Tips and Tricks to Make Exams and Exam Prep Easier

The biggest part of studying for an exam is being aware of how you are feeling. If you are feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, the possibilities of you not taking care of and overworking yourself are astronomical. Take time for yourself, give yourself an hour a day to go for a walk outdoors, or do some physical activity. Getting active will help you destress and find comfort to continue studying. If you have read my previous articles, you know that I take time to bake throughout my day to alleviate my anxieties. Everyone has something, whether it be video games, singing, doing your nails, biking, online shopping, find something that helps you feel relaxed and comfortable and from there, you will find that taking time for yourself helps you give time to your other responsibilities.

Approach your schooling however you would like. Some like to mix it up by studying multiple courses in one day, some like to study only one course at a time. Others only study at night, some exclusively study in the morning—everyone does it differently. With it being a personal preference, I cannot tell you what to do. However, I know that when the sun is shining, and the temperature is over five degrees, I will be doing all of my schoolwork at night to ensure that I don’t miss a drop of sunlight. I dedicate days to different schoolwork. Today I study Ancient Greece and Rome, tomorrow I study Shakespeare, and so on, so forth. I make sure that I have a list of what I need to have read, done, and written and from there, I build up my knowledge and make sure I am on track.

A very popular method for studying for exams is the 25 minutes on, five minutes off rule. This is simply where you separate your time into studying for 25 minutes, then breaking for five minutes. This helps your brain relax and not become overly stressed. Sometimes all you need is five minutes to get up and stare blankly into your fridge before going back to your study space and regaining your focus. Sometimes five minutes of mindless Instagram/Tiktok scrolling can get you back on track. Then you are back to another 25 minutes of studying with five minutes of a break as motivation. 25-minute increments are doable—they help you feel on top of your game and encourage you to believe that you can handle the amount of work coming your way.

Another important aspect of studying is being organized. Do your lecture notes correspond with the readings assigned for each class? If not, then you should compile a document and go through it from there. Ensure to make your notes relevant to the subjects of each week. If it is an open book exam, of course, have everything ready, but in regular school times and proctored exams, remember to go over your more important notes and condense the more minor details to look at larger subjects in broader terms. You can have words that you jot down and use them as a way to spark your memory. If you are writing an exam about Ancient Greece and you can’t remember every single part, you can jot down notes such as, “logos feminine” and “mythos masculine” and from there, you can rely on your memory to explain what that means. Repeating these simple phrases or even words will help you remember them for your in-class/proctored exams and everything you need is already locked up in your memory anyways!

You don’t want to go into an exam not knowing what the exam will be covering or without being 100% sure of what will be expected from you. Ask your teachers or your TA’s for help with content and with other questions you may have. While you cannot ask what questions are on the exam, you can ask if the exam is cumulative or if it is restricted to only certain weeks. You can verify questions that you have on the syllabus with your teachers and TA’s and from there, gain a lot more confidence in what you are preparing for the rest of the semester and in the exam. If something is unclear, help yourself better understand by having the confidence to speak up in class or use the chat function to ask questions directly while on a Zoom lecture. Reach out to friends in the same class or utilize the discussion posts that are available to you on D2L. If you have questions, someone has answers—don’t be afraid to ask!

You are not a machine. The worst thing that you can do is overwork yourself and forget to take breaks. You will end up not retaining any coursework and instead, feel terrible and drained. If at night you don’t have the mental energy to go over one PowerPoint, just don’t. Do it the next day. Take a break and give your mind a breather. Exams are stressful, but with the amount of outside stresses in all of our lives (COVID included), you can always justify a night off to just relax and watch The Ultimate Beastmaster on Netflix for some mind-numbing fun or to read a book or play a video game. Be patient with yourself, in a busy world, sometimes you need to take the time for yourself.

SLEEP! You are not a mindless zombie; you need rest and you need to allow for information to set into your mind. It is not fair to yourself to jeopardize the most important part of your day because of an exam worth 30%. Remember there’s always tomorrow and if you feel like you are overwhelmed, write out a schedule. Remember to take care of yourself, treat yourself, your body and your mind well and the rest will follow.