Bring your photo ID to the exam itself. Biologists use a variety of experimental methods to discover phylogenetic relationships. Because no form of evidence can give us a complete picture and because there are no time machines, our ideas of evolutionary history and relatedness are subject to revision as new data come in. This whole field of biology is referred to as systematics. Following prevalent 18th century European religion beliefs and lacking any information about the age of the earth, he believed that all organisms ever created were present on the modern earth and that the job of the biologist was discovery, taxonomy, and classification.
Phylogenetic reconstruction is a later idea in biology.
In effect, Linnaeus created a database, although this is not a term he would have used. We still, however, use Linnaeus' naming system, and we still use many aspects of his hierarchical classification system. Modern biologists have added a higher level above kingdom, the Domain. I assume that most of you already know these terms, but if not you should learn them now as you will need to know them for the lecture exams. Your classmates have probably learned others they can share with you if you are looking for a good one.