We all have that one playlist that gets us through essay deadlines, exam stress and late-night study sessions. Some of us thrive in chaos, some of us remain calm and collected, and some of us spend this time crying onto our laptop keyboards. Here’s what your go-to study playlist says about your work ethic and how you manage to get through exam season.
Classical
If you listen to classical music when studying, you are most likely the embodiment of calm and control. Your colour-coded notes are perfectly organised in your thorough essay plan, and you may even take a little tea break because you are that ahead of the game. You make a study schedule for the week and actually stick to it, working at a 100% productivity rate. Your brain runs on the same energy level as Beethoven and Chopin, setting a composed tempo for your work. You hand in your assignments with time to spare and lay back watching others mentally implode as the deadline approaches.
Pop/Hype
Chaos? You’re familiar. Caffeine? Your best friend. Sleep? Never heard of it. You are aware that there’s a deadline coming up yet you choose to spend the week enjoying yourself until suddenly it’s the day before and you begin to freak out. But not to worry, you put on your noise-cancelling headphones, crack your knuckles and open your laptop. You have exactly 24 hours to write 3000 words but once you hit play on your hype playlist, you know you are more than ready. As soon as you start typing, you’ve entered flow state, only pausing briefly to down your extra-strong black coffee and douse your face with cold water. Blaring Charli XCX’s BRAT album means you are in your element and suddenly it’s 3am and you’re halfway through. The next time you look up, the sun is shining, your eyes are dry and you are completely delirious, but your essay is complete. Are you proud of it? Well, that’s a question for when you reread it after a very long, very needed sleep.
Sad/Indie
You aren’t afraid to confront the struggle of a study session, instead you embrace it and somehow it works in your favour. You start your work with a sigh but at least you have Phoebe Bridgers to help you through this torture. You spend half of your study time staring out of a window feeling sorry for yourself and the other half crying onto your keyboard. You decide The Smiths ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’is your anthem and use your angst to fuel your furious typing. The essay gets done, not that you’re ecstatic about it, and you immediately return to listening to Folklore on repeat while thinking about your next assignment that means another round of academic torture.
Same song on repeat
You are either completely and utterly locked in or spiralling like no other, but either way, it is working. The song never seems to end, and neither does your focus as if you are trapped in the best kind of study trance, unstoppable and slightly obsessive. You are either in peak productivity or slowly losing your sanity, but who cares when you see the word count going up? Once your assignments are done, you rarely listen to that song ever again until your Spotify Wrapped reveals it as your top song of the year with over 300 listens in a single day.
Movie/Theatre Soundtrack
You treat every study session like you are the main character in a film, and it is a great method. You hit play and the essay begins to write itself. There are occasional conflicts throughout and some pauses for a quick snack break, but eventually the credits start rolling and you have a complete assignment. Your go-to soundtrack is most likely Hamilton where you play all 3 hours, singing along to every song and convincing yourself you are the one who wrote the Federalist Papers. In the epilogue, you look back at what you accomplished with a smile and hit submit on your laptop.
Silence
You have one goal, complete your assignments and that is it. You don’t have the time or attention to be distracted by such a thing as music. Every paragraph is precise and every sentence is purposeful. Somehow, you get more done in an hour than most of us get done in a day. You don’t need anything other than your razor-sharp focus, and you get the essay completed with no fuss. I’m not sure whether to applaud you or be utterly terrified of you.