Practice mode vs exam mode

• Practice mode is for learning. You find out after every question, and you read why.
• Exam mode is for measuring. Nothing is revealed until the end, and then all of it is.
• Learn in Practice. Measure in Exam. Do not try to do both in one sitting.
• A score from Practice mode is not a score — it is a record of a lesson.

Immediate feedback is the fastest way to learn a fact and the surest way to ruin a measurement. The moment you find out that question three was wrong, you answer question four differently: more carefully, more slowly, and with the shape of the last correction in your head. That is exactly what you want when you are learning, and exactly what makes the resulting percentage meaningless as an estimate of what you can do alone.

Sitting in Exam mode occasionally is uncomfortable for the same reason it is useful. You will finish it less sure of yourself than you finish a practice set, and the number at the end will usually be lower. That number is the one that predicts the real paper, and it is worth having a few weeks before the real paper rather than on the morning of it.

One — Pick the mode before you pick the questions

The mode switch is on the start page, above the scope tree. Deciding it first stops you from drifting into Practice by default every time.

Two — In Practice, read the explanation even when you were right

The explanation says why the other options are wrong, and that is usually where the mark you nearly lost is hiding. A right answer for the wrong reason is a mistake that has not happened yet.

Three — In Exam, do not look anything up

Not the notes, not Coid, not the question you are unsure about. An exam sitting with one lookup in it measures nothing, and you will not be able to tell which mark it cost you.

Four — Sit the whole scope in Exam mode, not a filtered slice

Filtering to Incorrect and then sitting it in Exam mode gives you a percentage on your own hardest questions, which will frighten you for no reason. Measure the module; drill the subset.

Five — Read the Exam paper afterwards, once

When it opens at the end, go through the wrong ones properly — they are already on your mistakes list, and this is the one pass where you have the whole paper in front of you at once.