How to Best Prepare for Your University Exams

End of March and early April is that time of year when university students begin to seriously think about their upcoming exams in May and June.

For second- and third-year students in most UK universities, these exams are particularly important—they often determine final degree classifications. First-year exams may carry less weight, but they remain a crucial foundation.

Between myself and my team at Axiom Tutoring, we have over 40 years of combined teaching experience across institutions such as LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, and Sciences Po. Drawing on both teaching and tutoring experience, I want to share a structured and practical way to approach exam preparation—one that I have seen work consistently well for our tutees over the years.

1. Start with the right material

The first thing I advise students to do is to make a list of all relevant exams.

By "relevant," I mean exams that were:

• Set by the current lecturer(s)
• Based on the current syllabus

For some modules, this is straightforward. Take for example, EC2B3 (Macroeconomics II) at the LSE, where Prof. Kevin Sheedy has taught the course for many years (at least 15). In that case, past papers are likely to be highly representative of what you will face. But even for this course the structure has changed (formerly known as EC210, it was a full-year module).

In other modules, it is not so obvious.

Lecturers change, and even when the syllabus remains similar, exam style can differ significantly. Back in 2015, I lectured MG205: Econometrics Theory and Application while the main lecturer was on sabbatical. Although I kept the syllabus largely the same—and much of the content unchanged—I wrote my own exam questions. Naturally, my style differed from previous years.

Students sitting MG205 that year would have been better off placing more emphasis on that year's problem sets rather than relying too heavily on older past papers.

So how do you identify what is relevant?

• Ask your lecturer or class teacher directly when the current lecturers taught the given module. Failing that:
  • Speak to upper-year students
  • Use tools like the Wayback Machine to check historical course pages

Getting this right at the beginning is crucial so you focus your limited time on the papers that matter.

2. Do not wait to start past papers

One of the most common things I hear from students is:

"I want to first review all the content, then I will do past papers at the end."

While for A-levels this might be sensible, this is the wrong approach at university.

I strongly recommend starting your revision by looking at the most recent past papers — two or three to begin with. This gives you:

• A sense of how topics are examined
• An understanding of the structure of the exam
• Early insight into which topics matter most

Past papers are not the final step of revision — they are the foundation of it.

3. Build a strategy: this is where performance is determined

Once you have gathered your materials, you are in a position to do something most students overlook: build a strategy.

By "strategy," I mean deciding:

• Which topics you will prioritise and in what order
• How you will allocate your time between topics
• How you will approach the exam itself

Suppose your exam has four questions, each worth 25%. In a Microeconomics exam (e.g. EC2A3 at LSE), there is a high likelihood of a question on uncertainty and insurance. This topic is relatively self-contained. A student could realistically go through the lecture notes and problem sets in one day, and by the second day handle most past paper questions on it.

In other words, in two days, you may have covered 25% of the exam.

That is a very efficient use of time.

But this does not mean you can prepare for the entire exam in eight days. Some topics are far less self-contained and require deeper understanding.

A lesson I learned the hard way

During my MSc at LSE (2009–2010), Microeconomics was the subject I felt most confident in. I tried to cover everything and focused heavily on content and less on past exam papers.

At the same time, Macroeconomics was my weakest subject. I felt less prepared, so I took a more strategic approach — focusing on key, unavoidable topics and working extensively through past papers.

The result?

• Microeconomics was my lowest score.
• Macroeconomics was (unexpectedly) a first-class performance.

When I later went to Oxford (2012–2014), I approached every subject with a clear strategy. My performance in Microeconomics was one of my strongest.

The key lesson is simple: exam strategy can make a substantial difference in your performance.

Students who approach their revision with a clear exam strategy consistently outperform those who rely on effort alone.