How do you use reading time?Maths/Chem/Bio: Carefully read the questions. Just because something seems like something you have answered before don't assume so since there could be some minor change. I tried answering questions in my head also. For some of the more common questions, I think if you have done enough practise exams you already have an answer in the back of your mind. Also, I would think about any past mistakes I had made with similar questions to what is in the exam to make sure I don't make that same mistake again.
English: Read through the language analysis article/s. Then briefly look at the essay prompts and do some quick brainstorming.
In what order do you complete the exam for each subject? (e.g. front to back, some MC (if applicable) and some short answer, start from Section C, etc.).Maths/Chem/Bio: Front to back always, I didn't see the point in jumping around given I expected myself to be able to complete all the questions. Completing the MCQs I found is a great way to gets some marks in the bank and sometimes the content from the MCQs can help and refresh your memory for some of the short answer questions.
English: Start off with language analysis (Section C) then move onto Text response and finally Context (old study design).
Thoughts on using highlighters in exams?Outside of language analysis I never really used it. I can see how someone may want to highlight phrases from the stem of a question but I found just circling and underlining things with a pencil/pen to be more efficient.
How do you cope with nerves?Can't say I was ever super nervous for my exams. I think everyone who cares about how they go on the exam (i.e. everyone on AN) will have some baseline level of nerves but once I was doing the exam it wasn't something I thought about. I think just opening up the exam for reading time and seeing familiar questions was great alleviator of stress though.
My dad, who was quite good at maths back in his day, said he would always do the easiest questions first, and the hard questions later. As in, he would literally mark out the easy questions and the hard ones, and do them separately. What do you guys think about this method?
Yeah, that is probably the most economical way of doing an exam. Make sure you maximise all the marks you can get for sure and then start going for the marks that you may/may not get. However, I think once you are going for the much higher study scores the benefit you gain from this method diminishes.