Reach the Examination hall ahead of time. If you are late for the exam, you will become anxious and tense and that will add to the subconscious tension you already carry with you. If it is an unfamiliar route, time it well in advance and arrive at least 20 minutes early. Allow a little extra time if you are reliant upon public transport or a lift from someone and especially if traffic can be made at the time of day you need to be there.

Before entering the exam hall spend a few minutes with your inner self. Close your eyes and calmly affirm to yourself that you have done your best to study for the exam and you will do well. Repeat it several times so that you feel at peace with yourself. Say a small prayer to God (if you wish to) to help you through the examination. Simple breathing exercise will help you to bring down your heart rate to a level where you can work best.

Take the time to read the questions. When you receive the question paper, take out some time to read all the questions. This will help you categorize them in order of your comfort level. It will also help you settle down and calm the butterflies in your stomach. Don't fall into the trap of scanning the paper very quickly, actually read the questions calmly and focus on them.

If the wording of any question is unclear, do not hesitate to ask the Instructor for clarification. He may want to clarify the question for other children too.

Jot down the points briefly on a rough sheet or right margin of your answer sheet to aid your memory. Lapse of memory is perfectly normal and you can expect it to happen. You may also remember points for another answer while you are busy writing another. Note down the points that occur to you on the relevant rough margin notings. This strategy will help jog your memory. Despite this, if you develop a block while answering a question put it aside for a time and come back to it later.

Answer the easy questions first so that you can spend more time figuring out the answers to the difficult ones. You will probably get a decent number of marks in the bag straight away by doing this.

Do not get distracted if other children finish before you do. Remember you have to answer each of the questions to the best of your ability and you are not in a race to finish first. It is more important to focus on your answers and get them right than to finish first.

And most importantly remember that success is important but failure is not the end of the world. Do your best and you will be happy with your results in a few weeks' time.