EXAM SEASON 2025: Tips, Tricks, and Insights From Earl Haig Faculty!

As the most stressful time of the year, exam season, approaches, Carpanatomy has gathered some helpful tips, tricks, and words of wisdom from Haig’s favourite teachers to guide you through your exams this year. Good luck, Haigers!

What is the #1 de-stressor you would recommend to students during exam season?

Ms.Antoniou - Social Sciences/ Humanities Department

“Start gathering your notes early. Don’t wait until the night before. If you know an exam is coming in a few days, then start putting your notes together a few days ahead of time. Even if you’re just spending a half an hour each day before your exam, just something to get started.”

Ms.Ahn - Visual Arts Department

“Sleeping well is the most important thing. When you sleep well, you have a clear mind, you can think better, you can process information better.”

Mr.Suteir - Science Department

“Getting exercise. That could be as much as just taking a walk, splitting up your study time so that you can get some oxygen into your brain.”

Ms. Golubovici - Math Department

“Make sure to review previous units and plan ahead of the game.”

Mr.Wry - English Department

“I think the number one  thing when you’re feeling stressed out and overwhelmed with exams is to figure out what are the things, the uncertainties you’re facing, and then figuring out what  actual actions you can take. Then what you can do is say I've got a plan for this and there’s no point stressing because I’m doing the actions, I’m doing the things, and there are still uncertainties, but I’ve done what I can to address them.”

QUESTION #2 - What was the worst mark you have received on an exam and why?

Ms.Antoniou - Social Sciences / Humanities Department

“I do remember doing very poorly, it was my grade seven geography test. I failed it. And I was devastated. And I didn't know how to study. So I literally just read through my notes but didn’t actually sit down and either make notes or sit and memorize the information. So the reason I got that mark was because I didn’t have a study system. I probably didn't pass any math. I didn’t pass my grade 12 math exam. But that was just because I never got the right answer, somewhere down the long line I lost something, but that's a different story.”

Mr.Suteir - Science Department 

“Oh my gosh okay. This is embarrassing, but I once got an eight percent on my first year geology exam in university. Why? Because it was the last exam of my first term of university and I was super burnt out. I didn’t get enough time to study and didn’t go to enough classes in the first semester, so grade 12s listen up, go to your classes in university, it makes a huge difference. But yeah I was completely fried and by that time I had passed the course anyways so I didn’t really care too much”

Ms. Golubovici  - Math Department

“I was a student in grade 12 in Romania preparing to get into the faculty of math. In Romania each semester we had a big paper which was 50% of the final mark, and my teacher asked us to come at 7:30 am in the morning to write a two hour test. Since I’m not a morning person I couldn't concentrate and I got a 60%. I was devastated at that time because I was preparing to get into the faculty of math, but this mark didn't keep me from being successful in life.”

Mr.Wry - English Department

“Grade eleven chemistry was a real struggle for me, I’m sure I did poorly on the exam, but I would say in general, exam results and scores, they’ll stay with you for a while, but eventually you’ll forget the individual numbers. You end up moving on in your life, focusing on different things, and now I’m an English teacher doing my job, and my exam results are completely meaningless at this point now that I am where I am at life.”

QUESTION #3 - What’s the best way for students to retain information?

Ms.Antoniou - Social Sciences / Humanities Department

“ Oh that's a good question. I don’t know about the students of today, but when I was in high school and a teenager, it was about repetition. I actually used something similar to notecards where it had a term on the front and the explanation on the back and I would just go over and over and over and over and over again.”

Mr.Suteir - Science Department

“Concept mapping is a way to remember information, it's an inherently creative process where you're creating a graphic organizer with various concepts and trying to connect them and figure out what the relationships are.”

Ms. Golubovici - Math Department

“Practice. Memory aids, formula sheets, try to find questions very similar to the ones done in class and focus on understanding the material. And definitely in math it's not about learning mechanically, it's about understanding. Make sure you ask your teachers questions.”

Mr.Wry - English Department

“Okay, so for retaining information, I read this one book. I think it’s great, it's called Make It Stick, it's about cognitive science, and trying to apply studies and research in cognitive science to studying and retaining information. And there’s a few different strategies, the number #1 strategy is to quiz yourself. And quizzing yourself in a way that actually challenges you. It's like if you walk on a path in a forest, if you just walk it once, you’ll never create a path there, it’ll just look like fresh grass, but the more you travel that exact same route, the more you build that path, and then that path is there to stay.”

QUESTION #4 - Favourite snack to eat before an exam?

Ms.Antoniou  - Social Sciences / Humanities Department

“Oh my gosh I was always so nervous before exams I wouldn’t eat. I do remember what my snack was after, I remember in university, when I finished my last exam of the year, we’d go to a local pub and I would order french fries. French fries and a diet coke because I didn’t like pop and I didn’t drink beer. And we didn’t have water bottles back then so you just suffered through thirst.”

Ms.Ahn - Visual Arts Department

“I liked to drink apple juice. I wanted to stay hydrated, but I needed some sugar, so apple juice.”

Mr.Wry - English Department

“I don’t have an answer for a food, I think I made bad  choices with my food where I didn’t really think about what I was eating. I think the correct answer of what I should’ve been eating  is some sort of meal with like a lot of protein in it, and probably having some water but not too much so like basically I’m gonna be full the whole way through, not so full that I’m tired and then hydrated but then not so hydrated that I’m gonna have to run  to the bathroom a bunch of times during the exam.”

Mr.Suteir - Science Department

“ I always had good luck charms I brought into my exams. All sorts of things from pencils to little figurines that were my kinda superstition. But in terms of eating I don't think I had any sort of favourite snack or anything, but what I will suggest is a lot of fruit before you go into your exam because it is full of natural sugars which will help fuel your brain.”

Ms. Golubovici - Math Department

“I did not eat much in the morning. We only had tea, butter, bread, and sometimes milk. I told my daughters now to have a good breakfast, maybe chocolate.”