If there is one really important advice I would like to give to students currently doing the ‘A’ and ‘O’ level exams, it is that you MUST NOT do math problems the day before and the few hours before math exams. If you do, chances are high that you will get a “mental blockage” during the exam, e.g, confusing between differentiation and integration.

My own personal experience supports this advice. Throughout my years in RI, the highest marks for a math exam that I obtained was for the one that I completely did not do any kind of studying the night before; I topped that exam, even outperforming all the gifted students (I was not in the gifted stream). Similarly for my PSLE exam.

About three years ago, one of my A. Math students did not heed my advice. She called me immediately after the first paper, crying and telling me she lost 20 marks, because she left those questions unanswered at all. When I asked why, she said she couldn’t think at all during parts of the exam and she admitted she did problem-solving in the morning before the exam. After heeding my advice for the second paper a few days later, she called back to say it was very easy. Her overall result: A2.

No athlete or sportsperson exercises or practises the day before a competition; the body needs a total rest. Similarly our minds also need to rest as exams are nothing more than a mental exercise and a mental competition.