Last minute exam preparation and at the exam

The advice in this blog posting is relevant for the night before and the day of your exam.

The night before the exam, make sure you know the venue, double-check the date and time, and what materials you are allowed to take with you. If you are allowed to use additional materials, plan and organise them carefully and methodically.

You will need to take your student ID card and a few pens (you may need a spare in case one runs out of ink). If you take a bag you will have to put it in a separate room before entering the exam hall, so it is best to leave bags at home. Just take the bare minimum of items (house keys, money, pens, ID card, permitted materials) and keep them in your pockets.

Because so many courses have exams at the same time, parking can be a real problem. We suggest that you take the bus or the train because then you won’t have to worry about finding a park, and you can revise as you travel. Make sure you arrive at the venue about 30 minutes early.

When you arrive, you will see a few hundred students waiting to enter. The doors will be opened a few minutes before the exam is due to commence. As you walk in, look for the large maps showing the desks at which the different courses' exams are located (the maps will tell you at which ‘block’ of desks your exam is located). Go to the correct block of desks and take a seat, but don’t sit near your friends - if you sit near your friends you may be tempted to make eye contact or try to communicate with them, so avoid the temptation by sitting on your own.

The exam questions, an attendance slip, some scrap paper and maybe an answer booklet will be on the desk. Read the front page of the exam (do not read any other pages until reading time is announced) and fill in any information.

While the students are finding their seats, the invigilators will be reading out some rules. Listen carefully to what they are saying. The invigilators will also remove any disallowed electronic devices (they will be returned at the end of the exam), tell you when to start and when to stop, check that the photo on your student ID card matches your face, and collect your answers at the end.

Exams at UniSA have reading time followed by writing time. You are not allowed to write any of your ‘official’ answers during reading time, but you are allowed to make notes on scrap paper. When the start of reading time is announced you can open the exam and start reading the questions and when the start of writing time is announced you can start writing your answers.

During the exam, If you need to use the toilet, raise your hand and wait for an invigilator. Also, to prevent distracting other students, you will not be allowed to leave the exam in the first 30 minutes or the last 10 minutes.

Kirsten Wahlstrom
Learning Adviser