Advice On How To Tackle Exam Season – Zarah Gaffar, GGS

Creating a structured timetable right before exam season can provide discipline to ensure that you are covering all areas of knowledge by allocating time to specific subjects. By doing so you can always make sure you have a schedule that keeps you on track. Make sure to also identify your most productive times within the day – whether that be 7am in the morning or 7pm in the evening, work around times that suit you most. 

Priority  

List all your subjects and order them in most to least confident – the subject you find most difficult or feel least confident in should be the subject you should make sure is reviewed every two days to allow your mind to form the habit of recalling. By doing so, you will be able to spend more time on weaker subjects more often allowing your confidence and knowledge to slowly grow. Whereas your strong areas of knowledge and more confident subject should be more spaced out in your timetable to provide a challenge for yourself.  

Avoid distractions 

To avoid any distractions, try put your phone in a place far from you or if you need to use it make sure that you are strict with the apps that you use so AVOID SOCIAL MEDIA.  

How to avoid overworking yourself and burnout 

Try to use the pomodoro approach when it comes to studying where you must do a full 25 minutes of intense studying/revision and then a 5 min break to cool your brain down slightly. By doing so it allows you to stay energised throughout your study sessions and ensures that you don’t overwork yourself. Whilst taking a break you should aim move away from your study area, so your brain associates which area is for revising and which is for breaks, a non-working area. 

Remember stress and overworking yourself is never the best combination when entering exam mode, so don’t forget to rest well every single day to be prepared for the next. Always stay hydrated and don’t forget to fuel your body with nutrition. A healthy breakfast to start the day is the best key to a productive day.