents are provided (speeches, photos, ads, letters, etc.) and three out of seven points involve using the documents. One of them is using content from six documents, usually by citing key words, mentioning the spirit of the document (e.g. this is a speech, so how would it influence the author's words?), or summarizing the document and expounding on the values or language of it. I could never quite understand this point, but that's because I confused this with another point, which is using the context/audience/purpose/point of view of a document to support your claim.

**: Long Essay Question. Similar to the DBQ, except no documents are provided, instead a prompt is given and you must support your claim with historical events or trends.

The APUSH exam is definitely nothing I've taken before, as there's a pretty strict time limit placed on the exam (55 minutes multiple choice - 55 questions, 60 minutes on the DBQ (15 reading, 45 writing), 40 minutes on the LEQ, and 40 minutes on nine short answer questions). Of course, I tend to prevent undue stress on myself by not thinking about it too much, and now have to adopt a more liberal sleeping routine (sleeping at 9 or 10 PM versus midnight as I've done recently - I'm a teenager, what do you expect?).

And yes, I gladly admit to using obscure/nuanced vocabulary to BS my way through written assignments in class. After all, repetition is bad, and you do want to sound smart in those essays...

[kphoger]

I've only had to do this once, and it was on the ACT.  The instructor said not to do this, yet we would be counted off for unanswered questions.  Yeah, right!  I answered A for all remaining questions.

[Big John]

I've only had to do this once, and it was on the ACT.  The instructor said not to do this, yet we would be counted off for unanswered questions.  Yeah, right!  I answered A for all remaining questions.

At least you didn't have to take the SAT, which penalizes you for wrong answers verses leaving it blank.

[US 89]

I've only had to do this once, and it was on the ACT.  The instructor said not to do this, yet we would be counted off for unanswered questions.  Yeah, right!  I answered A for all remaining questions.

At least you didn't have to take the SAT, which penalizes you for wrong answers verses leaving it blank.

Not anymore.

For writing, I tend to prepare a mental outline, but I'll probably have to do this for the APUSH exam. Since one of the DBQ* points involves using content to support a claim, an outline will definitely come in handy for that. Same for the LEQ**, but it's easier to prepare an argument for that (no documents to contend with).

*: Document Based Question. Essentially, seven documents are provided (speeches, photos, ads, letters, etc.) and three out of seven points involve using the documents. One of them is using content from six documents, usually by citing key words, mentioning the spirit of the document (e.g. this is a speech, so how would it influence the author's words?), or summarizing the document and expounding on the values or language of it. I could never quite understand this point, but that's because I confused this with another point, which is using the context/audience/purpose/point of view of a document to support your claim.

**: Long Essay Question. Similar to the DBQ, except no documents are provided, instead a prompt is given and you must support your claim with historical events or trends.

The APUSH exam is definitely nothing I've taken before, as there's a pretty strict time limit placed on the exam (55 minutes multiple choice - 55 questions, 60 minutes on the DBQ (15 reading, 45 writing), 40 minutes on the LEQ, and 40 minutes on nine short answer questions). Of course, I tend to prevent undue stress on myself by not thinking about it too much, and now have to adopt a more liberal sleeping routine (sleeping at 9 or 10 PM versus midnight as I've done recently - I'm a teenager, what do you expect?).

When I took APUSH, the long-time teacher for that class had just retired, and the new teacher didn't actually know the material or how to teach a class. As a result, almost everyone got an A in the class but very few people scored higher than a 3 on the AP test. I forget exactly what our LEQ was, but it was on something we had never covered. I wound up drawing a big American flag in the LEQ answering space and still got a 3 on the exam.

[hotdogPi]

I just took a final where one problem had in its given information that US 93 northbound in Boston has 45K±10K vehicles per hour. (It was a statistics problem, and it was not multiple choice.)

[jakeroot]

Hate multiple-choice tests unless I'm 100% confident that I've memorized the entire extent of the material. Otherwise, explaining my thoughts allows partial credit, something every professor I've had has given (especially in classes that are largely subjective). It's even nice on math tests (something I've not taken in years), where they ask you to show the work. At least you can get some credit up to the point where you F'ed up!

My general study strategy is to spend a good deal of time the day before going over any study materials, reading over homework and previous tests, preferably with a fellow classmate. Having another classmate to study with is quite helpful in subjective courses, so you can compare/contrast prior responses, see who got the most credit, bounce ideas of one another, etc.

Alternatively, take courses with profs that allow open-book tests! Just make sure to note where the key points are prior to testing, as these profs usually allow a very limited amount of time for testing.

[webny99]

Personally, I think process of elimination is a lot better strategy than picking at random. Even if you know very little of the material, you can at least eliminate one, often two, and then your chances are 33% or 50%, respectively. That's a lot better than 25%, and the effect snowballs over the course of many questions.

[vdeane]

Is random guessing on an AP exam really worth it?  They deduct 0.2 points for incorrect answers specifically to neutralize random guessing (educated guessing where you can eliminate some choices is still worth it, though).

Not that I ever really did much random guessing on tests.  I'm the type of person who could easily maintain a B average even without studying at all.  The only reason I bothered was because I wanted a 4.0.  There were even classes where my average was above 100% because of extra credit.

I suppose that us high (or secondary, if you prefer) schoolers have taken an AP class before, though I'm about to take the APUSH exam.

Oddly enough, my classmates always referred to that class as "AP American", but the class the following year started calling it APUSH (pronounced "a push") for some reason.

Unless the teacher is crafty and/or mischievous, there's definitely one wrong answer included that can be easily eliminated. You can eliminate two with a bit more work, but for most multiple choice questions I essentially have it down to a coin flip. Usually I read the question/check the passage once more for a definite/"gut feeling" answer, but if I'm running out of time I just choose a random choice I haven't eliminated. Of course, sometimes I'm not paying attention, and therefore eliminate the correct answer on accident - yes, sometimes I kick myself for that.

Or, if you're lucky, one of the answers is humorous.  7th grade history tests in particular were a lot of fun for this reason.  I remember one question where the correct answer was the Green Mountain Boys, but one of the incorrect answers was the Backstreet Boys.

*: Document Based Question. Essentially, seven documents are provided (speeches, photos, ads, letters, etc.) and three out of seven points involve using the documents. One of them is using content from six documents, usually by citing key words, mentioning the spirit of the document (e.g. this is a speech, so how would it influence the author's words?), or summarizing the document and expounding on the values or language of it. I could never quite understand this point, but that's because I confused this with another point, which is using the context/audience/purpose/point of view of a document to support your claim.

New York also puts these on their social studies standardized tests.  The idea is to teach people how to work with and cite scholarly documents to support arguments.

Alternatively, take courses with profs that allow open-book tests! Just make sure to note where the key points are prior to testing, as these profs usually allow a very limited amount of time for testing.

That or they make the test harder to compensate.

Personally, I think process of elimination is a lot better strategy than picking at random. Even if you know very little of the material, you can at least eliminate one, often two, and then your chances are 33% or 50%, respectively. That's a lot better than 25%, and the effect snowballs over the course of many questions.

Exactly, and this is particularly true of AP exams.  With correct answers worth 1 point and incorrect answers subtracting 0.2 points, and 5 choices for each question, random guessing will statistically cancel itself out, while educated guessing is a net positive.

[jakeroot]

Alternatively, take courses with profs that allow open-book tests! Just make sure to note where the key points are prior to testing, as these profs usually allow a very limited amount of time for testing.

That or they make the test harder to compensate.

Yes, I would say that's accurate. But if you know where the answers are, it's just a matter of finding the answer and copying it over (maybe verbatim, maybe not). For the open-book tests I've taken, the professor has given us a huge study sheet of about 50-70 questions. Our job before the test is to find the answer location for each question. We then bring that sheet to the test, along with all relevant material, and then proceed to compare our study guide to the actual test. The actual test almost always has about 15-20 questions, copied verbatim from the study guide. This rewards the student who familiarised themselves with the material, and penalises those who thought they could do it the day-of, despite having only three minutes per question.

[noelbotevera]

Is random guessing on an AP exam really worth it?  They deduct 0.2 points for incorrect answers specifically to neutralize random guessing (educated guessing where you can eliminate some choices is still worth it, though).

Not that I ever really did much random guessing on tests.  I'm the type of person who could easily maintain a B average even without studying at all.  The only reason I bothered was because I wanted a 4.0.  There were even classes where my average was above 100% because of extra credit.

I suppose that us high (or secondary, if you prefer) schoolers have taken an AP class before, though I'm about to take the APUSH exam.

Oddly enough, my classmates always referred to that class as "AP American", but the class the following year started calling it APUSH (pronounced "a push") for some reason.

*: Document Based Question. Essentially, seven documents are provided (speeches, photos, ads, letters, etc.) and three out of seven points involve using the documents. One of them is using content from six documents, usually by citing key words, mentioning the spirit of the document (e.g. this is a speech, so how would it influence the author's words?), or summarizing the document and expounding on the values or language of it. I could never quite understand this point, but that's because I confused this with another point, which is using the context/audience/purpose/point of view of a document to support your claim.

New York also puts these on their social studies standardized tests.  The idea is to teach people how to work with and cite scholarly documents to support arguments.

Replying to a few points you've made:

I believe the APUSH exam is standardized worldwide, so I think the point penalty you're referring to no longer applies to the current format (they revamped it in 2016; for example, the multiple choice was decreased from 80 to 55 questions, but all 55 questions refer to a stimulus (i.e. speech, chart, map, graph, etc.)). I suppose New York had to be the Mongols.

I suppose there was a name change in your school somewhere along the line, because the class and the exam has been called APUSH as far back as 1996.

I'm also surprised New York does a form of the DBQ; by any chance, are they similar? The other four DBQ points are a claim, context (describe the time period prior to/during/after the time period listed on the prompt), outside evidence (name a historical event not mentioned in the documents & support your claim), and complexity (provide nuance; either by undermining an opposing viewpoint or linking the prompt to another APUSH theme or time period)

[J N Winkler]

When I took the AP US History exam in high school, that was what it was called (we didn't shorten it to "APUSH"), and it was in substantially the same format as it is today--multiple-choice followed by essays.

If I had my high school career to do over again, one of the key things I would change is the loading of AP courses.  If memory serves, I took one AP exam as a sophomore (Calculus BC), two AP exams (one of which was US History) as a junior, and then six AP exams as a senior.  Six in one year was too many and I think all of the scores I received that were not 5 were from exams taken that year.  I would sequence the exams with an eye to how lumpy they and the underlying coursework are.  AP Chemistry is much more difficult than AP US History, for example, largely because the lab component can't really be accommodated in one hour each day adding up to five hours per week over a school year.  Our instructor did his best by talking the school into one hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays before the usual start time, but even that was not enough.  On the other hand, AP Psychology proved to be quite an easy exam, and I got a 5 on it with a modest amount of independent study.

I would also canvass the testing-out policies of the universities I was considering applying to.  One of the AP exams I took, Physics B, was useless for testing out of Engineering Physics (required for physics majors, though others could take easier classes to satisfy distribution requirements); I ended up taking two semesters of Engineering Physics (and testing out of a third by special arrangement) just to clear the requirement after I had already been taking upper-division courses for a year.  Meanwhile, testing-out options at many universities are not limited to AP or even a combination of AP or IB.  My math major came with a statistics requirement that I knocked off by acing a DOD aptitude test that is given to service personnel.

I think I entered KSU with around 40 hours of test-out credit.  I think one of my high-school classmates entered with a similar number of hours, but from a different combination of courses (e.g., she did AP European History through independent study).  The then standing record-holder in terms of test-out credit was a woman with (if memory serves) between 60 and 70 hours who later went to Oxford on a Marshall scholarship.

[MCRoads]

Thanks for your thoughts on testing! It's really I interesting to see all the responses.

Just to add a few points, they don't count off for wrong answers on AP Calc 1 (at least) anymore, and thank god, cause I would be screwed if it did. I also choose C because according to my 6th grade math teacher, it was the most likely, and it just kind of stuck.

Apperently a lot of you took A PUSH, and you should be proud of that. My history teacher is scared of teaching AP due to him not liking how difficult the tests are lol.

Also, J N Winkler, I'm sorry about having to take SIX(!) AP exams in one year. I can barely handle 1!

[ilpt4u]

APUSH was a fun test. I had the exact opposite experience of US 89...Taught by a 30+ year teacher in his Penultimate year before retirement...

He was so familiar with the test format he correctly guessed the DBQ topic by the time we started the year, my junior year. So extra class time was spent on that subject when we got to that point on the timeline (I believe it was Post-WWII and the formation of the Truman Doctrine and Containment of Communism, but I have slept since Jr year of HS, only ~18 years ago). But historically to that point the teacher typically did not get beyond WWII into the Cold War until after the AP Test date...so some shuffling was done to make sure we got to the beginning of the Cold War...Also had the benefit of being one of the most recent units that had been closely studied, before a quick year-long summary and a run or two of practice tests

That said, that familiarity was also a bit of a cost, as the non-DBQ essay was on the Womens Rights Movement...which the teacher skimmed over, since he pretty much explicitly knew it would NOT be the DBQ, at it had been the year before. But if memory serves, the DBQ was a bigger part of the overall score than the other essay - no idea if that is still the case

Basically, he taught the class for taking the test

The two AP tests that got me were the English ones...don't remember which was which, but I took 2 separate ones Jr and Sr years...it felt like turning in a test, hoping for a C, and thats about accurate

[webny99]

Not that I ever really did much random guessing on tests.  I'm the type of person who could easily maintain a B average even without studying at all.  The only reason I bothered was because I wanted a 4.0.  There were even classes where my average was above 100% because of extra credit.

Yeah, I could basically say the exact same thing. Stuff like history and English I could usually ace thanks to memory alone. Math was similar, except it was the process that you had to remember, not a snapshot of the textbook page. I had a string of not-so-good science teachers, so that was far and away the class in which I made up the most answers as I went.

Re: extra credit, the only difference with me is that I was usually too lazy to do it unless I actually needed it - which was fairly rare by my own standards 

Or, if you're lucky, one of the answers is humorous.

Yes! I enjoyed it when one of the choices was funny, because it created a sense of equality with the teacher. There were also times when I felt like I was the only one that got the joke - also rewarding.

[english si]

Also, J N Winkler, I'm sorry about having to take SIX(!) AP exams in one year. I can barely handle 1!

Be glad you aren't in England!

I did 11 GCSEs in my sophomore year-equivalent (Well 10, as I'd done maths early and was getting an odd bonus qualification). The typical amount is more like 8 or 9 - still a lot of exams though. OK, it wasn't crammed into 10 days of exams like AP (instead spread out over 4-5 weeks). Nor was it AP level (well, other than the bonus maths qualification I got) - though you obviously rarely see someone in the US take a load of AP exams aged 16 as they aren't at that level yet! Arguably the requirements to get a top grade then were close to getting a decent grade on a higher level. My GCSE maths coursework was basically to go from first principles to coming up with the formula for differentiating polynomials (because we were given the hardest task, as the mark needed was lower for getting the top grade, due to that higher level), which meant the calculus stuff that was AP Calc AB-equivalent in that bonus qualification (which was more broad than just calc) was a doddle, as we knew the principles and concepts, and had the formula!

There were two weeks where I did 6 or 7 exams that week (pretty much all subjects had two or three exams each) covering a broad array of subjects (which was the issue I felt the most that year - just being spread so thin covering so many different topics). There might have been one day where I sat exams in three different subjects - certainly I remember there being a clash (which is quite common), meaning we had to remain siloed from the outside world between the time we were meant to take the exam and the time we did take the exam - we basically did them back-to-back with a 15 minute break, but you do get stories about people having to spend the night under supervision (not exam conditions, but the inability to have any remote chance of communicating with anyone who might tell you what's on the exam you are sitting time-delayed).

And obviously, having done the equivalent of graduating High School at 16 (5 GCSEs grade C or above), plus a bit more, above average students move on to only taking higher-level classes (unless they don't have maths or english at GCSE C-or-above equivalent level - they are compulsory for 16-18s until they get it).

So, junior year-equivalent, I did the first half of my A levels (college entry looked at the grades from these exams, your GCSEs, and your predicted grades for senior year for academic skill. Offers of acceptance are usually conditional on final A-level grades which come out mid-August for starting college in late-September, though they might lower those conditions if you just miss out). 4 subjects (OK most do 3), 2 exams at roughly AP-standard each (typically back to back) if not a little higher in level and broader in scope, and a month to have the exams in. The second Tuesday I had Chemistry (x2) in the morning and Electronics (x2) in the afternoon. Maths was one each on Thursday and Friday, and Physics (x2) the Monday. 8 exams in 5 days! Senior year was less bunched, thankfully (though now all the exams are then, but there are fewer, longer, ones).

I know I've got overkill qualifications from that time of my life, but even the average High Schooler in the UK takes a ton of hard exams, and this isn't counting ones schools might choose to create, set and mark themselves to give grades that count for nothing beyond internal measurement. There's a reason JK Rowling called her A-level equivalents NEWTs (Nasty Exhausting Wizarding Tests)!

[webny99]

Also, J N Winkler, I'm sorry about having to take SIX(!) AP exams in one year. I can barely handle 1!

Be glad you aren't in England!

I did 11 GCSEs in my sophomore year-equivalent (Well 10, as I'd done maths early and was getting an odd bonus qualification). The typical amount is more like 8 or 9 - still a lot of exams though. OK, it wasn't crammed into 10 days of exams like AP (instead spread out over 4-5 weeks). Nor was it AP level (well, other than the bonus maths qualification I got) - though you obviously rarely see someone in the US take a load of AP exams aged 16 as they aren't at that level yet! Arguably the requirements to get a top grade then were close to getting a decent grade on a higher level. My GCSE maths coursework was basically to go from first principles to coming up with the formula for differentiating polynomials (because we were given the hardest task, as the mark needed was lower for getting the top grade, due to that higher level), which meant the calculus stuff that was AP Calc AB-equivalent in that bonus qualification (which was more broad than just calc) was a doddle, as we knew the principles and concepts, and had the formula!

There were two weeks where I did 6 or 7 exams that week (pretty much all subjects had two or three exams each) covering a broad array of subjects (which was the issue I felt the most that year - just being spread so thin covering so many different topics). There might have been one day where I sat exams in three different subjects - certainly I remember there being a clash (which is quite common), meaning we had to remain siloed from the outside world between the time we were meant to take the exam and the time we did take the exam - we basically did them back-to-back with a 15 minute break, but you do get stories about people having to spend the night under supervision (not exam conditions, but the inability to have any remote chance of communicating with anyone who might tell you what's on the exam you are sitting time-delayed).

I went to a private school and we did quite a bit of UK curriculum, thus I too have been through many GCSE and CIE exams. I believe I had 16 exams in my sophomore year and almost as many in my junior and senior years. I really enjoyed reading your post - it brought back many memories!

[michravera]

It's Exam time for those of us still in the midst of our education career, YAY!

Ok, so what do you do before/on tests to make sure you do your best? I am taking the AB Calc AP test soon, and based on mock exams based on previous tests, have developed a strategy: If all else fails, GUESS C! I dont know why, but C has a higher percentage of right answers (at least on AP exams), so I just guess C. Also, on most tests, you dont get deducted points if your wrong, but you cant get points on questions you leve blank. So if you are running out of time, guess C on the rest. I did this, and I actually got MORE RIGHT on the questions I guessed, then I got wrong.

As for what I do before the test, I study for a reasonable time, then I take a break for the rest of the night, as I can get SUPER stressed out about tests. I'm not sure if you guys can relate, but that is just what I do best.

What are your thoughts on exams?

I have specific experience on this exam. The thing to recognize is that, for some multiple choice answers, it may be easier to verify the provided answers than to arrive at the correct answer on your own. Also, the exam creators do their best to make common mistakes in order to arrive at the wrong answers.

One test strategy, especially for the AB is to be able quickly recognize "zero" and "infinity" as answers. 15*pi*sqrt(3) could be a right answer, but it is much easier to rule zero and infinity (and sometimes one, pi, and e) in or out.

You also should check the "conditions of contest" on the exam. I believe that the AP exam in 1977 deducted the expected value of a guess for each wrong multiple choice answer. So, if there were 5 answers, a right answer scored +4 and a wrong answer scored -1. So, with random guesses on 50 questions, you would get 10 right and 40 wrong for a net of 0. If there is a penalty such as this, my advice would DON'T GUESS.

I also considered the multiple choice portion of the test more difficult than the long answer portion. The reasons is that there are simply more questions to answer on the multiple choice portion.

[US 89]

The two AP tests that got me were the English ones...don't remember which was which, but I took 2 separate ones Jr and Sr years...it felt like turning in a test, hoping for a C, and thats about accurate

I felt the exact same way when I took AP Lit junior year and AP Lang senior year. Don't remember much from Lang, but the third essay question on Lit was very memorable. That's the one where they give you a topic and then a list of suggested books, from which you pick one to  relate to the essay topic. Well, turns out our class hadn't read any of the suggested books. I wound up writing the essay about Moby-Dick because our teacher had spent the most time on it. (Looking back, I think she had an unhealthy obsession with that book.)