This past Wednesday was my first bio exam of the year, and the first of my bio major. Being a sophomore, I have had my fair share of exams already, but this was by far the one I stressed about the most. Now that my exam is over, I am relieved I don’t have it hanging over my head. I can now look back at how I studied and prepared and see how I can improve for the next one. This is what I learned from the experience.
- Rewriting your notes is not always the best idea
Every piece of advice about note taking I have heard says that you should always handwrite your notes. For four entire chapters after class I would take my notes from my computer and rewrite them in my notebook.  After doing this the fourth time, I realized how much of a waste of time it was for me. I would put on “Grey’s Anatomy” and rewrite my notes paying more attention to the show than to what I was writing. I learned that if I like to have a physical copy of my notes, printing them out does that just fine and saves hours of my time.
2. Before your exam, take an hour to yourself
I had studied so hard, and was so nervous for the test, an hour before my body started to go into fight or flight. I felt more ready to fight a bear than to take a bio test. With my heart racing, I could not stop pacing. I took 20 minutes to drink water and just lie on the floor quietly. This gave me time to calm my brain down and give it a rest from the constant stress it was under.  After having my much-needed break, I felt so much better about taking the exam.
3. Pretend to be the professor
When I had to read the textbook or go over the slides, I would test myself by pretending I was presenting to a class. I would answer fake questions and explain things until I really understood what I was talking about. It gave me the confidence I needed to know I understood something well. I lined up my stuffed animals, and presented to them, making it feel a bit more real.
4. Breathe
As a perfectionist, I get terrified anytime I see a question I do not know or realize I may not know every small detail. It can be hard to remind myself that I am doing what I can, and I am exactly where I need to be. Sometimes I would just need to breathe for a minute to calm my mind before I kept going. At the top of my exam, I wrote “just breathe” as a reminder that I could only do my best.
5. Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important things when it comes to prepping for an exam. Without sleep it can feel like your brain can’t even function anymore. Prepping for this exam, I had to pull so many late nights going over material. The two days before the exam I felt so productive, but the day of the exam I could not get through class without yawning every five minutes. I am so lucky that I got a rush of adrenaline before the test, or I may not have been able to get through it. Â
I am so glad that I have this test under my belt. I feel like I accomplished a great task, and I have learned so much. With more sleep, and better studying I can’t wait to see how the next one goes.