Three weeks out: triage
- List each exam with its weighting, format and current grade
- Rank by marks at stake, not by anxiety
- Identify the one or two courses where revision moves your grade most
- Confirm exam formats - open book, cumulative, calculator permitted
Two weeks out: convert the syllabus into a checklist
Turn each learning objective into a question you must be able to answer, and mark it red, amber or green. Revision then has a visible target instead of an endless one.
One week out: practise under exam conditions
- Timed past papers or self-made mixed problem sets
- Mark yourself strictly, then log every error by cause: concept, method or careless
- Only revisit red topics; do not re-cover green ones for comfort
During finals week
- Protect sleep - the all-nighter cost is measurable and immediate
- Between exams, switch fully to the next subject rather than reviewing the finished one
- Eat and move, even briefly; sustained sitting degrades recall speed
- Keep a short pre-exam routine so the start of each paper is automatic
If you are already behind
Cover breadth before depth: the first pass over every topic buys more marks than a deep dive into one. And check whether your institution has late-withdrawal or deferred-exam provisions - those decisions have deadlines of their own.
Key takeaways
- Triage by marks at stake, not by how stressful a subject feels
- Convert syllabus objectives into a red-amber-green checklist
- Practise under real time pressure and log errors by cause
- Breadth before depth when time has run short