Hi everyone, I wanted to offer some insight into how I used my reading time in exams when I sat the HSC (a long time ago!) 
My advice is geared towards the Sciences and Math but can be extended to other subjects.
When reading time is provided during an assessment, it is generally limited to 5 or 10 minutes. This is not a lot of time but if used correctly, it can substantially increase your chances of achieving a better mark. How? Read on.
Reading time should be used to familiarise yourself with the assessment. In the context of a written examination, reading time gives you the opportunity to perform an initial scan of the paper and in the process of doing so, identify the nature and difficulty of questions posed.
The purpose of identifying questions allows you to come up with a exam plan. As part of this, you should identify which questions you can do and which questions you can’t do based on the question's difficulty. The plan itself is simple.
[During reading time]
1. Skim over all questions during reading time.
2. Identify easy and hard questions.
[During exam time]
1. Skip (but think about) hard questions.
2. Attempt easy questions and secure easy marks.
3. Attempt hard questions.
4. Double-check answers.
Two key considerations form the foundation of this plan.
1. Subconscious (non-conscious) mind
The subconscious mind is a powerful tool. Psychologists generally agree that is does 'a lot of the heavy lifting in the process of thinking' (see 'Your Subconscious is smarter than you might think' (2015), BBC News). Personally, I have found that while I might struggle initially with a difficult question, if I move onto another question and then come back, a solution often presents itself to my conscious mind. That is the power of the subconscious.
While your conscious mind grapples with an easier question, your subconscious works on the harder question. Effective use of reading time allows this to happen because you are exposing difficult questions to your subconscious during reading time. The answer will then come to your conscious mind midway through exam time. If no answer presents itself, it is because your subconscious is not equipped with the knowledge to solve the problem. In other words, your understanding of the theory is incomplete or you are making an incorrect assumption.
2. Flow
Flow was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975. It is 'a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity'. In other words, it is a state where you feel completely focused on the task in front of you. Still not sure what it is? Think about how focused you were the last time you crammed for an exam or rushed to submit an assignment due the next day
As a student, you need to remain focused at all times throughout the exam and this is why entering a state of flow is critical to your success. Entering a state of flow is best achieved by completing all the easy questions first. This builds momentum, ensures you have secured the easy marks and have 'warmed up' your brain sufficiently to tackle the hard questions. This increases your chance of getting the hard questions right and maximising your final exam mark.
If you tackle the hard questions first, you will not be able to build momentum because your progress throughout the exam will be stop-start. You might have 5 minutes of clarity as you breeze through easy questions before hitting a brick wall. But with each brick wall, your momentum stops. Confidence takes a hit too. You might spend too long on the difficult question and are potentially giving up easy marks. And what if you start running out of time? Is it more likely your answers contain silly mistakes or insufficient detail? My point is, your mental state becomes muddled and distracted when there is no structure in how you approach an exam and you give hard and easy questions the same priority. This translates to a poorer exam performance.
Summary:
Reading time can be effectively used to improve your exam performance if you use it to identify easy and difficult questions. Identifying the questions allows you to come up with an exam plan that takes advantage of your subconsciousness and the state of flow to secure easy marks first and increase your chance of solving difficult questions.
Other tips:
i) Just because the hardest question of the exam is Q1 does not mean you need to do it first!
ii) When skimming over questions, do not trick yourself into thinking the question is the same just because you have seen something similar in a past paper. Teachers look at past papers too!
If you have any questions about studying in general or University life, please reach out to me! More than happy to answer your questions
My advice is geared towards the Sciences and Math but can be extended to other subjects.When reading time is provided during an assessment, it is generally limited to 5 or 10 minutes. This is not a lot of time but if used correctly, it can substantially increase your chances of achieving a better mark. How? Read on.
Reading time should be used to familiarise yourself with the assessment. In the context of a written examination, reading time gives you the opportunity to perform an initial scan of the paper and in the process of doing so, identify the nature and difficulty of questions posed.
The purpose of identifying questions allows you to come up with a exam plan. As part of this, you should identify which questions you can do and which questions you can’t do based on the question's difficulty. The plan itself is simple.
[During reading time]
1. Skim over all questions during reading time.
2. Identify easy and hard questions.
[During exam time]
1. Skip (but think about) hard questions.
2. Attempt easy questions and secure easy marks.
3. Attempt hard questions.
4. Double-check answers.
Two key considerations form the foundation of this plan.
1. Subconscious (non-conscious) mind
The subconscious mind is a powerful tool. Psychologists generally agree that is does 'a lot of the heavy lifting in the process of thinking' (see 'Your Subconscious is smarter than you might think' (2015), BBC News). Personally, I have found that while I might struggle initially with a difficult question, if I move onto another question and then come back, a solution often presents itself to my conscious mind. That is the power of the subconscious.
While your conscious mind grapples with an easier question, your subconscious works on the harder question. Effective use of reading time allows this to happen because you are exposing difficult questions to your subconscious during reading time. The answer will then come to your conscious mind midway through exam time. If no answer presents itself, it is because your subconscious is not equipped with the knowledge to solve the problem. In other words, your understanding of the theory is incomplete or you are making an incorrect assumption.
2. Flow
Flow was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975. It is 'a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity'. In other words, it is a state where you feel completely focused on the task in front of you. Still not sure what it is? Think about how focused you were the last time you crammed for an exam or rushed to submit an assignment due the next day
As a student, you need to remain focused at all times throughout the exam and this is why entering a state of flow is critical to your success. Entering a state of flow is best achieved by completing all the easy questions first. This builds momentum, ensures you have secured the easy marks and have 'warmed up' your brain sufficiently to tackle the hard questions. This increases your chance of getting the hard questions right and maximising your final exam mark.
If you tackle the hard questions first, you will not be able to build momentum because your progress throughout the exam will be stop-start. You might have 5 minutes of clarity as you breeze through easy questions before hitting a brick wall. But with each brick wall, your momentum stops. Confidence takes a hit too. You might spend too long on the difficult question and are potentially giving up easy marks. And what if you start running out of time? Is it more likely your answers contain silly mistakes or insufficient detail? My point is, your mental state becomes muddled and distracted when there is no structure in how you approach an exam and you give hard and easy questions the same priority. This translates to a poorer exam performance.
Summary:
Reading time can be effectively used to improve your exam performance if you use it to identify easy and difficult questions. Identifying the questions allows you to come up with an exam plan that takes advantage of your subconsciousness and the state of flow to secure easy marks first and increase your chance of solving difficult questions.
Other tips:
i) Just because the hardest question of the exam is Q1 does not mean you need to do it first!
ii) When skimming over questions, do not trick yourself into thinking the question is the same just because you have seen something similar in a past paper. Teachers look at past papers too!
If you have any questions about studying in general or University life, please reach out to me! More than happy to answer your questions
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