Time your paper: allocate time to every section or every question as appropriate before you begin writing. One of the common reasons for exam failure is inability to complete the test before time. You can avoid this if you will simply time yourself. It will help you not to spend too much time on any question and it will also keep you on track throughout your exam.
Understand each question before answering: this is one mistake a lot of people make during examinations. Whenever they see a question that looks like something they’ve seen before, they get excited and choose a familiar answer. The difference between two questions may be something very minute like not but that completely changes the answer, I’m sure you’ve been there before. In order to avoid this kind of silly mistake, treat every question like you’ve not seen it before no matter how familiar it may look and make sure you get the correct interpretation before you provide an answer.
Obey examination rules: disobey the rules and get disqualified. You might have gotten away with this many times in the past but don’t forget that “every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner”. The rules are simple, do yourself a favor and stick to them. This will actually allow you to focus better on what you have in front of you rather than turning your head like an antenna seeking signal.
Don’t annoy the examiner: make sure you write clearly such that the examiner doesn’t have to stress himself to see, ignore this and you are in danger of failure. Also, obey simple rules like do not write in the margin and the likes, there are some very angry examiners and you won’t like to be their scapegoat. Before I forget, don’t answer five questions when you are to answer just four. The examiner might think you are trying to play on his intelligence.
