If the study timetable on the fridge has started looking a bit more serious lately, trial exam season is probably why. A few things genuinely help this close to the date, and a few well-meaning habits quietly work against you.

This close to trials, it’s tempting to think more hours is always the answer. Past a certain point, it isn’t, what actually moves the needle in the final couple of weeks looks pretty different from generic “study more” advice.

The two-day cutoff

Set a hard rule: no new content after 48 hours before the exam. Everything from that point is review only, past errors, key formulas, weak topics already identified. Trying to learn something new in the last two days usually means it’s shakier than what’s already known, and it crowds out review time that would help more.

Keep an error log, not a redo pile

Redoing an entire past paper feels productive but mostly re-tests what’s already solid. A sharper approach: every time a practice question gets marked wrong, write it in one running list, the question type, and exactly why it went wrong. In the final week, review only that list. It’s shorter, it’s targeted, and it directly attacks the actual gaps instead of everything equally.

TRY THIS

Grab one page and title it “Mistakes.” Every practice session this week, add to it instead of starting a fresh page. By the week of the exam, that one page is worth more than every other page of notes combined.

It’s not always about knowing the answer

Here’s something worth knowing: a student can understand a topic completely and still lose marks. Not because they got it wrong. Because of how they wrote it down.

A simple example. Two students both know how to solve a maths problem. One shows each step along the way. The other jumps straight to the final answer. If that answer is even slightly off, the first student still picks up partial marks for the working. The second gets nothing.

It’s worth getting someone else, a teacher, a tutor, even another parent who knows the subject, to look over a completed practice paper. Not just to check if the answers are right, but to check if they’re written the way the exam actually rewards.

Practice the clock, not just the content

Knowing the content and finishing on time are genuinely different skills. Before the exam, take one past paper and calculate roughly how many minutes each  question is worth based on its marks, then practice sticking to that pacing. Running out of time on the last section because of a stuck question is one of the most common, and most avoidable, ways marks get lost.

Talk about the week ahead, not just the exam

“Are you ready?” tends to raise the temperature in the room without actually helping. A more useful conversation is a practical one, what’s the plan for each remaining day, and what does support actually look like this week.

TRY THIS

Instead of “are you ready for this,” try “what do you need from me this week?” Sometimes it’s space. Sometimes it’s someone to test them on flashcards for ten minutes. Let them tell you, rather than guessing.

The final stretch rewards a calm, consistent routine far more than it rewards a heroic last push.

Trial exams matter, but mostly as information, not a verdict. Whatever the results show, there’s still real time before the actual exams to close a gap if one shows up. That’s exactly what trials are for.