It happens. At one moment, your college life is filled with flowers and rainbows until someone mentions it: there’s an exam tomorrow. What? Did they just say exam? Do you mean that exam I had 5 weeks to study for… But didn’t? Here are the 6 stages of cramming for an exam as told by Mulan:
1. The Denial Stage
There’s no way there is an exam tomorrow, but sadly you check the syllabus and it’s true.
2. The Pre-Study Stage
You quickly log into Blackboard and take a gander at all the material you’ve “learned” and proceed to make a very down-to-the-minute plan on what you will study and for how long.
3. The Distraction Stage
Now that you’ve worked so hard to make your plan you decide to reward yourself with a 15 minute break…
4. The Freak Out Stage
…Which ends up turning into a 3 hour break and looking at the time has you in total freak-out mode!
5. The Actual Study Grind Stage
Now that you’ve wasted all that potential study time, serious-mode clicks in.
6. The Acceptance Stage
After you’ve exhausted yourself by stuffing your brain with 5 weeks’ worth of material, you come to accept the fact that if you don’t do well on this test it doesn’t reflect who you are and that you’ll just have to study hard for the next exam.
And so the cycle repeats.