"WOW! I did it! I’ve done my first exams! And wow… phew! … I just want blog about it. There's some really useful tips for when you open that first paper, it doesn't matter which one it is."

"OK I was nervous but then again, everyone was. That's normal."

"All the stuff I had revised was racing through my head… reaallly fast... but… I took a deep breath…"

"And then…"

" … it began"

"You may open your papers now."

"And this was when it all kicked in! Everything that my teacher, Mr Moore, had told us about UNDERSTANDING YOUR PAPER!"

"FIRST THING – when the exam starts, spend a few moments reading the INSTRUCTIONS on the front. Apart from reminding you to fill in your name this tells you exactly which questions you have to answer!"

"This may sound really obvious but what you don't want is what happened to Terry Danvers last year…"

"Mate! Totally knocked that out the park bruv! Those four questions were a breeeeze!"

"Terry, the instructions said to answer FIVE questions!"

"They often give you some useful advice."

"TWO – Once you've done that, spend some time, not too long, quickly going through the paper from start to finish just so you've an idea of what's ahead. And don’t forget to read the back page."

"While you're doing this, have a look at the amount of marks given for each question."

"It will give you an idea of how much time to spend on each question and also flag up if there are any you don't feel confident about that you should allocate more time to. Also, make sure you have planned enough time to spend on the questions that give you higher marks."

"One… one… one… one… one…""… if it's multiple choice, Zak, making a note of the amount of marks each question gives you is a silly thing to do."

"In fact, a useful tip to do before the exam is to have a look at past papers. That way you will be familiar with the structure."

"And he was right. Taking those few moments to read the paper properly meant I knew which questions I had to answer, I had a time-plan I could stick to, and all I had to do was just do the exam!"

"Ok, so I won't know what my final grade will be until results day, but I do know I've made no silly mistakes because I’ve read the paper properly. (She pauses then continues assertively…) No. Silly. Mistakes."