Written by Charlee Lean
With exam season coming up, it’s important to get ready. Being nervous is normal, but the stress shouldn’t be ruining your life, so we thought it would be important to put together some exam survival tips!
1. Fail to Prepare? Prepare to Fail
Make sure you’re studying effectively. Taking pages and pages of notes won’t help you retain anything. Use tools like quizzes, create mind maps, and teach the concepts back to a friend. If you can explain a concept to a friend in a different degree, it proves you know it inside and out.
2. Make a Timetable
If you have multiple exams, it can be helpful to make a timetable, and plan what studying you need to do and when, plus it helps you avoid missing any exams.
3. Do Stuff Other than Study
As tempting as it can feel to do lots of hours for many days in a row, it is so not worth it. Don’t just study! Go for a walk (the Charles Sturt campuses are gorgeous year-round), head to the gym, catch up with friends, reconnect with a hobby. But don’t doomscroll, that really won’t help your mental health or your grades.
4. Separate Work and Home
Dorm life is awesome, but it does make it hard to balance uni and life. If you can study in the library or a common space, it helps your brain get into the right mode. It also helps you destress, so you know that when you’re at home, you can just be there. And never, ever, study in bed! Bed is for sleep and relaxation, not for study!
5. Study with Friends
Studying with friends can be great! You can keep each other accountable, quiz each other on concepts and procedures, and tricks like body doubling help you keep focused for longer.
Good luck, you’ll be fine, and when it’s all over, you can relax and enjoy the break!
For more information about managing exam stress check out these resources.
Charlie blog is a SSAF initiative.
