Exams Bells are Ringing!!! 

Hello beautiful souls, I hope you all are devoted to finding your inner magic because I already am! This is an exclusive exam post that is based on my personal experiences. Just to give all the depressed students out there a little hope, and a little positivity that you can do it, I am here today with this teensy effort of mine. Remember, no test in this world is bigger enough to put you down. It doesn’t matter if you score the highest or the lowest in your class, the only thing that matters is how much effort you put in, how much did you struggle for this. I believe in you, you all got it! <3

Clean, Silent and Well-lighted place:

Select a clean and well-lighted place for studying in one corner of your room, so as to attain much solitude and silence. Here, I once again emphasize silence because you can never clearly absorb each and every idea until and unless you are in a silent corner where all you can hear is your voice echoing in your ears, online lectures or maybe a friend’s voice notes regarding that topic being played on the laptop. Avoid contact with people because a single distraction can lead to the evaporation of a thousand ideas. Read your notes aloud, if there’s nothing or less to read, pretend to teach an imaginary student or maybe a spider on the wall. This teaching technique will imprint each and every concept on your mind and you will not forget a single thing in the exams. Try to select a spacious table where you can spread all of your notebooks and reading material. Also, make sure your seat is comfortable enough to be seated on it for the whole day. :p 

Days Allotment:

Allot a separate to every subject and follow the schedule religiously no matter how many guests come over, how much tempted you are to take a day break, NO! You have to assign a subject or two to each day of the week. For Example, I decided to complete Academic Reading and writing today and I am almost done. Now I have an open option to do another subject today which have a lengthy syllabus, that I fear I might not be able to complete in one day, as a bonus. Remember, exams season is all about studies where each and everything is related to your time management, and where the only bonuses you can get are the extra hours. You can either consume that extra time for resting or else, can count upon that as a blessing for revision or maybe starting another subject. One of the best ways to manage your days and make an effective schedule for exams is by downloading mobile schedules or organizers. I would recommend P. Schedule for this purpose.

Syllabus Checklist:

For making a check-list, notepad in your mobile phones comes is very handy. Jot down all the syllabus so that you can have a clear idea about what you are going to do first as per the priority of the topic. Write down the most important topic in the first place so that you can observe the priority level meanwhile. Just follow the order instead of random selection. This will enhance your topic management and you will achieve confidence in yourself.  Once a topic is done, CHECKMATE! 😀 It also serves as a diary where you have a record of your course outline. I would recommend Google Keep as a notepad because it synchronizes your notes with your email, thus you can stumble upon it anytime and anywhere you want. It is a healthy habit!

Stay away from your Mobile:

This is a legit warning, stay away from your phone! We waste hours and hours on our phone without even realizing. Stumbling upon Instagram sometimes, taking selfies on Snapchat the other times. Remember we students are especially vulnerable during the exam days, where even staring at the wall becomes the most interesting thing let alone a single notification ring, which is far more tempting than anything else in this world. “I have to exchange notes/VNs with my friend, is the most common excuse that we make to our parents and even yourself sometimes, but either in that case, use WhatsApp web instead while keeping your phone almost a mile away from the study.

Gather the Notes:

Before sitting on your chair, make sure you have each and every handout, notebook, notes, exercise sheets, presentations, word files either on your table or inside your laptop; organized in separate folders. This will prevent you from mental torture that most of us face upon not being able to find a particular handout. The basic reason behind this laziness is that once our temperament of studying is built up, it is very difficult to leave the place until the completion of that subject or topic. Once distracted, all the creative ideas that were gathered in your mind just poof away! Spread all the relevant books, notebooks, handouts, spreadsheets, helping books, along with your stationery and laptop charger right in front of you, where everything is perfectly in your reach.

Consult Past Papers:

Instead of being confused all day as in what kind of question might come, take help from an ample amount of past papers available on the internet. At the start of every semester, ask your peers or seniors for their papers sessional and final papers. Handle them with care, get them photocopied and return the original back to them (even if they don’t ask to). Remember, ethics and self-respect are the prime priorities! Read those papers and prepare all the past questions. Trust me, the questions will be 50%, if not 100% the same in your exams. This doesn’t mean that you should rely totally on those papers, but it will give you a fair idea of what shape can be given to the material that you have read. Most of the times, past papers broaden up your vision and help you in making more likely questions. I must call this technique a “Knowledge Mould”.

Take Notes:

Note-taking is not confined to your classrooms and regular days only, in fact, note taking will work wonders even one night or an hour before your exam. Remember, writing is the best strategy to memorize everything much more quickly and easily instead of cramming from your notes the whole day and night. Whenever you start doing a topic, make notes side by side. It will make you memorize the whole thing instantly and trust me this memorizing will last longer than cramming. Plus, you can write additional points, your own thoughts, and references in the notes later on, while revising. Usually what we do is that we randomly open up the websites and just go through the topic from there but when we want to revise before the exam or night before it, we can’t find those websites or feel lazy to do so thus skipping the revision. This is where your notes will save the day, or night maybe! Note: Cleaner your notes are, more fun learning would be. 🙂

Use Visual Aids:

Visual Aids play an important role when you have more to cover in lesser time. Visual aids include mind maps, flow charts, bullets, drawings, figures, and much more. I personally recommend mind maps and bullets making instead of writing down the whole paragraph for cramming. Bullets are always easily digestible and you can easily remember them in the paper. Just memorize the bullets and elaborate them in your own words on the exam sheet. It is a profoundly time-efficient technique. Remember that time management is the key to a successful examination.

Always keep your Instructor in mind:

No matter how much you deny, your teachers always have an immense impact on your marks. While preparing for an exam, keep your instructor in mind. Check how he/she marked your assignments, presentations, and projects. What kind of errors does he/she particularly focus on? Is it grammar, spelling mistakes or the expressions that need to be improved or is it something else that I need to avoid in the paper? Remember, if your text matches the taste of your instructor, you are in a win-win situation. But if what you wrote doesn’t appeal to the teacher, you’re doomed!

Take coffee breaks:

Regular breaks are needed for the brain to regain its focus. It is not the best tactic to study long hours because long-term retention of knowledge is almost impossible. Studying in 20-50 minute increments and giving yourself 5-10 minutes in between is more beneficial than cramming. Distributing learning over time typically benefits long-term retention more than a short period. While studying, make sure to take short coffee breaks because we usually get exhausted after 50 minutes and require a short break to make an efficient study-comeback. Try to take healthy snacks with a preference for sweet things due to their unique capability to enhance your thinking and memorizing processes. A bar of chocolate, protein bar, pastry puff, or a handful of nuts would work just fine with a cup of coffee. 

Study in the Morning hours:

Some people swear by staying up all night to finish readings because they don’t have class until 2 PM, but I promise you, this doesn’t work.  Bright light late at night can negatively impact your mood because it affects your circadian rhythms.  Sleeping late into the day and staying up late increases the risk of depression and irritability. Keeping the same sleep schedule is important, as well as having a set morning and nighttime routine. Getting up early does purely—in the truest form of the word—suck at first, but I promise it’s worth it.

Stay Hydrated:

Do not forget to hydrate yourself properly! Keep a bottle of water with you during the day. To reduce your costs, carry a reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water. If you don’t like the taste of plain water, try adding a slice of lemon or lime to your drink. When you’re feeling hungry, drink water. Thirst is often confused with hunger. True hunger will not be satisfied with drinking water. Drinking water may also contribute to a healthy weight-loss plan. Some research suggests that drinking water can help you feel full. If you have trouble remembering to drink water, drink on a schedule. For example, drink water when you wake up, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when you go to bed. Or, drink a small glass of water at the beginning of each hour.

Happy Exams Everyone! I wish you all the very best of luck! Don’t forget to believe in yourself.

You can Do it!

xoxo.