4 tips on acing a test without studying

Congrats. It’s the night before a big test, and you procrastinated studying for it. Again. Now, you’re furiously browsing the web for any solution to your dilemma before you give up and accept your fate. We’ve all been there, but if procrastination is something you struggle with on a regular basis, I’d suggest paying a visit to YouTube and searching for videos of buff dudes yelling at you to get out of bed. On the other hand, if you simply forgot to study this one time, then having the following tricks in your back pocket will definitely help, regardless of how prepared you are for the upcoming test.

1. Start with Free-Response

Depending on the test, there is usually a free-response section following multiple-choice. This formatting is especially prevalent in high school courses and their respective final exams, and I’ve found that starting with questions where I write out my answers instead of circling a choice greatly focuses and relaxes my mind during the exam. This happens mainly for two reasons:

The first is that multiple-choice questions tend to try to trick you. Many answers may seem correct, and a small mistake in your work can lead you to choose the wrong one, thus forfeiting the points for that entire question. By starting with more straight-forward questions which you’ve likely practiced similarly in class, you’re made to clearly show each step of your work and reasoning, and it gives your brain a “warm-up”. In my experience, multiple choice questions seem far easier to tackle after I’ve thought through at least one of the free response questions.

The second reason that this tip helps will depend on the type of person you are. If you’re like me, one of my pet peeves has always been people who work faster than me on exams flipping the first page really loudly when they finish it before me. By starting with a different part of the exam, I don’t have to feel like I’m competing with anyone to get the first page done, and that distraction is thus eliminated. If you feel anxious at the beginning of a test from comparing your work speed to others, then I guarantee that this will help you feel much calmer. Like I said, this tip may not apply if the test is given in separate parts, but use it as you like.

2. Target the hardest questions next

Assuming you followed tip #1, you should look at the most difficult questions right after doing the free-response. In lots of cases, the toughest part is inside the free-response! Don’t answer the questions yet if you don’t know them. Just read them carefully, and think about the best thing to put down. Do the rest of the test, and come back to them at the end. This way, you aren’t stalling yourself and risking lost time on easier questions when they are potentially worth the same points. Although it’s rarely the case, some questions may have accidental hints or words that can spark your memory which would help with those harder ones. Otherwise, it’s a proven technique that reading, skipping, and revisiting is a good time-management skill and allows your brain to think of the best answer.

3. Feel free to change your answers

You’ve probably been told to “go with your gut” and stick to your first guess answer. Even my Psychology teacher told us to avoid changing answers if we’re guessing on a question. Well, this isn’t exactly true, and many studies done by universities have debunked this “gut-instinct” notion. By revisiting a question, you could catch something that you missed the first time. Statistics show that almost 60% of changed answers go from Wrong to Right, whereas around 20% are from Right to Wrong, and the remaining 20% of answers go from Wrong to Wrong. Research isn’t telling you to ignore your gut. Just don’t avoid changing an answer simply because you picked another one the first time. If you feel like you should change your answer, then do it.

4. Know the patterns

These vary between tests so read with a grain of salt, but there are a few general patterns to look out for in multiple-choice questions that could help you if you’re just completely clueless. Many times, different parts of the right answer may be hidden inside the other answers. Let’s a say there’s 5 choices to a question, and 3 out of the 5 have kilometers listed as the unit of the answer, whereas the other 2 use meters. Chances are, the correct answer is one of those 3 choices with the kilometers. Also, if you come across a very challenging question and it has “none of the above/answer cannot be determined” as one of the answers, it’s probably trying to mislead students who don’t understand the question into picking that choice.

Obviously, nothing works better than actually studying for a test, so always go with your knowledge and experience over any type of gamesmanship. And if you do happen to find yourself in a pinch, always remember that it’s just one grade, and in the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter. So relax, go to sleep, and good luck!