Different types of exams and how to study for them

The way you study for an exam will depend on the exam type. It is important that you know the format of the exam so that you can use an appropriate study strategy.

For example, Humanities and Social Science courses might rely largely on essay based exams, while Maths and Science courses might rely on solving problems.

Having said that, this is a generalisation - you might just as easily get an exam essay in Biology as in English, and get multiple choice questions in Sociology.

Some exams might use a mixture of questions (such as multiple choice and short answers), so you will need to use a mix of study methods.

  • These study methods often depend on whether the exam questions require you to rely on recognition, recall or both - click here for an example .

This section runs through the key features of the following exam formats.

Select the ones that are relevant to you: