After spending 1000s of hours preparing, all your hard work can get WASTED if you fail to manage the crucial 8 or 9 days of exams and those critical 3 hours of the paper. I once faced this myself and created this framework to help you deliver your best during the exam days:

[1] Clean Your Mind

Do not:

- have pre-conceived notions about the paper
- make predictions about the paper
- have assumptions about the paper
- think about the next paper on the basis of the paper you give.

Get in a neutral mindset.

Why?

When you expect certain thing or think about a thing in a particular way and it doesn't turn out as expected or thought of, you get conflicting thoughts. This prevents you from thinking clearly, takes away your confidence, and makes you indecisive. All the 3 are important during exam days and when you are writing the paper.

Follow this for all the exam days, no matter what.

[2] Save Your Mind

Do not:

- talk about about the paper
- talk about the answers you wrote or your peer wrote
- talk about how was the paper of your peer
- talk about the portions covered or not covered just before the exam
- talk about the portions to be covered for the next exam
- see the paper reviews uploaded just after the exam

Why?

When you discuss, it creates a doubt in your mind. This doubt takes away your belief from the approach you decided to follow. Less belief lead to substandard execution of the approach.

Save yourself from getting influenced on each exam day.

[3] Power Your Mind

You must:

- take breaks
- take adequate sleep
- eat properly
- keep calm

Why?

Because each one of the above helps your mind to function as you intend.

Keep your mind healthy during the exam days.

BONUS POINTS YOU MUST CONSIDER:

[a] Doing 70% syllabus patiently and properly is better than doing 100% hastily and improperly one day before the exam.

[b] Do not read the content line-by-line. You just need to know the key points you read in the topic.

[c] Do not remain stuck at a particular topic.

[d] Do not judge your preparation if you don’t know the answer to the first question you see in the paper.

[e] Do not panic if you don’t know the answer. Calmly move on to the next one.

[f] Do not spend too much time on the questions you don’t know or you are not sure about. Your first priority must be to complete what you know.

You have worked sufficiently on the hard aspects (syllabus, notes, answer writing, etc.) to perform well in the exam.

Now, focus on the soft and often ignored aspects (influence, time management, controlling emotions, etc.) to sustain yourself throughout the exam days.