Ah, exam season, the time known for sweatpants, long nights, extreme amounts of caffeine and excessively high levels of stress. While the workload can be daunting, there are a few things you can do to make it through exam season with a breeze.
First and foremost, plan and prioritize. Get an agenda or DIY your own out of a couple sheets of paper and write out when stuff is due. Then, make a list of which assignments are most important. This helps put things in perspective and make sure that the important assignments or exams get enough time allocated to them.
Keep your notes organized! Find a system that works for you and stick to it. Do you study better with notes or q cards? On your laptop or handwritten? A mix? It’s a little bit of trial and error but once you find a way that works, stick to it! For me, I write my lecture notes on my laptop in class since I can type faster than I can write. Then after class, I write out q-cards of the important topics from lecture. That way, by the time the final rolls around, the material is already in q-cards for me. I also like to keep them separated by chapter or unit so that I can easily access a certain chapter that I’m confused about.
A little caffeine is good, too much caffeine is bad. Know your limit, play within it. Too little and you’re still sleepy. Too much and your hands get shaky and you’ll be up until 3 am.
This leads to my next point, make sure you’re getting enough sleep. It may seem like pulling all-nighters will allow you to get the most studying done, but you’ll crash the next day and won’t be able to be productive! Nevertheless, your sleep schedule will be all messed up! Go get some shut-eye.
Mental health is more important than good grades. Its ok to take some time off from studying in order to work on yourself.
Set specific times to hang out with friends and family. This way you know when your time to relax is, and when it’s time to be focused. Make sure that you are still having fun (because this is university after all) but cut out a good chunk of your day for the books.
Reward yourself for progress. Get that donut, sip that latte, eat that chocolate bar….you deserve it.
Last but not least, trust yourself! On the day of the exam, do some light studying or conquer those last few little concept, but let it be a relaxed morning. Wake up with enough time to get ready, have a good breakfast and arrive early to class. The less stress the day of, the better. When you’re in the exam, trust that you know everything to the best of your ability, think critically and trust that you have it in your brain to be successful.
Good luck this exam season!