Dealing With The Unexpected

Exam success has a lot to do with how well you can handle sticky situations or something unexpected. When these scenarios arise, you are placed into a position of uncertainty. Uncertainty is bad because it leads to panic and indecision, which in turn can have a disastrous effect on your performance.

Solid preparation will reduce the likelihood of sticky situations, but never completely eliminate it. There is an inescapable degree of uncertainty you will face when taking exams. Problematic scenarios will arise at some point.

You Will Never Be Totally Prepared

One thing that consistently happened throughout my education was that in every exam at least one or two “star students” would produce a disappointing result. This was not because they did not know their material. It was because they knew it so well that they expected to be able to answer anything that came their way without a problem.

When problems inevitably arose, they panicked and their plans fell apart. Their confidence was shattered and couldn’t be recovered during the exam. Students like these prepare with the intention of entirely eliminating the possibility of anything going wrong. They fret over every little “what if” and try to anticipate every possible sequence of events. This fragile exam mentality relies on the whole operation running smoothly and will crumble from the slightest bump. And there will always be bumps.

Don’t be a perfectionist. No matter how prepared you feel you are, there will always be something to catch you by surprise. You should enter an exam expecting a few sticky situations. This is absolutely not to say that you should expect things to go badly, only that you might have to navigate some obstacles along your path to exam success. After all, if exams never presented problems then everyone would get 100%.

How To Get Unstuck

A sturdy mindset is the most important tool for handling sticky situations. If you can cope with issues properly, they will have little to no impact on your score. It is during these moments that it is especially important to project an aura of competence into your answers. You should still give the impression that you know what you are doing. Even if you don't.

When you get stuck, stop for a minute and consider your options:

Have you answered all the other questions? If not, move on to a different question and come back to this one later.
Can you do at least part of the question? Remember to visualise the mark scheme. You might not have a complete solution, but you can still get credit for answering with some relevant material. Very often, starting the question will help you to work out what needs to be done for the rest of it.
Have you seen similar questions before, either in content or style? If so, answer it in a similar way to the question(s) you have already seen in past papers.
Are you running out of time? Focus on the most incomplete questions.
Does the question consist of multiple parts? The later parts of the question can offer clues to the answers of the earlier parts.
If you are missing or have forgotten some information, state assumptions and answer the question working from those assumptions.
Has the question been badly written or phrased? Sometimes dodgy questions will make it past the vetting process into an exam. Point the issue out to the exam supervisor. If this doesn’t help, you must use your best judgement and common sense to determine what you think the question is actually asking.

You Are Not Alone

You will do many exams throughout your education, so it's highly likely that a few really nasty questions will show up along the way. When this happens, you must remember that everyone else is doing the same exam as you. If it’s a difficult question, it’s likely that everyone will find it difficult. If it’s a badly-worded or unclear question, everyone will have to struggle to interpret it.

Exam performance is relative, so what matters is simply that you handle the nasty questions better than everyone else.

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