I personally hold that timed exams are an abomination, but they are the rule and often are necessary logistically. Good test-taking skills can be the difference of half a grade or more and students know it.
When I was a teaching assistant, there were a number of strategies that I suggested to my students as far as taking tests go. When studying, problems from previous tests (ideally from that professor) are pure gold. They should not only do every such problem (and ask me or another student about any they can’t do), but they should do it in a timed setting.
I always make it a point to give mock timed exams. We would then go over the problems together. I also gave very hard quizzes, usually using real midterm and final problems (these can be particularly hard if you’re still learning the material). One reason was the panic factor: some students mess up on tests is they don’t know how to deal with test stress. Almost everyone (I think) feels a bit of a rush when taking a test, especially on seeing an unfamiliar problem. The trick is working through that and realizing that you just have to calm down and that the answers will come. With hard quizzes, students got used to that panic and when going over the quiz they’d often say, “Argh! That was so easy! Why didn’t I see that?” And after a while they’d improve and remember that if they just relaxed a bit, the problem might be easier than it looks. I also had an unusual quiz structure which allowed me to give particularly hard problems.
This is closely related to the idea of developing automaticity. I always tell my students, you can’t plan for every possible problem. The only things you can do are (a) don’t panic and (b) do what you should know how to do very well. Half the problems on a test are usually something straightforward that students “should” know how to do. So I tell them to make sure they can do things like partial fraction decomposition or solving second order differential equations right and with confidence, because these are finite and well-defined skills. Don’t worry about the weird tricky problems- make sure you do what you know right.
I also suggest the (usual?) strategy of taking the test time, subtracting five minutes for checking and figuring the number of points per minute and sticking to that schedule. I made the additional stipulation: I declared that none of my students could ever ever leave an exam early. I didn’t care how early they finished or how certain they were. They could sit there and sleep or doodle, but they had to stay. I’ve had too many students realize just after they left that they made a dumb error. And what is the gain of leaving five minutes early when you could be checking your exam? Exams are artificial and can be used for evil, etc, but if you’re going to take one, I insist you do the best you can. And none of my students ever did leave early (they’d often spend time embellishing their “See Coco See” illustrations!).
– Eric Hsu 1998-08-09