It’s the night before your big maths exam. You’re probably sitting at your study desk, aimlessly sifting through a mountain of notes, trying to cram and memorize that quadratic formula that just doesn’t want to stick in your mind. You’re stressed. I get that, I was you not too long ago. However, experience has taught me a few tips that I’d like to share with you that will help in calming down the nerves and ensuring that you get some quality last minute studying.

Revisiting the formula sheet: Understanding the variables in a formula are a key learning area that students need to master. Look through the formula sheet that you’ll be given and make sure you recognise everything on there. If you don’t – you know that’s where you need to spend your last hours of study. Plugging values into a formula is a sure-fire way to pick up easy marks, so make sure you don’t lose out due to lack of knowledge.
Familiarising yourself with the layout: No doubt you’d have worked through some past papers by now. If you haven’t, well, there’s not much that I could help you with, unfortunately. Going through past papers is a great way to acclimatize yourself to the format of the exam. The questions that will come up in your exam will be of similar difficulty, so if you go through the past papers with relative ease, you know you’ve done the hard yards.
Just chill: Now by chill, I don’t mean banging your chest whilst humming a melodic tune (I’m looking at you DiCaprio). But hey, if it helps, I’m all for it! Contrary to popular belief, last-minute cramming doesn’t go down too well when it comes to calming down the nerves. In fact, it has the opposite effect whereby students get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of material. Your preparation should be done by now. The best thing you could do is make sure you go to bed early to give yourself the best chance to wake up fresh and raring to go.
There you have it. From my experience, they’ll never be a time where you are completely unstressed before a maths exam. Everyone has their own methods when it comes to preparation. In saying that, using these tips will help you feel calm and collected. You got this.