Memory champion shares study tips ahead of Sweden’s university admissions test

Sweden’s national university admissions test takes place this Saturday, and memory expert Jonas von Essen—one of only a few to achieve the maximum 2.0 score—has shared his advice for test-takers, SVT Nyheter reports.

Tens of thousands of applicants will sit the standardised exam on 18 April at test centres across the country. The test, known as the högskoleprov, is used alongside upper-secondary grades to determine eligibility for higher education programmes.

Von Essen, who reached the top score on his 15th attempt, emphasised structured preparation. He recommended focusing on verbal and quantitative sections by practising with past papers, timing responses, and reviewing mistakes systematically. For the word-analogy and reading-comprehension parts, he advised building vocabulary through daily exposure to complex texts.

To manage test-day stress, he suggested simulating exam conditions during practice sessions and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule in the final week. “The goal isn’t perfection—it’s minimising errors under time pressure,” he noted.

The test consists of five sections: Swedish language skills, English, quantitative reasoning, data interpretation, and logical reasoning. Scores range from 0.0 to 2.0, with results used by universities to rank applicants when grades alone are insufficient.