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10 Test Taking Strategies + 12 Exam Tips
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10 Test Taking Strategies + 12 Exam Tips

In this article, we discuss best strategies to take standardized tests, including essay questions, different types of answer choices, and managing class material for preparation.
test taking strategies
Written by
Catherine B.
Published on
Apr 23, 2025
Table of contents
Imagine sitting down for an important exam. Your heart is racing, palms sweating, and suddenly your mind goes blank. Sound familiar? For most students, it's a recurring nightmare, especially during finals season.
What they may not know is that great academic performance and 4.0 GPAs in college are not only a matter of knowing the material. It’s also about having effective test taking skills.
In this article, StudyPro will explain evidence-based techniques for your finals. We will cover the test taking tips on answering different types of test questions, preparation techniques, dietary and sleep pattern methods.
Whether your next test is math, humanities, or something else, you shall come better prepared than before.
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6 Best Test- Taking Strategies for Successful Exams

Taking an exam includes more tasks than just answering the questions.
You also usually need to determine how many sections of the exam you'll need to complete and identify how much time to allocate time for each.
Below are some tips on staying time-efficient and cortisol-free during exam:

1. What to Take Out of Instructions?

Test taking strategy: Carefully read and understand the instructions, paying close attention to any specific guidelines or directives the exam proctor provides and then create your own strategy.
Things to consider:
  • The entire test structure;
  • The grading system ;
  • The number of points for each block and task;
  • The timeline.
Here is the algorithm for your first 5 minutes after seeing the test:
1. Evaluate time-volume ratio:
For example, you have 90 minutes for the test, and 120 questions separated into 3 blocks, with gradually growing complexity.
Do quick calculations: you will need the most time for block 3, the most complicated one.
Let it be 40 minutes, meaning that blocks 1 and 2 get 25 minutes of your attention each.
Also, all the evaluation procedures will take you about 10 minutes, leaving 15 minutes for the first easiest block.
2. Think of any clues the exam proctor could have left
Did they say anything about the complexity? Were there any tips about where to pay the most attention? Any directives about test formalities?
For example, they may mention what typical mistakes get students to fail.
Why does instruction analysis work?
  • Your brain processes verbal information differently than written content.
  • Hearing instructions activates different neural pathways than actually setting aside two minutes to process the information and strategize.
  • You will feel more in control and calm from the start on if you have clarity on your test taking strategy.

2. Define Test Scope and Difficulty

Test taking strategy: Scan the entire test to understand its scope and difficulty.
What you are looking for with this step is:
  • Letting your brain categorize and prioritize the work ahead;
  • Activating your brain's pattern recognition systems;
  • Helping you come up with some mental frameworks to interpret the questions better.
For instance, scan the questions for any repetitive terms, for the questions where you will need similar formulas, or for preliminary topics of the whole exam.
Why does scanning the test work?
  • Knowing what to expect from the whole test eliminates your anxiety and helps you stay more creative.
  • Preliminary scanning works for cognitive flexibility during the exam.
  • You need your brain to be in as much relaxed, flexible, flow-like, and generative mode as possible.

3. The "Brain Dump" Technique

Test taking strategy: Create a legal cheat sheet.
Once you know the set of questions ahead, take two minutes to write down all facts, data, or formulas you've memorized on scratch paper.
This technique helps you with a few things:
  • It frees up valuable cognitive resources from your working memory;
  • It loosens your cognitive load, makes you less overwhelmed with fear of forgetting things;
  • It sorts the information for easy access later.
For example, to recall data effectively, write down every random term that comes to mind around the test topic. Just get it out and then see if anything fits or gives clues to test questions.
Why does the brain dump technique work?
  • Your brain has working memory - which is like temporary storage in computers. It helps you operate the tasks at the moment.
  • To help your mind to recall facts from long-term memory, you need to declutter your “immediate storage.”
  • It’s like storing information externally to free space for concentrated effort.

4. Keywords and Terms Review on Exams

Test taking strategy: Pay close attention to key terms in questions.
First, key terms in exams often signal the exact meaning of what's being asked. You will answer the questions more precisely by paying attention to formulations.
Second, use these keywords as your cognitive anchors to filter relevant information from your knowledge base.
For instance, do any of the words ring a bell in your memory? Can you recall anything related? What chapter was that on? Were there any interesting stories your teacher had told while explaining it?
Why does the keyword technique work?
  • When you recall things, you take them from your long-term memory.
  • However, retrieval works best with “anchors.”
  • You need some small cues and hints to recall the whole concept.
  • These hints are usually hidden in test questions.

5. Exam Taking: Question Sequence Strategy

Test taking strategy: Answer the questions you know first.
If there are any questions that are a piece of cake for you, even in the most complicated exam blocks, answer them quickly. Sorting out easier questions builds momentum and your confidence.
Here are some test taking tips on question sequences:
  • Warm up your mind with easier questions first
  • If you're spending too much time on a particular question, move on.
  • Don’t let one complicated question drain your timeframe or increase stress.
  • Look for clues in other questions. Sometimes, the questions are interrelated
  • If possible, circle similar complicated questions. This will keep your thinking style consistent
  • Use educated guessing for obviously wrong answers, especially on multiple-choice or true/false tests.
Why does answering easier questions first work?
  • Early success triggers dopamine release.
  • With pleasure hormones circulating in your system, you have less anxiety and enhanced cognitive function.
  • This way, you are optimizing your brain's chemistry for peak performance.

6. How to Check Your Exam Before Submitting?

Test taking strategy: Focus, regain control, and make final strategic moves.
You risk making the most mistakes and changing your answers in the last minutes of the exam. Here is how to stay coll-headed and do maximum during these minutes:
  • Emotional control. Use the time to catch errors; do not let yourself get emotional with fear of not passing the test.
  • Formal requirements. Make sure you follow the exam question format. For example, you wrote full sentences, answered in the required word count, used the correct units, etc.
  • Misreads check. At these final minutes, you need to make sure your answers are readable and clearly marked to not get dismissed with some stupid technical mistakes.
The common example of students failing the test is second-guessing every answer and changing their decision based on stress. You need to review your test sheets in the last exam minutes, not rewrite them.
Why staying focused helps in exams?
  • Cognitive fatigue and time pressure lead to predictable errors.
  • You need to review your answers and double-check your work before submitting it.
  • Checking answers helps to look for careless errors, like submitting the incorrect answer blank or missing some blank answer sheet.

Strategies for Format-Specific Test

If you are to take a test within the next few days, you can also learn format-specific test-taking tips (multiple choise, essay, true/false tests etc).
No extra wordiness; here are some brief, memorable tips that help you with essays, multiple-choice tests, true and false statements, and educated guess strategies.

1. Strategies For Essay Tests

Test taking strategy: Simplicity and outlining
  • Outline before writing.
  • Use keywords from the question.
  • Prioritize clarity over complexity.
  • Allocate time for planning, writing, and reviewing.
  • Don’t brain dump; only answer what is asked.
  • Ensure a clear essay structure, using transitions.
Looking for a workable guide for writing your essay? Check our strategies for essay writing.

2. Strategies For Multiple Choice Tests

Test taking strategy: Accuracy and guessing the imposter option
  • Check the question a few times to catch any tricky words like not, except, always.
  • Underline key terms.
  • Cross out obviously wrong answers first.
  • If two options are similar, choose the one that is more precise.
  • If you need to connect the two parts of a sentence or term with its definition, use a scratch paper for visualizing, don’t trust your short-term memory during the test, as it’s already overloaded.

3. True/False Tests Strategies

Test taking strategy: Avoiding factual traps
  • Every part must be true. If even one part is false, the entire statement is false.
  • If you get confused by long sentences and multiple complicated terms, split it out on scratch paper. Revise the whole statement part by part.
  • Look for factual traps, where the statement lists a few true plausible facts followed by an incorrect one.
  • Keep in mind that, on average, more statements in such tests tend to be true than false. There are usually two to three false statements out of ten in such tests.

4. If You Have to Guess

Test taking strategy: Sticking to what’s known
  • Choose the option that you understand the most out of all available options.
  • If you’re guessing on a series, don’t alternate answers randomly. Pattern guesses can help avoid overcorrection.
  • If something feels familiar from class or review, pick that option.
  • Set aside a few minutes to think whether there are options that clearly cannot be true for some reason, before choosing an answer.
According to the study, guessing the correct answer is much more effective than skipping an item. It’s called risk-taking behavior. Although dangerous in real time, such behavior is usually beneficial in exams.

6 Test Preparation Tips

Now, you are in a better position if you still have some time before the exam.
Let’s go through test prep strategies for students to keep you well-equipped in advance.

1. Prepare in Advance for an Exam

A quality test-taking preparation involves three key components:
  • A good study plan;
  • Strategy to break the material into manageable chunks;
  • A practice and recall strategy;
Let’s clarify the checklists for your study plan and practice strategies.
Study plan component checklist:
  • A curriculum overview. You need it to feel confident in the whole subject structure.
  • Lecture notes. It may as well be transcriptions, presentations, homework assignments, review session notes, etc.
  • Key concept checklist. You can find key concepts in your textbook, ask the teacher, or create one yourself.
  • Mind maps, summary sheets. Keep everything that helps you structure the material.
  • Practice tests. Include both the ones presented by the teacher and your self-made tests.
  • Exam samples. Sample exams are not always available but check with your teacher whether getting one is possible.
  • Calendars. Include timelines, deadlines, your daily chunks of tasks, and free timezones for studies.
  • A plan itself. Include a file where you write down your studying plans, goals, and strategies to achieve them.
A homework planner is a good way to track all your assignments and progress and hence know what topics are left for your exam preparation.
A checklist for breaking down the curriculum into manageable chunks:
  • Group topics logically. Categorize content into 3–5 major sections. Within each section, divide into subtopics or units, and divide these into key terms.
  • Make a curriculum-test correspondence. Note which curriculum areas rely more on recalling facts, formulas, or conceptual understanding. Take your after-chapter tests as hints on exam questions. Group the data to answer the exam questions.
  • Access the cognitive load. Some questions will come easily to you. Don’t spend any time on them. Only learn excessively what you don’t know.
A practice and recall strategy checklist:
  • Find your preferred learning style. It may be mind maps, summary sheets, diagrams, notes, flashcards, etc.
  • Find your tour type of learning. Define whether you are auditory, kinesthetic, visual type, etc.
  • Define your attention span patterns and energy levels. Think of your circadian rhythms, things that usually distract you, things that cause your cognitive fatigue)
  • Define your stress triggers and emotional patterns. Write down what causes anxiety and feeling overwhelmed, and what mindfulness techniques work for you.
  • Find your time management style. Include your study plans, review sessions, time trackers, how much time you can allocate at all, and how small or big these study chunks of time are.
  • Choose learning methods wisely. Look into active recall and spaced repetition methods most of all as they are the most effective proven ways of studying today.
  • Establish a tool list. Choose the tools that correspond with all the components above and help you study.

2. Cultivate Good Study Habits

For good study habits, we specifically recommend you read an Atomic Habits book by James Clear.
However, if you have no time, here is a brief breakthrough of its main insights, customized for students:
  • Daily improvements over perfectionism. Small actions, repeated consistently, compound over time better than one-time gigantic efforts.
  • Identity-based habits. Identity-based habits work better than goal-based ones. Your goal must be not to read the book but to become a person who prioritizes reading to achieve their goals.
  • Obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. Your habit needs to be easy to do, within your actionable reach at any moment, and somehow rewarding. For instance, you can use habit stacking, like checking flashcards while brushing your teeth.

3. Calm Down Before Exams

To calm down for exams, you need to break the procrastination loop, ground your nervous system, and restart your studying patterns.
The procrastination-anxiety cycle you are well-familiar with looks like this:
  • You procrastinate learning because it is tiresome and boring.
  • You experience daily chronic micro-doses of anxiety and shame for not studying.
  • As the deadline approaches, you panic, get the adrenalin rush, and start cramming.
  • Negative thoughts and short-term memory fail you, and you hardly pass the exam.
Here is a three-component method of breaking free from exam procrastination:
  • Nervous system regulation. Wherever you are on the cycle loop, you need to switch your nervous system from survival to neutral mode first.
  • Refocus, strategize, repeat. Using this article, start over from the preparation step one, only keeping your time frames in mind and using the most urgent and necessary checklist items only.
  • Future safety net. After you end this preparation cycle and, hopefully, pass the test, reflect on what you will do differently next time to not get in a loop.
Cramming is also a result of poor time management. When you have dozens of assignments to do, it’s hard to focus on exam preparation. Try reading the article to learn how to do homework faster.

4. Take Practice Tests Effectively

To take practice tests effectively, you need to perceive them as analysis tools rather than measurements of your performance.
Here are a few practice test tips to help you:
  • Through pattern analysis. When you miss questions, don't just note the correct answer. Instead, use metacognition: understand the thought pattern that led to your mistake.
  • Sensory memory. When you fail a question, guide your frustration into curiosity. Potent emotions intertwined with information, making it easier to remember.
  • Knowledge base method. As you practice error analysis, create your own topic curriculum and structure it based on the questions or your wrong answers. Imagine you teaching yourself with this impromptu database - this will help you learn from mistakes from a more empowered position.

5. Relax and Fall Asleep Before an Exam

Falling asleep before an exam requires managing your brain activity and sleep hygiene.
In particular, you must treat sleep as an essential part of your test prep strategy, not an afterthought. Here are a few key rules for a good night’s rest:
  • No all-nighters. Your memory, attention span, and ability to recall facts are all consolidated during REM sleep. Pulling an all-nighter won’t help you perform better.
  • Circadian rhythm alignment. Begin your sleep prep hours before bedtime by dimming lights, logging off devices, and avoiding last-minute cramming. You need to reset your melatonin flow. It calms cognitive fatigue and restarts natural sleep cycles.
  • No rumination. The main struggle you will face is shutting down the chatter in your mind. That is the main enemy of your rest even after you fall asleep, as your brain will keep ruminating. So, use whatever helps you calm down: meditation, deep breaths, or positive visualization techniques.

6. Build a Good Diet for Exams

Effective test taking strategies are comprehensive. They include all the factors that impact your working memory, attention, and confidence.
Food choices are one of such key factors. Despite the common misconception, it is not that difficult to build a healthy diet. You only need to take care of five elements: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and fiber.

Three Ways to Cope with Test-Taking Anxiety

One more type of test-taking tips you will need is managing your anxiety. Regardless of your preparedness, ticking nerves can ruin your performance altogether.
Below are some strategies to avoid getting anxious during the test.

1. How to Stop Fearing Exam Failure?

Anxiety about your exam performance is caused by catastrophic thinking like “If I fail this test, my future is ruined.”
And yes, while there are life-altering moments and tests in our life, none of them can actually ruin you completely. The failure may take your route longer, not disregard it at all.
So, reframe the absolutely negative scenario with a neutral one. For instance, “This test is important but doesn't define my worth or future.”

2. How to Build My Confidence for the Test?

Test-taking anxiety is basically your lack of trust in your abilities. You beat that by putting at least some effort in and knowing that you are doing your best with the resources you have.
You may do study groups, tutoring, reviewing past exams - any effort counts and builds your trust in your ability to learn, even if you don’t see the immediate results.

3. How to Regulate My Nervous System for the Test?

Sometimes, it’s not about your thoughts at all. It’s your body that is stuck in a stress loop.
When your nervous system is activated, your ability to concentrate, recall information, or make decisions drops. So before the exam (and while studying), engage in short but effective calming strategies.
Some nervous system regulation techniques include:
  • Box breathing. Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. Repeat 3–4 times.
  • Progressive muscle relaxation. Tense and release each muscle group from head to toe to relieve stress.
  • Grounding techniques. Focus on your senses — 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, etc. Repeat that a few times during your test day.
  • Cold water. Splashing cold water on your face or holding an ice cube can “reset” your system quickly.

To Wrap It Up

  1. To pass the exams successfully, separate your strategies into three key parts: during-test strategies, preparation strategies, and anxiety-management strategies.
  2. During-test strategies include knowing how to work best with different types of tests (multiple choice, essay, true/false exams) and strategies for managing the whole exam in general.
  3. Exam preparation techniques must include a comprehensive system of study plans, study materials, and practice and recall strategies.
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Frequently asked questions

Some effective test taking strategies are:
  • Instruction analysis;
  • The brain dump technique;
  • The keyword technique;
  • Effective time-management during the test.
The best strategy you can use when taking a test is to keep yourself calm and analyze as many data points as possible. Analyze the entire question formulation, time left, and available grades for each question. The more conscious you are of your strategy, the better off you will be.
To calm test-taking anxiety, first accept that it is natural: your brain tries to protect yourself from the fear of failure and the unknown. Then, take a few deep breaths and talk to yourself. Say that you are safe and regardless of the outcome, will be okay and will manage whatever the result is.
Sources:
  • Clear, J. (2020). Atomic habits. Manjul Publishing House Pvt Ltd.
  • Stenlund, T., Lyrén, P.-E., & Eklöf, H. (2017). The successful test taker: Exploring test-taking behavior profiles through cluster analysis. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 33(2), 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-017-0332-2
  • 14 tips for test taking success. Harvard Summer School. (2022, September 29). https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/14-tips-for-test-taking-success/#Seven-Best-Strategies-for-Test-Prep
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