The
most important requirement for doing well on an exam is to come to the
examination well prepared. Being well prepared reduces the tension, the feelings
of anxiety, the “math anxiety.” Even if you are
confident about your effort to prepare for an exam, you will experience the
nervousness and “butterflies.” Such feelings are no cause for alarm. They are
just a natural response to wishing to do one’s best. When you have prepared
well, there still may be questions or problems you cannot answer immediately.
However, there will be many you can handle routinely.
Start the exam with a pre-planned strategy to locate
the questions and problems on the exam for which you can answer easily and
efficiently. Some students start this search with the first question, others
start with the last. As you work through those problems which you can solve,
work quickly, but more importantly, work carefully. The goal is to capitalize
on the material you know well by scoring points and gaining time. Time is not
saved if your work on these problems is done sloppily with errors and erasures
throughout.
Then next group of problems to work are those that
you have thoughts on how to begin. Try these ideas and see where they lead.
Don’t try to force an idea into a mistake. If what seemed to be a good idea
suddenly turns sour, drop it and either try another approach or move on to
another problem. Most of all don’t let this bother your continuing work on the
exam.