By Imogène Taveau and Cara Burke, Y12
They’re near, they’re here, the students are full of fear. Exam season has fallen upon us. As two 12th graders, we’ve had our fair share of exams in our four years here in secondary school, and we have decided to impart some of our seasoned wisdom with the fresher faces of LGB. Here are our top tips for the upcoming exams!
- Avoid stress-fueled people
Here’s the thing. You might want to study with your friend, but the problem is that they happen to be stressing out BIG time. Although you probably want to support your friend, the key to remaining calm and collected is just to stay away from these types of people during exams. This doesn’t just go for your friends as well; if you see a group of people panicking about the exams, turn around and walk away. Panic spreads faster than gossip, so keep yourself in your calm little bubble for a few weeks.
- The importance of taking breaks
You might think that studying for 4 hours straight is going to be great for your grades, but trust me, it isn’t. After about an hour of studying, your mind will start to wander and you’ll have a lot more difficulty retaining information. Instead, try setting yourself a timer for 30 minutes intensive studying and then have a 5-10 minute break. Walk around the house, make yourself a cup of tea, listen to a song, do whatever helps you relax for a bit, and then get back into studying for another 30 minutes. If you’re planning to do this for a long period of time, make sure that after every 2 hours you take a longer break and go for a walk outside. It’s important to get outside, even just for a little bit, so that your body and brain can refresh itself.
- Get enough sleep!
“Grades are more important than sleep” or even “sleep is for the weak!” are phrases I’m sure most of us have heard at LGB. We insist on cutting down our precious resting hours for the opportunity to cram for just a little bit longer, but when we sleep less we find ourselves much less productive or attentive the next day, and so it takes longer to do our work, and so we sleep less that night, and so we feel less productive the next day…. It’s a nasty cycle, and an unnecessary one. Sleeping enough makes you feel much better the next day, and not only that, it allows you to work much more efficiently to get those grades you want!
- Don’t beat yourself up
After a few hours of procrastination, it’s very easy to feel as though you’ve failed, and when you begin working it just goes hand-in-hand with the guilty knowledge that you should have finished it earlier. But beating yourself up over having procrastinated isn’t going to help your future studying. Even if you’ve wasted a shocking amount of time, don’t worry about it; accept it, start your work, and make the best of the rest of your time. Holding on to the anxiety of procrastination will never help.
- What’s the worst that can happen?
Ok, you flunk your exams. Not fun, pretty miserable. Is it really the end of the world though? Ask yourself, what is really the worst that can happen? Exams are not the be-all and end-all in life, so don’t let them ruin you. Everyone has to do them, and they aren’t fun for anybody, but soon it will all be over and you’ll be laughing at how stressed and obsessed you were. There is a life beyond exams, you’ll get there.
So those were our top tips for surviving exams!
Take a deep breath and just do your best. Good luck!
