As Christmas approaches, college has kindly decided to gift us a mountain of exams and tests. While it’s extremely helpful to consolidate your knowledge at the end of a term, having them all at once can be stressful and terrifying. Winter is grey and dull enough as it is, therefore, it’s vital to look after yourself throughout the storm of exams.
What can you do to help yourself? Firstly, it is imperative that no matter how much work you need to complete, you must prioritise your physical and mental health. Without the nourishment and nutrition of a balanced diet, your brain won’t function properly, resulting in unneeded stress and potential underperformance. Equally, nurturing your mental wellbeing is crucial for maintaining a healthy and efficient work ethic. Allow yourself to have those days where you feel unmotivated and need some time to yourself. Appreciate how hard you’ve been working all term by even just getting up in the morning.
Taking the time to write yourself a revision timetable is the best way to ensure you maintain a college and personal life balance. Designating periods of studying and periods of relaxing will help you massively and ensure any deadlines are met. Every Sunday, plan for the week ahead to avoid later stress.
Sometimes, people sit down to do revision and don’t actually know how to effectively revise or even what to do. The majority of schools repeatedly tell students to “find a revision method that works for you” which sets them up for a stressful exam season in college. Examples of revision include attempting past papers from your exam board, making mind maps of topics and then adding missing information surrounding the topic in a different colour and sometimes even just reading through and absorbing old notes and facts can really make a difference to your result.
As previously mentioned, do not be too hard on yourself and see each exam as a learning experience for the next assessment. While low grades can be disheartening, it is critical that you remain positive and use it to ignite a new-found motivation to succeed. Good Luck!