How to survive final exams.

End of April. Spring? No. Almost summer, freedom, fun, seaside and sun? No. Final exams are coming closer. They are like the worst nightmare for students, who stay up late, study all night. Our biggest fear is failing to remember.

However, they are not written for us to fail, but the preassure is still high. You don’t really know what the paper will be about and the only thing you can do is studying everything, trying to remember the huge amount of information given to us from September until now. Yeah, from September. Only one exams session. Only one for a lot – really, a lot – of modules.

The best thing to do is CALM DOWN. As I said, nobody wants you to fail, so just relax – at least, try not to panick – and just do your work, study, revise, go over everything until you feel confident.

SLEEP is another pretty important thing. I know, as finals come closer the only thig you want to do is stay up all night, trying to remember as much information as you can. But trust me, it doesn’t work. Your brain needs to be fresh in order to understand and keep information, so try to PLAN YOUR DAY, always wake up at the same time, study a certain amount of hours with regular and frequent breaks and go to sleep alway at the same hour. You need to be fresh and well rested the day of your exam!

FIND THE BEST WAY FOR YOU TO REMEMBER. I personally like to write down notes, then go over them and write on post-its key concepts and information I find hard to remember. My room wall is now full of them, divided by subjects…. everytime I pass by I just stopp for a minute and revise a bit. But maybe you can find helpfull write concepts over and over again (particularly useful for those studying chemistry, maths, physics or engineering maybe, that have to remember formulas for example). Or maybe you find helpfull to repeat out loud, that is a way I was using in high school, when I was studying in my bedroom at home and nobody was thinking I was crazy!

FIND THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT is another pretty important thing. Do you prefer quite areas? Or do you like when people around you are talking and revising? Do you enjoy some music to help you concentrate? The library is usually a great place where you can find both quiet and non-quiet areas, desks and computers.

TAKE BREAKS is a thing everybody always tells us. But it is true! Our brain gets really tired when it works hard, so it needs frequent breaks to make it always fresh, focused and active. There is this technique, called ‘Pomodoro technique’, which was invented by and italian and consists of dividing your studying in periods of 25 minutes, each followed by a 5-minute break. You can try it! I personally think 25 minutes is such a short time….

TEAM WORK might be so helpful! It is not for everybody, but it’s expecially good if you are an international student (they always say it, I am not sure if it’s true, but it works with me!). Just study on your own and revise with friends. It’s a good way of coming out with possible exams questions – so you are prepared – and to revise and understant concepts kind of last-minute. It also shows you the topics that are stronger and weaker for you, so that you know what to revise right before exams.

Well, what else? This are the ‘rules’ I’m trying to follow, do you have others? Let me know!!! And good luck with your exams, guys!

Much love xx

Carola