Settle one consumed by big exams with note (8)
I believe the answer is:
finalise
'settle' is the definition.
('settle'->'finalize' is in my internal thesaurus and 'ize'->'ise')
'one consumed by big exams with note' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'one' could be 'li' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'li' is located in the answer.
'note' could be 'n' (abbreviation) and 'n' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for finalise that I've seen before include "Put the last touches to" , "settle" , "Conclude" , "Put an end to, complete" , "Agree on definitive version of something" .)