Exams....

The answers on the poll don't make sense. My mind is a mess!

Study, study, study, and energy drinks on exam days.
Some say studying till after x time (22:00?) in the evening is useless as you tend to forget anything from that hour though i would take any time you can get.

I started school 1 month ago and I stopped playing games (sometimes once or twice a week I play some LoL matches), instead of energy drinks I do coffee(with milk), I like the flavour of those and its better than an energy drink(less strong and still works), I got a board(like that ones in the classrooms but way smaller) and I study a lot with that

Uhm, how come it is not you hosting this giveaway?

I stop doing anything else other than sustaining myself, restocking my food supply, bathing and physiological stuff. And then I start learning.

It's a good idea to plan for having learned everything (for specific exam) 2 days before exam. Cause most plans fail, and then you have at least 2 days extra.

Also, it's better to sleep than to commit couple hours just to stay awake and not do anything else.

Learn the stuff throughout the course, and the exam will be fine.

Yeah, I am a teacher. Sorry. :D

Have a decent sleep rhythm. Don't eat (much) unhealthy food, and coffee's also not great to have lots of.
Start a week ahead learning (but also follow classes, take notes, and make assignments if available throughout the course), write summaries, explain it to peers etc etc

The best and easiest way is to keep a studying schedule and be healthy. So if you study 1-3 focused hours a day, and then sleep well everyday, eat well, exercise and so forth, I don't think you'll have the slightest problem in at least passing. After ~3 hours of studying in a day your brain loses its capacity to concentrate a lot, and you'll need that if what you're learning is hard (or you'll forget everything soon after). Do this and the exam period will feel like summer vacation.

Take notes in class.
Review your notes once or twice.
If there's a study guide try to fill it out.
Maybe review your notes some more.
Maybe talk to others, review together, quiz one another on potential items on the test.
Take the test and get an A.

If some obvious information about an item on the study guide cannot be found in your notes then don't be afraid to Google the item, but don't get too caught up in reading every possible thing about it. Basic definitions and ideas of what a thing is tend to help a lot.

One forms their own method during school and it's hard to change it later. It's different from one persone to one other, so I won't give you any advice, I'll just tell you what I did.

I went through an intensive course this year and passed the final exam a couple weeks ago. Didn't study much during the first months (yes, I am a procrastinator) and found myself towards the end with a lot of stuff still to learn. About one month before the exam I started studying at least 4 hours a day, but found myself unable to study more during the last week. I just could not stand reading the same things over and over anymore.
Some of my classmates studied less than me, many studied more, some studied a whole lot more. Some learnt everything by heart and had to study all day, while some (like me) understood the subject and needed to study 1-2 hours a day.
I personally don't like to learn by heart, since it's the best way to forget what I learnt right after the exam, so I made summaries from the books where possible and learn by heart only the remaining things, like lists, straight procedures and so on. I always share summaries I make with my classmates because I know how hard it is to learn without them. Of course, if you have to learn, say, history, you need to learn by heart (that's why I hated it at school).
I don't drink coffee or energy drinks while studying because they make me nervous and prevent me from sleeping at night. I did study till late on the eve of the exam, but it was an exception. I need to be well-rested in order to study efficiently.
Forgot to say, take notes in class, but don't lose time writing down everything that teachers say.

Have a bump and thanks for the giveaway!

Usually i listen to some calm music and learn at the same time for about 1-2 hours and then i distract myself with games after that or a movie and then just before i go to sleep i usually quickly go through it just so i can make sure what i struggle with and needs a bit more focus.

Taking notes and actually understanding them (if not ask the teach) works really well
Also just dropping this quick gibby here Resident evil Revelations
Hope ya dont mind

Take note in class, try to have a good grasp of the subject matter, and try it out on past year papers, review where you fail to answer.

The important part is get a good grasp of the subject matter. It helps you reduce the amount of things you have to learn by heart.

i take notes in class and focus a godly amount of focus in the lectures and do well in midterms or try to. and do minimal studying in finals.

i generally tend to do well in exams my GPA is 3.73 so i think thats good.

the key for me is focusing with what the lecturer explains and the TAs.

I'm an ass and i didn't manage to graduate. My advice is to not be like me and actually spend time studying, instead of fucking around. All of the other stuff is secondary.

I graduated a while ago.

I still get nightmares about exams to this day.

test? The end of memory ... A nightmare in the distant place.

The day before the test "absolutely not to cut down on sleeping time."
Failure in test due to insufficient sleep. The most common.

other? My language is uncertain, my advice is out of warranty.

I cheated. Yeah. That's my secret. I mean, I also studied a lot during the courses, I wrote all these essays and made all these presentations diligently, and I rarely skipped classes; as a result I knew most of the stuff I was supposed to know by the time of exams. Sure, I spent several hours before each of them frantically re-reading my notes, but mostly I spent time preparing cheat sheets (that's a very effective way to organize knowledge in one's head; one of our professors actually recommended to write a cheat sheet and forget it at home)). Most of our teachers were pretty lenient about us using cheat sheets, but they did ask a lot of additional questions, so cheat sheets alone were not enough. Still, it was a good way to boost confidence and calm pre-exam hysteria.

Not that I'm recommending you to cheat, of course. Just sharing experience.

I chew on my fingers, smoke a pack a day and eat all the foods

I force myself to go to class and write all my notes by hand.

It helps me remember things much more effectively.

study., prepare and don't forget to relax (spots or gaming or whatever works for you)

For every ten pages studied (I study by taking my own notes) play 10 minutes of game. At the end of pages, go through your notes once and reward yourself the game until you get tired of it.

You said you're studying for basic programming and computer structure?

Go over your notes from class, look over a practice test if that's available, make sure you know the concepts that were explained in class. Go over the lesson topics, make sure you know what each one is, and read up one any that you don't recall. I'm not sure what you'll be tested on - if it's basic programming syntax, or an overview of programming, or what - but going over the syllabus and reviewing your notes should be a good start.

Other than that, get enough sleep before the test, and try to do some exercise before hand - even a relaxed 10-minute walk will help your memory and recall.

Personally I try to be organised, my life is a mess but when it comes to revision I schedule very precisely the stuff leaving some time for what can't be predicted (burn out, down days, sick, a friend that needs help...) and try to stick to it and even be in advance because that boost the moral :)
I'm more a night student, also I'm the type to work when the exam is coming, when I feel the danger, the urge. I know myself enough to know when is the limit so until then I'm mostly doing what I want to feel better with my life knowing that studying won't get to me anywhere before that limit date, just tired, if I don't feel the stress.
Sleep is very important so I would say sleep at least 7-8h per night but the exam day I don't sleep that much, more like 2-5h because I want to finish what I planned, that's my priority to feel secure about my chances/knowledge. And in the morning I always leave myself a few hours to read back the questions that already happened, the course, the powerpoints and mostly what I feel need to be read again because it's weak in my mind.
I also talk while studying, like I read the stuff and be like "yeah that's obvious", making jokes, trying to find an angle that I find interesting. And I also have a little white board where I write what seems to be the essence of the course, I don't do little "sheets" for studying just that and pictures of it so that I can rewrite the important points with my logic over and over. Pomodoro technique can be useful to keep a certain rythme.
I forgot to tell that the day of the exam I'm also very organised leaving myself time for breakfast to rest between 2 early study time and then I walk to the exam without my notes trying to relax. Don't forget to reward yourself. What's important is knowing your limits, your capacities and understand what you're saying.