Can you write on the front of your exam paper before the exam starts

So i had English literature paper 1 today and last year a science teacher told us that we can write on the periodic table before the exam starts, so with that in mind i decided to write a few quotes i could remember on the front of my paper, and two invigilators walked past me and didn't say anything so I carried on then another invigilator comes past and starts telling me i can’t do that so she said she had to give me a new question paper. So am i allowed to do this, i thought i was being smart, but that invigilator really put me off during the exam, but to be fair the questions for Romeo and Juliet, and Jekyll and Hyde weren’t too bad. It was English Literature Paper 1 AQA

Why don't you write your plan/quotes on the actual part of the paper where you're meant to write your answer instead of on the front?

They’re saying before the exam starts, as soon as you sit down to offload any formulas or things that you might not remember an hour in