KU Top Tips – How To Prepare The Day Before A Big Uni Exam

Visit the exam venue.
Whether your exam is taking place in your regular classroom or a completely new location off-campus, visiting the exam venue the day before you sit it helps familiarise yourself with the main entrances, exits and public transportation links. After all, you don’t want to be late to an exam because you didn’t factor in an extra bus journey or the morning traffic!

Double-check your exam schedule.
It’s surprisingly easy to misread a room number or starting time on an exam schedule, especially if you have a long list of exams coming up. Make sure you know the module code for your exam, as well as your personal venue – for larger modules, you may be in a different location to some of your friends or classmates due to spacing. Schedules can change, however – so make sure to check it right up until the morning of the exam!

Remember your photographic ID.
Most universities require you to show a form of formal identification before you start your exam – typically this is your student ID card, but can also include a photographic driver’s license or a passport as long as the names match. Alternatively, here at Kingston University, you can provide a Confirmation of Enrolment letter, which can be requested from one of KU’s numerous Information Centres – but remember to bring some form of ID, as you won’t be permitted entry without it!

Check your calculator.
If you’re taking a course or an exam where calculators are the norm, you’ll need to make sure you have an approved model of calculator. This will typically have been discussed with you during the leadup to the exam, but the approved calculators here at KU are the Casio FX83, FX85 or FX991 series (with any suffix), FX115MS or FX570ES.

Bring the right stationery.
Although it can be tempting to show up to an exam with nothing to distract you, you will need to bring a few basic pieces of stationery, such as pens, a HB pencil and an eraser. If you’re writing for an extended period of time, remember to bring back-ups as well – nothing strikes more fear into students than their only pen beginning to run dry during the middle of an essay!

Revise ahead of time.
This one seems a bit obvious – but one of the best ways to prepare for an exam is to revise for it. Even if you feel like you know the subject matter rather well from your workshops or lectures, revising for exams helps put you into a much more positive headspace, and you’ll feel a lot stressed the day of.

- Eve (Kingston Rep).

(edited 4 months ago)