fair enough devon
I think Approx makes a good point - the later exams where you get reading time make it alot easier to take a more targeted approach without having to waste actual exam time looking through the paper.
I really like having the reading time. Because I know that my brain is the freshest in the first 30 mins, I try to spend the first 5 mins of the reading time having a quick skim through, and then the next 10-20 mins just brainstorming and planning my answers to what seem to be the hardest/biggest questions (i.e. those where a bit of planning is really needed) - maybe the hardest 30 marks worth. I find this is the best use of my brainpower, and it's a nice confidence boost to know you've got a bit of a plan already for the key questions.
Then I'll work through roughly in sequential order, but skipping anything that is particularly hard (i.e. where i'm just not sure what the answer is, or where there are a very disproportionately low number of marks for the time required), aiming to finish with maybe half an hour to spare to come back to revisit these low yield questions at the end.
I guess this is actually not far off what sonnyshook does. But its maybe more of a 5% planning, then 50% easy marks, then 25% big questions, then 20% difficult split for me. That way you are planning to do the lowest yield questions at the end, so if you do over-run, its these bits that are left undone.
Last edited by a moderator: Oct 15, 2010