How to ace every exam you ever take

exam
'You can be a bog-standard pupil and still get into a top academic institution' Credit: Hoxton / Alamy 


Mocks are over and the Easter holidays are on the horizon, which means the number of parents fretting over their children’s revision schedules – and whether they’ll get the grades they need – is growing apace. For many, a place at Oxbridge is the desired reward for that hard work. It might seem like somewhere reserved only for gifted types, but you can be a bog-standard pupil and still get into a top academic institution – just as I did.

I grew up on a sheep farm in Northamptonshire attending local comprehensive schools. Higher education hadn’t crossed my mind until a family trip to Cambridge at the age of nine, when I walked around the Great Court of Trinity College and instantly decided I had to study there. There was just one problem: none of my teachers had ever recognised anything special in me, and I had no clue how to make it happen.

Lucy Parsons 
Lucy Parsons has written a how-to guide to passing exams with flying colours

I set about trying to understand how to get the necessary grades learning, by trial and error, that the only way to achieve them was through a combination of good old fashioned hard work and consistency. I went from earning average marks to five As at A Level before going on to read geography at Newnham College, Cambridge - three years which I can honestly say were the happiest of my life. 

A job in the corporate world followed, but I soon realised that what I really cared about was teaching. I wanted to change the perception that only the naturally bright or supremely well connected could go to Oxbridge: totally ordinary kids, just like me, can do it with the right tools. That’s why I wrote The Ten Step Guide to Acing Every Exam You Ever Take - a how-to that doesn’t require exceptional intelligence or expensive schooling, just hard work done right. I used these methods to get top marks in subjects as varied as chemistry and English literature, and the children I now coach do, too.

Find your ‘why’

What is it that you want from good exam results? A place at a top institution, a good job, personal satisfaction? Whatever it is, you need grit, determination and a vision of what you want to achieve in order to make it happen. Once students discover their ‘great big why’, that process becomes a lot easier.

Think like an examiner

Use the revision power hour technique to get the most out of doing past papers. Set aside an hour and choose a focused exam question that takes around 20 minutes to answer. Then spend 20 minutes revising the content, 20 minutes answering the question and 20 minutes marking the question yourself. 

It’s absolutely vital that you score it so you can see what the mark scheme is really looking for and you get inside the head of the examiner. This is the simplest way to improve grades quickly - the better your understanding of what they want is, the easier you’ll find it to make it happen. Remember, exams aren’t just about showing how knowledgeable you are on a particular subject but presenting that information in a way that will earn you top marks.

Get planning

Intelligence isn’t the key to success - time management is. I realised that I needed to knuckle down - hard - so devised a rigorous study schedule from 4:30-6:30pm and then 7pm to 9pm four nights a week without fail, doing far more at weekends. Eight hours’ sleep a night and exercising regularly were crucial, too: maintaining this consistently for two years was the only way for me to reach my goal. With February half-term around the corner, boosting your revision routine when you have more free time to do so is a great way to get into the habit of learning at home before lessons start again.

Be creative with revision techniques

So many students come to me asking me which revision techniques they should use, and the answer I always give is, ‘Well, it depends’.

It depends on the way your brain works, how you enjoy learning and what subjects you’re studying. To discover which techniques you should be using reflect on your past learning experiences, both in the classroom and at home, and identify what worked best. Then, try to creatively replicate those techniques in your revision. For example, if you found that you learned best by teaching others in an exercise at school, find someone to whom you can teach what you’re revising. This will make your revision more fun, more varied and more effective. Whatever you do, don’t just sit on your bed for hours on end reading through the textbook.

Understand your weaknesses

Download a copy of the syllabus for each subject you’re taking, then use the red, amber, green method to classify your understanding of each area. Red is for things you’re clueless about, yellow is for things you need to brush up on and green is for areas in which you’re most confident. Prioritise revision accordingly - it will make an enormous difference.

The Ten Step Guide to Acing Every Exam You Ever Take by Lucy Parsons is published by John Catt Educational Ltd. (£12). To order your copy for £10.99 plus p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uklifemoreextraordinary.com

License this content