A pencil’s sharpened point can’t be too sharp. Too sharp and the pencil’s brittle lead is more of a liability than an advantage. Too sharp and the pencil can’t glide across, mark, and streak the white paper sheets as fast as your brain is working.

With a too-sharp pencil, you can’t play Tic Tac Toe on your exam.

One concept that rings true in all exams is that not all questions are the same. Questions on the same topic, from the same lesson, and even on the same page don’t always match each other’s difficulty. Sometimes, no amount of doing all the right things can prepare you for what you face in the exam hall. Your breakfast could have had all the proper nutrients. Your sleep might have been its most optimal. Your well-paced exam review may have been high-scoring. Yet, you still leave the crowded classroom feeling frustrated, thinking of how well you should have done but didn’t.

These are reasonable strategies, so why wouldn’t they work well for you when the test booklet’s seals are broken? Simply put, the element of SURPRISE. Exam questions startle and stun you with their difficulty, and you freeze, to your detriment – the clock is always ticking. That’s when you should break out your penciled Xs and Os. It may be challenging to plan for a surprise, but with some helpful tips involving Tic Tac Toe, you may overcome the initial shock and recover in time to ace your exam.

Tip #1: Glance through most, if not all, of your problems. Whether the topic is Math, Science, or History, it’s advantageous to flip through a significant portion of the exam and familiarize yourself with what’s being asked. Imagine the horror: you’ve got a few minutes left on the clock, you flip to the last page, but alas! The final questions have a level of difficulty unmatched by the rest of the exam, and you may end up guessing the answers. Avoid this issue by glancing at all questions beforehand; If you can see ahead, you can solve ahead.

Tip #2: Categorize the questions into levels of difficulty. Did you get easy, medium, and hard questions? You can circle, box, and cross your questions out! This classification gives you a bird’s eye view of your exam landscape: after initial review, you know that question 6 is really easy, but questions 7 and 8 are harder to solve. You can solve #6 and the remaining “easy” questions and then return to the harder ones later. Guided by your Xs and Os, you can save valuable time that can be repurposed for the rest of the exam.

Tip #3: Have fun playing the game! This Tic Tac Toe match is a game of strategy against yourself, so make sure you win! As you’re creating new boxes, circles, and crosses, remove the old ones you’ve overcome. Take out three easy (circle) questions in a row – point 1 goes to you! Take out ethre medium (box) questions in a row – your score has increased! Take out three hard (cross) questions – you’re on a roll! If you focus on solving problems in a fun and engaging way, you’ll finish the test confident of your answers.

Oftentimes, time management issues, not a lack of understanding, cause people to not finish exams. Do eat that energizing breakfast. Do get a full night’s rest the night before. Definitely review the test’s content ahead of time. But more importantly, play some expert Tic Tac Toe with your perfectly sharpened #2 pencil, and you just may ace your standardized exam.