When a test doesn’t go well, most students want to just go over the answers to see where they went wrong but will never look at that exam paper again. However, a past exam is one of the most useful tools to help turn past exam mistakes into marks for a future exam.

Geting an answer wrong on an exam is not necessarily proof that you are ‘bad’ at a subject, but it is instead a clue into what you might have missed during class or when you were studying. Maybe the student missed a key idea or misunderdood what a question was really asking. The key here is to not look a the exam and think ‘why am I so bad?’ and rather ‘what exactly went wong?’

From there, it is useful to organise the mistakes into simple categories. This would include if you lost marks because you didn’t know the content, mix up formulas, run out of time or misread the question. This will help to see if you are missing gaps in your study notes, or need more exam practice.

This is where tutoring can make a real difference. For tutors, categorising exam mistakes helps us to clearly understand whether the student needs to work more on the content of an exam or practice exam skills. Tutors will help a student notice these patterns in their past exams, explain a concept in a clear way, and give you targeted practice questions so you don’t make the same mistake in the next exam. Tutors can also help with exam practice, where we help you to learn how to manage your time and decode questions independently. With extra support, the past exams stop feeling like something to hide and instead help to become a tool to improve your results for the next exam.

Emma Birrell