Using past papers in your exam preparation

Past exam papers are an excellent resource for both revision and learning. This blog post will show you how you can use past papers to enhance both your learning and your exam practice and preparation.

Finding past papers

The University Library keeps past exam papers in the Hydra Digital Repository. Once logged in, you can browse by department and topic, or directly search by module number or name.

IMPORTANT: Always check your module handbook for details of the examination format and carefully read instructions within the exam itself. You cannot use past papers for this as the format of questions and style of exam may change from year to year.

Using past papers

Practice

Past papers offer you the opportunity to practice answering exam questions. This allows you to become familiar with both the exam format and style of questions. You can also use past papers as a revision aid to help identify areas in which you may need to conduct further revision.

With the use of past papers, you can also facilitate an ‘exam conditions’ practice. This essentially requires you to sit the past paper in the allowed time without distractions or internet. If exams worry you or cause anxiety, this can be a useful technique to help you prepare. It will also allow you to become more familiar with how to manage your time within an exam.

Practicing a written exam also gives your the opportunity to get used to handwriting again. While this may seem trivial, the use of computers for note taking and essays can make your handwriting slow and uncomfortable, especially if you’ve not done any writing since before Easter. Your writing doesn’t need to be super neat – but it does need to be legible.

Preparation

Past papers can be used strategically to help you prepare your revision. It’s important not to try and use them to ‘guess’ which topics may come up as this is a risky strategy. They can however be used to help you direct your revision. For example, you can look at how many questions you have to answer, how many marks they are worth and how long the exam is. The more marks a question has, the more detail you should provide. This can help you with revision as it will indicate how much depth of content versus breadth of content the exam requires.

You can also look broadly as the last few years of exams to get a feel for how many topics the exam focuses on. As above, don’t use this to guess what will come up – instead, use it as an indication of how broad your revision needs to be. You should also revisit the module handbook and learning outcomes to see what learning outcomes the exam focuses on. This will help you prioritise your revision.

Learning

If you want to maximise your use of past papers, critically analyse them. Look at the questions and see what they are asking you to do.

Do they require you to recall facts and information?
Do they require you to apply your previous learning to a new context?
How are the questions phrased? Do you know what terms like evaluate, analyse and discuss mean?
How long are the questions? Are they complex?
Does the exam use extended reading or extracts?

Using past papers to answer some of the above questions can really help you prepare for exams and direct your learning. For example, there is no point using your revision time to cram information into your memory if the questions are more applied. The important thing here is to reflect on the lectures, seminars, labs, practicals and/or tutorials you have had in the module, and ask yourself: How do you need to use what you have learned in the exam?

This doesn’t have to be a question you ask just yourself – all of the above tips can be done with peers on your course.