Effective Time Management: How To Manage Time During Exams?

Exams are dreadful for a whole bunch of reasons but the most frustrating aspect is not completing them on time. Whether you couldn’t answer all questions because of lack of time, misread a question you just answered, or having your answer sheet being snatched by invigilator before you can complete your sentence… All those scenarios point towards ineffective time management during exams. Therefore learning the art of effective time management is imperative for students.

Studies show that around 88% of students struggle to manage time during exams and 58% of students say that they weren’t able to complete exams within the given timeline. No matter how much you study, if you fail to practice effective time management during exams, you won’t be able to get desired results. To help you out with time management during exams, here are a few Time Management Tips you must practice before and during exams in order to pass them with flying colors.

Effective Time Management Tips – Before Exams

1. Prepare Study Schedule:

Prepare and follow an effective study schedule to avoid any last-minute problems and mishaps. Effective time management techniques involve preparing hourly study schedules topic-wise, allocating more time for difficult topics, sparing enough time for revision, and essential activities like eating, bathing, and sleeping. Remember to make a simple and easy-to-follow study schedule.

2. Plan Your Exam Approach:

Strategize your exam solving approach before your actual exam by solving mock test papers. Familiarize yourself with the exam format, questions pattern, marking scheme, and then plan your approach to solve it with effective time management. This way you can avoid confusion and misinterpretation during your actual exam.

3. Practice, Practice & Do More Practice:

The only way to learn time management during exams is by practicing it.  Do writing practice to write your answer in neat handwriting, practice questions as well as whole question paper under the exam-like setting. Practicing full question papers while sticking to the exam time limit will give you a fair idea about effective time management during exams.

Effective Time Management Tips – During Exams

1. Read Full Question Paper:

For effective time management, it is recommended to read the whole question paper carefully in 5-10 minutes. This will help you in strategizing your approach, plan your answers and ensure you won’t miss any important questions.

2. Prioritize the Questions:

After you finish reading the question paper, mark the questions that you are confident about, plan their answers, in case of option question choose the one you want to attend, this way you can save more time for difficult questions.

3. Strategically Divide Your Time:

Allocate the time in your mind for each question from the short answers, MCQ to essay questions based on their marking scheme. After spending the first 5-10 minutes for question paper reading, always allot the last 15-20 minutes for answer sheet revision and solve your question paper in the remaining 150 minutes.

4. Attend Easy Questions First:

For effective time management during exams, always attend questions that you are most confident about first and save the tough questions for last. This way you’ll gain more confidence and can have more time for tough questions.

5. Ask for New Answer Sheet in-Advance:

If you feel like you’ll need an extra sheet, do not wait to finish the current one because it will take some time for the invigilator to hand you the new one. Therefore, it is advisable to raise your hand and ask for a new sheet while writing the last page to avoid time wastage during exams.

6. Revise Answer Sheet before Submitting:

Do not submit your answer sheet in a hurry without revising. Finish your paper on time and allocate the last 15-20 minutes to revise the whole answer sheet, check if you have left any questions, mention answer numbers correctly, check spellings, re-write any indecipherable words. This will ensure you’ll never miss any important marks.

7. In Case of Disaster:

In case if something goes wrong like you have answered the wrong question, skipped an important text, or misread a question, then don’t panic. Instead, take a deep breath and write new/correct answers in bullet points with as much detail as possible and underline important keywords.

Try the above-mentioned time management tips during your exams by ALLEN Overseas and see how effective they are in reducing your exam stress and improving your score. In case if you have any other suggestions, queries, and comments feel free to reach out to us. We will gladly assist you.