Is it good to study past exams? How to practice smartest before the exam

Short answer: yes, it's one of the smartest things you can do before an exam. But not for the reason most people think. Past exams don't work primarily because the questions sometimes come back – they work because the very act of testing yourself is one of the most effective ways to learn that research knows of.

What does the research say?

Two studies are worth knowing about. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke (2008) had students either reread a text several times or read it once and then test themselves on the content. On a test one week later, the testing group remembered dramatically more – even though they had spent less time reading. Retrieving knowledge from memory strengthens the memory trace in a way that rereading never does.

John Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) reviewed ten common study techniques and ranked practice testing – practicing by answering questions – as one of the two most effective methods of all. It's the same principle that underlies active recall: you learn by retrieving, not by staring.

A past exam is quite simply the most realistic way to do this. You practice exactly the format, the difficulty level and the type of question you'll actually face.

The honest downside

But let's be honest: past exams run out. Most courses release only a handful, and they can be outdated – course content changes, examiners are replaced and questions are reworded. If you study only past exams, you risk learning the answers to those specific questions rather than the subject as a whole. The solution is to combine: use the past exams you have, and top up with self-generated practice questions from your own material when they run out.

What a good practice question looks like

This is where Memmo comes in. Instead of a generic question bank, Memmo creates questions directly from your own documents – with a link back to the source so you can check why the answer is correct. A generated question might look like this:

Question: Which process describes how cells convert glucose into energy in the presence of oxygen?

• A) Photosynthesis
• B) Cellular respiration
• C) Fermentation
• D) Osmosis

Correct answer: B) Cellular respiration. (The question links to the passage in your own document where the process is explained.)

That's the difference from an ordinary practice exam: the questions come from your material, and you're never more than a click away from the source. That the method works in practice is clear from the scale – in Memmo, students have already answered over 555,000 quiz questions and created more than 57,000 flashcard sets.

Where do you find past exams – and how do you do them right?

First: where do you look?

• In Memmo – the easiest place to start. Here you'll find over 13,000 past exams shared by students, from nearly 1,000 courses at 76 Swedish universities. Search for your course and see whether someone has already uploaded the exams you need – and feel free to share your own back.
• The course platform (Canvas, itslearning, Athena) – many institutions post past exams directly.
• The student union or society – often has its own exam archives.
• Older students – just ask; most are happy to share.

Then: do them the right way, or you lose half the benefit.

• Set a timer and work to a real exam time. The time pressure is part of the training.
• Close your notes. The whole point is to retrieve the knowledge from memory – not to look it up.
• Mark them afterwards and be thorough about what you missed. The mistakes are where the real learning happens.
• Spread out your practice across several days instead of one intense night. That's the whole idea behind spaced repetition.

So: start by finding past exams for your course in Memmo, and once you've used them all up, let the AI quiz generate new questions from your lecture notes and your own documents – so you never run out of material to test yourself on.

FAQ

Is it good to study past exams?
Yes. It gives you a double benefit: you practice in exactly the format you'll be tested in, and you activate the testing effect that research shows is one of the most effective ways to learn. The only pitfall is relying on them alone – supplement with your own practice questions so you learn the subject, not just the specific questions.

How much should you study before an exam?
Better a little every day over several weeks than everything at once. The research is clear: spaced-out practice beats cramming. A reasonable model is a few focused sessions of 25–50 minutes per day in the final weeks, where a large part of the time goes to testing yourself – not rereading. The quality of the time matters more than the number of hours.

How should you study for an exam?
Flip the usual approach. Instead of rereading chapter after chapter, spend most of the time answering questions: past exams, your own quizzes and flashcards. Read through the material once to understand it, then devote the rest to retrieving the knowledge from memory. Spread it out over time, mark your mistakes carefully, and let the errors guide where you put your next session.