Entering Trinity and approaching Prelim exams for most subjects, Oxbridge Insights reached out to those who have done their Prelims in recent years to share some advice and guidance from their personal experience. We have compiled an article of advice covering: general prelim advice, online exam advice, subject specific tips and wellbeing advice.
This article will be continously updated as more advice is collected. Follow the Oxbridge Insights IG page to be updated!
General Prelims Advice
“Don’t stress – your tutors believe you can do it and so should you. This is just a chance to show off what you know and try your best.”
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Tutors are there for a reason, ask them for practice to mark essays, revision tutorials to cover areas of the course.”
“Flashcards for memorisation!”
“Try and work under exam conditions (especially in the week leading up to your exam).”
“Stay hydrated and recognise when you’re bored or unmotivated. Listen to your body and give yourself breaks when you need to.”
“Try your best not to study in your bed and try to mix up the places where you study – it’s crazy how change in your space helps with productivity.”
“Do your best to understand the material, but also have a look through some of the questions, they might seem overwhelming, but it’s good to get an idea about choosing questions and the timings.”
“It’s not easy, hang in there!”
“Focus on passing. That is doable (40%) and anything else is a bonus. I find personally that when I take the pressure off I perform better. You can’t learn everything so don’t try cause you’ll set yourself up to fail. Learn the core concepts for everything then go into detail on what you feel most confident on if you are given the choice.”
“I think I was nervous that prelims would be very different from GCSE/ A-Level exams that I’d already done. You do them wearing gowns, you wear flowers and I felt like somehow they were more intimidating. BUT, just revise like you have done for your school exams. Past papers, a few timed essay plans and being confident recalling some of the content.”
“It really isn’t as hard as you think, once you’ve done your first exam you’ll be used to it and prelims don’t mean much anyways in the long run – it doesn’t matter if you don’t get a first!”
“Collaborate with other people in your year to resolve any material that you don’t understand.”
“Even if your Prelims don’t count towards the final degree, still try your best – know that it will be a useful prep for what uni exams are like in the future.”
“Before your exam, get your brain working by doing something engaging like planning a question or solving a puzzle.”
“Don’t take on board other people’s stresses and anxieties; you need to support yourself. Keep your phone off.”
Advice for Open Book Exams
“Keep an eye on the time and breathe.”
“Make your answers easily accessible (maybe in a Mindmap?) and have a list of examples handy to look up. Have drawn diagrams already uploaded to your computer. Do as much preparing as you can to save time within the exam.”
“You’re not gonna have as much time as you think to look at stuff online – making good notes in advance will be key for successful essays.”
“Don’t rely too heavily on the fact that the exams are open book. You still need to know the content in a similar level to detail as if the exam were closed book as you don’t have that much time in the exam to be searching through your notes.”
“Make crib/summary sheets for each topic so you can easily find the information that you are looking for.”
“Don’t rely on your books but have a system which shows you where to go in the book for certain topics if needs be so you’re not wasting time in the exam.”
“Get to your desk before the exam, get all the books / materials you will want in front of you ahead of time and get them organised. Organise your notes in a way you can quickly find any information you will need in an exam. E.g. a PDF where you can CTRL + F to search the document for keywords.”
“Make sure you scan your answers in-time. Don’t leave it too late and then be in a state of panic.”
“If you’re sitting them open book, take advantage of this. You can have regular loo breaks, snacks, drink, a full desk, wear something comfortable.”
Advice for Mental Wellbeing During Exams
“Try to keep up with some fun/motivating activities – make time for friends, getting outside and fresh air and eating food. You are not expected to be spending excessive amounts of time revising. Try practicing/revising with friends – it will help you feel less alone”
“Listen to your body and give yourself breaks when you need to.”
“Don’t over-pressure yourself to get through all the material. I definitely didn’t understand a lot of the material when I was sitting prelims.”
“Make sure to get enough sleep! Exams and revision is tiring, so look after yourself!”
“In terms of motivating yourself, it might help to focus on getting small tasks done e.g. 1 question, revising this concept etc.”
“Talk to your peers! Doubtless many of you may feel similar.”
“Feel free to ask the year above, tutors or JCR welfare for advice or just if you want a chat, people are genuinely quite helpful.”
“Organise your breaks so that you have something to look forward to.”
“Plan as many things as you can, because unexpected things happen all the time, and planning things reduces the amount of stress you’ll experience.”
“Think carefully about when you’re most productive, and where you work best, change location if you feel like you’re not as productive.”
“Take a day off if you’re not feeling well or if you’re not having a productive day (better to lose 1 day than to work badly for a few days, burn out and not actually get any work done).”
“Definitely don’t revise/work at the expense of sleep. Keep doing the stuff you enjoy, which is harder during a pandemic, but there will still be stiff you know does you good – like chatting on the phone to a friend or going for that walk or watching that TV comedy as a break.”
“If you’re in Oxford then Trinity term is normally so fun and sunny. Work for 3 focussed hours each then go enjoy the sun.”
“If the information isn’t going in don’t just keep pushing through as it is a waste of your time. Walk away and come back to it with a clear mind.”
“Exams aren’t the end of the world so all you can do is try your best. Also trying your best doesn’t mean running yourself into the ground, but means doing as much work as you can whilst still having a life and looking after yourself.”
“Plan an amazing 8th/9th/10th week for after you’re done.”
“Go for some exercise after each exam, or something so that you can reset, before working for the next exam. Try your best to put that exam behind you and move on, even if it didn’t go amazingly.”
“SLEEP. Sleep. Did I mention sleep? Even if it means not getting everything done you wanted to do – you probably won’t manage to prepare everything you wanted and there’s no point exhausting yourself trying.”
“Comparison is cruel. Do what works for you and don’t let yourself get down if others say it’s wrong. All my tips are what worked for me, but they might not for you. Still, whilst no one was really competitive with me, lots of people judged me for not being in the library 24/7 before my exam or for taking time out to do fun stuff during my two weeks of exams. I would argue that I did just as well as them at the end of the day, and I didn’t become a nervous wreck either. Look after yourself!”
“Drink and eat foods that fuel your brain (coconut water, blueberries, etc.).”
“Do not internalise the more punitive aspects of academia by lying to yourself that only a good grade will make you worthwhile (it won’t. You make you worthwhile.)”
Subject Specific Advice
Biochemistry
“It might seem like a lot of content, and there is a lot, but focus on what you need to understand, what you need practice on and what you know well. Figure out what you need to know for each paper and do lots of practice. Some parts of the course are rote learning – so find a way to fit this into revision. Other parts need you to understand/know how to apply some parts.”
“Practice some questions with no time pressure – just to see if you can do it or if you understand it. Then when nearer to the exam, begin to try some under timed conditions to see what pace you need to work at.”
“Also, remember that 50-70% is an amazing grade/what is expected. Getting 60-80% will mean you make mistakes/don’t get every mark. It is not like GCSE/A Level where you are expected to get 90%+ for good marks.”
– 3rd Year Biochemist, Merton
Biology
“Don’t try and learn everything in the course, it’s impossible. Look at past papers and see what comes up often. Look at your lecture notes and see what is mentioned most often. If there are 4 lectures out of 16 on Eusociality, then there’s a good chance that’ll come up.”
“Give examples. For as many points you can think of, have examples.”
– 2nd Year Biologist, Merton
Biomedical Sciences
“Look at past papers as soon as possible for essays – there’s a lot of material that is covered in lectures that doesn’t come up on essays ever, so there’s no point in revising it in depth.”
“Don’t stress too much about MCQs, just look over the lecture material once or twice and you should be good – the questions vary from very easy to very rogue to very random, so on average, it’s alright.”
“You don’t have to be able to write a good essay on every topic – be selective in your revision but also smart about it (use past papers to guide you).”
– 3rd Year Biomedic, St Hugh’s
Chemistry
“Practise and write out mechanisms, even if you don’t understand entirely what’s going on! You’ll get there, and being able to recognise them is useful. Also, the biological modules are pretty okay once you’ve learnt all the mechanisms (and no, you do not need to learn any of the big structures).”
“Comment on as much as you can, even if it’s as simple as Zeff/radii trends, or stability of a carbocation due to hyperconjugation, all these little things help.”
“Thermodynamics and Quantum Theory, just do as many questions as you can. There are some in Atkins, and there is an accompanying answer book (check if you can access it though). Especially for quantum, learn how to derive the energies etc. of the examples from lectures. Same for Physics and Maths, although there will probably be more variety so just practise as much as possible.”
“Try to understand underlying or key concepts. For Sn1/2 etc., there are handy tables online that summarise solvent and nucleophile effects. You can find questions and answers from other unis online if you search around for sn1/sn2 answers pdf (or something like that). Similar for physical questions, for some topics you can find question sheets with answers on them.”
“Look through your lecture notes; a lot of the material in the questions will be from lectures, especially when it comes to specific examples e.g. inorganic structures.”
“If you really are stuck or short on time and know which topics are coming up for an exam (maybe physical?), put more work into those. Prioritise!”
“Again, have a go at questions (even if it’s a disaster), just to get an idea of timings.”
“Youtube is good for clearing up concepts – for physical, there’s TMP Chem.”
“At the end of the day, Chemistry prelims do not count for anything, so just do what you can to pass, and then you can always catch up a bit in the vac!”
“Anything they ask you will pretty much come from the lecture notes, so use those and only do extra reading if you have time or need to supplement the lecture notes. Definitely look through some questions, but in the end – prelims don’t count! You can always make up for it later!”
– 3rd Year Chemist, Merton
Engineering Science
“Go over tutorial sheet questions and think about what the point of each question was, i.e. the learning outcome.”
“Make your own notes from the lecture notes to help you memorise information.”
“Make sure you know WHERE in HLT, so that you don’t waste time on that during the exam; make sure that you know WHAT is in HLT, there are a lot more formulas in there than you think.”
“Take a break if you’re not feeling like it’s your day, lost far too much time by trying to make myself work.”
– 3rd Year Engineering Scientist, St Hugh’s
English
“Look at the past exam papers so you know what type of questions to expect.”
“When you answer the questions for English, pay special attention to the quotation in the question you are given. Pick apart the language and use it as a focus for your essay.”
“Don’t worry too much about memorising endless quotes or page numbers, focus more on finding the best quotes that you can analyse well.”
“Create resources like mind maps that have condensed notes. Make sure you can reach these in the exam as they are much easier to use than a pile of notes or a book.”
“Start working early so that you don’t get overwhelmed. This way you can do shorter and more efficient bursts of work and your vacation won’t be overtaken with revision.”
– 2nd Year English Student, Mansfield
Experimental Psychology
“Make mind maps for each topic in a module. I found an A5 page per lecture with the core information (i.e two core studies and two supplementary) a useful guide for Psychology and for Neuro.”
“Doing past papers for Stats was helpful and same with figuring out what my top five strengths were instead of trying to learn everything.”
– 2nd Year Experimental Psychologist, St Hilda’s
History
– 3rd year St Peters
“In History the amount of dates can feel impossible to master. It’s really helpful to feel like you’ve nailed a specific area. Maybe you have one or two super meaty examples for talking about an economic aspect of your course. Then whichever questions pop up, you can sprinkle those meaty examples which the examiners seem to like.”
“Also, back yourself to be creative in the exam. Sometimes you come up with really interesting stuff when you’re having to join the dots in new ways.”
– 3rd Year Historian, St Peter’s
“Prioritise essay planning and making sure you have organised notes.”
“When planning essays in advance, make sure you read the criteria and include everything (e.g. for History, make sure you have historians, facts, arguments, detail, dates etc).”
“You will never be able to learn everything so just a pick a few topics for each paper you feel confident on and revise them thoroughly and think about what questions can come up – covering a little in a lot of detail will be useful.”
“Have essay plans ready and use it to look up stuff but don’t rely on shaping your whole answer by researching things during the exam.”
– 3rd Year Historian, St Catz
Law
“Create mini cheat sheets, link everything thematically, and try to memorise and actively recall what you’ve learned.”
“Have trigger words for cases which help you remember facts/ratios, keep everything very bare bones when it comes to revision.”
“When studying, read first, then read again and highlight, then make notes the third time round, try not to use words from the textbook and limit it to a couple sentences but make sure you understand.”
– 2nd Year Law Student, Mansfield
“Learn the cases in detail so that you can identify similar facts in problem questions.”
“Make the most of Christmas vac to revise for Mods.”
– 2nd Year Law Student, LMH
Material Science
“Use past papers from the start. Collaborate with others for notes and past paper answers.”
“The prelims maths papers are getting harder each year. Look at the most recent years papers sooner rather than later.”
“You don’t have to answer all the questions in the papers so don’t worry if you find some topics or parts of topics hard. Try to understand them as best you can but don’t panic if it’s not too much content you find hard. It’s not hard to avoid nasty questions.”
“Don’t be expecting 100% or anything close. You don’t need to be performing well until the end and at uni, it is getting just over half the paper right. Manage expectations.”
“Have a good set of notes and know where all the info is, even if you don’t actually know what it is. Just be able to find the right page and go from there.”
– 3rd Year Material Scientist, Mansfield
Mathematics
“For virtual maths exams, I have found it is less key that you know the content off by heart, e.g. the proofs and definitions, as if you have your notes next to you then you can refer to them in the exam, but lots of practice of past papers was helpful.”
– 3rd Year Mathematician, St Peter’s
Modern Languages
“Take time to plan essays – it’s really easy to get incredibly stressed out about the tight time limits, but it’s better to produce a focused piece of work that isn’t as long as you’d like than a long mess – some of my best marks were for papers where I didn’t write very much. Same goes for picking questions – they often give you loads and it’s worth taking the time to make sure you’ve picked ones you can answer well.”
“Read the examiners’ reports. They give a really good idea of what examiners are looking for and point out certain mistakes people make every year – those are mistakes you can really easily avoid.”
“Don’t be afraid to stop and take a breath – the exams are much longer than what you’ve done at GCSE, and without the experience of pacing longer exams at A-level, the temptation will probably be to just keep writing, no matter what, to make sure you’re getting the word count out. If you do that for three hours you’ll burn out, so make sure you’re taking a second to pause and re-focus between each question – and if you have to do that in the middle of the exam that’s fine too. At worst, you’ll write a couple sentences less, and the increased clarity of thinking is worth that.”
“If you have a choice between doing an extra bit of preparation and getting enough sleep, always pick sleep. Exam week is a marathon not a sprint and it does you no favours to tire yourself out.”
“Do lots of timed practice papers so you know you’re shooting for essay answers you can realistically produce in the time.”
“Ask finalists if they have notes. we know how hard remote study is and we’ll be happy to share.”
“Prelims. Don’t. Matter. Everyone is going to tell you how much you won’t care about them in a year’s time, and you really won’t. Just pass them, that’s all you need to do – and if they don’t go well that doesn’t mean anything about second and third year!”
“Don’t underestimate the language exams – especially anything where you have to write in or translate into your foreign languages. A language exam which should have been a really high mark was my worst mark by far, probably because I made grammar mistakes that I could have easily avoided with a bit of extra practice. Just because they don’t involve a lot of content doesn’t mean they don’t require work.”
“In translation, don’t be afraid to work idiomatically – if you think something sounds really weird in English when you translate it literally and you can fix that by moving just a little further from the original, do it. This is particularly true because translation is open book this year, so the risk of examiner’s thinking you’ve misunderstood a word if you translate it loosely is much lower because they know you have dictionary access – they’ll understand you were going for idiomatic expression.”
“Don’t worry about using loads of quotations in literature papers – unless you need to analyse the use of a specific word, just describing the passage you’re talking about is usually absolutely fine.”
“This isn’t GCSE, you don’t have to answer questions on every single one of your set texts anymore. Obviously prepare more than, like two, but if there’s one you just don’t get, that you know you’re never going to answer a question on, just leave it. Your time will be better spent solidifying knowledge you’ll actually use.”
“Don’t rely too heavily on your notes – you don’t have time to check everything, memorising things still has value.”
“Make essay plans, but don’t just write answers to those plans regardless of what the questions are – examiners complain every year that people aren’t paying attention to the specific terms of the question.”
– 4th Year Modern Linguist
“Create a study plan – divide up what you need to do and decide when you’ll do it. I did mine for the whole of Trinity so I knew I had plenty of time to work with.”
“Familiarise yourself with how the exams work, how long they are etc.”
“Talk to your tutors about what is a good exam piece or if they can recommend you working on a particular skill or area.”
“Stay calm and read the questions properly. I nearly answered a completely different question as I was panicking and didn’t read it right.”
“For essays, spend a while planning out the essay structure and arguments. You’ll feel more secure in what you’re doing. I think I spent about 15 or 20 minutes planning each essay.”
“Language exams are a marathon, not a sprint like for everyone else. Pace yourself, stay as calm as possible and look after your wellbeing.”
“Revise your vocabulary for the translations and make sure you know how to set out the short essay report.
“I revised all of the literature so that I could choose the best essay question in the exam. This worked well as it meant I avoided some nasty questions on popular literature that everyone complained about afterwards. Quotations are surprisingly useful so make sure to incorporate them in your studying.”
“Don’t worry too much about references.”
“Essays in exams are meant to be shorter and less researched than tute essays, so try not to worry about that. Instead use your thorough knowledge of the texts to make clear and interesting arguments. A simple essay structure never hurt anyone.”
– 3rd Year French and Linguistics Student, Merton
“Think strategically: you can’t possibly learn or revise everything, so look at past exam papers and identify key areas/themes that are likely to come up then brainstorm each text according to these themes.”
“Practice writing in timed conditions! Obviously there’s no substitute for exam adrenaline but at least this will give you an idea of how much you can/should write.”
“Doing quick essay plans (to show how you would answer a question) can be as (if not more) useful than writing full answers – to be clear when revising not in the actual exam.”
“Have a plan/be aware of themes/texts you need to cover, but be flexible and kind to yourself (as i said above, it’s impossible to cover absolutely everything).”
“In an exam, be strict with your time! allocate yourself 5-10 mins for planning an answer, and 55-50 for writing. for each answer! don’t make the mistake that I did and spend way longer on the first two essays and leave yourself c.35 mins for the third one… too stressful!”
“Answer the question! Really engage with the terms of the question! Don’t just recycle a tute essay – it can be so tempting and feels like a shortcut but at the end of the day will be detrimental… (that being said, you can re-use quotes/some material you used in your essays, just don’t completely copy your line of argument because chances are it won’t actually answer the question in front of you).”
“This is maybe just French-specific (but could apply to all languages): choose the texts you will focus on – don’t have to revise every single text you’ve studied. eg Paper III (short texts) – you answer on one text from each pair, so just pick one from each pair to revise. In my opinion it’s better to know the minimum number of texts really really well than to revise them all but not as in depth.”
“Don’t learn quotes… waste of time especially now that exams are open-book.”
“Grammar (again this might just be French-specific): each sentence you have to translate usually addresses one/two specific grammar points. identifying them is really useful so that you know exactly what to look out for (again going through past papers can help w this).”
“Read your texts properly throughout the year rather than in the three weeks before prelims…”
– 4th Year French Sole Student
Music
“Make sure to structure essays with an argument that runs through the whole thing. Each paragraph should relate to this making sure to include critics’ opinions and case studies.”
“With so many different modules, make sure that you aren’t just revising your favourite topics. Spend a roughly equal amount of time on each but with a bit more focus on those that you find trickier!”
“Make sure to give yourself chunks of time off to do things that make you feel good. Especially at Oxford it can feel like everyone around you is working all the time but it’s so important to spend some time on yourself.”
“Make sure you have well structured and condensed notes to help with time management in the exam.”
– 2nd Year Musician, St Catz
PPE
“Get enough sleep, plan day and revision in advance, revise with others (over zoom, in person when you can), set times in the day for exercise and personal time, make mini mind maps to start with then expand on them!”
“Don’t confuse yourself by doing 2 subjects in a day at once. Go in depth, one at a time.”
“Make really good notes and organise them well so you know where to go in your files or documents for each specific topic. If your notes are on your laptop ctrl-F is a lifesaver.”
“Don’t worry too much. Your first year is pass/fail – putting pressure on yourself to get a first will only make you feel stressed.”
– 2nd Year PPE Student, Mansfield
Theology
“Don’t be afraid to make your answers original and bring in references to the 21st century where relevant. Force your tutors to be down with the kids, instead of forcing yourself to be like your tutors.”
“Don’t forget about your own principles and identity when answering the question, e.g. answer the questions as a female from a feminist perspective.”
“Keep a document of “stock phrases” and key quotes, dates and facts you can lift.
It’s more important to be able to use what you know to fit the question, don’t get stressed searching through your notes.”
“Learn what exam rituals and techniques work best for you and your mental health as preparation for finals. (This is more important than the grade you get)”
– 3rd Year Theologist
“Use the vacs to consolidate what you learn in term time but still make sure you get a week or so off to rest.”
“Do lots of essay plans. When you have loads of full ones try condensing them. Also I find theology is something people are often willing to discuss with you (or listen to) so articulate your arguments to friends as a different way of revising – it also gives you tutorial confidence.”
“Make sure you don’t entirely use pre-prepared essays. Ideally, you want your notes to be concise and easy to access so that you can build on the material in front of you while still having to formulate an argument (which they are ultimately assessing you on).”
“Quality over quantity – your essays do not need to be long, so take the time to make sure your argument adds up.”
– 3rd Year Theologist, St Peter’s
Physics
“Look at past papers and do lots of practice.”
“Get tutors to mark stuff.”
“Generalise solutions in problem sheets.”
“Note down concepts learnt from past papers not in lectures eg Voltages of concentric shells.”
“Prioritise sleep.”
“Make a heat sheet of formulae for stuff like electromagnetism.”
“Questions will be similar to past paper questions.”
– 2nd Year Physicist, St Catz
Extra University Resources
Oxford University Exam wellbeing and Preparation:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/exams/wellbeing
Oxford Trinity Term Open Book Exam Guide:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/exams/open-book/trinity-term
Oxford In Person Exam Guide: