To all students! As exam season fast approaches it is important to remind yourself that although it will inevitably be quite a stressful time and can feel overwhelming for many, there are ways to try to manage and minimise these feelings.
Finding coping mechanisms and revision strategies that work best for you is vital and is something that can sometimes be overlooked in school during the mad rush of the weeks leading up to your exams.
I have compiled a few of my own tips and some general advice that I’ve found through research, to provide you with a ‘survival’ guide to get you through the coming weeks and months.
From my experience one of the best things to do before you embark and get properly stuck into your revision is to spend an hour or so finding the course content for your subjects and creating a revision timetable where each day is mapped out leading up to the exams.
If you’re a visual learner this can work well as seeing the number of days in a table can help you figure out what and how much you need to be revising each day to ensure everything is covered by the time the exam rolls around.
Even if you don’t stick to the revision timetable exactly don’t worry as the process of making one would have familiarised you with the content and got you thinking about the topics that you definitely want to have covered and also the ones you feel more confident on and can spend less time revising.
Creating a revision timetable links with what the website ‘Save The Student’ lists as their number one revision tip and that is to prioritise your time.
It can be easy to put all of your focus on the subject you are finding the hardest or enjoy the most, however, it is important to make sure other subjects aren't being totally neglected.
Allocating yourself a certain amount of time before you move on to another subject can be really helpful in ensuring that you don’t go too far down a revision rabbit hole on a certain topic and stops you from overloading your brain with unnecessary information.
To help reduce levels of anxiety it is a good idea to tick off topics and tasks from your revision timetable as you go, this will also give you a sense of achievement and you’ll be more likely to keep motivated this way as you’ll be wanting to feel that accomplishment again.
Try out a range of revision techniques to decide which ones you prefer and find the ones that are most beneficial for you.
‘Blurting’ was one that I heard friends of mine say they did frequently and it really helped them, essentially it entails you writing down everything you know and can remember about a topic off the top of your head as this really tests whether or not you have the knowledge secure.
If you find you’re not able to write much down without checking back through your notes then this automatically tells you that you need to go over the content a few more times to secure the knowledge.
After revising the subject material give ‘Blurting’ another go and hopefully if your revision was proactive you should find yourself being able to write down more than you could previously.
Exam season is not about spending every waking minute of the day with a textbook in front of you, maintaining healthy habits and doing things that bring you joy are essential to have a good balance and keep the stress at bay.
This looks different for everyone but when taking breaks from revision, watching your favourite show, listening to music or going on a walk to get some fresh air are all ways in which a healthy balance can be established.
I found that by ‘rewarding’ myself with getting to watch some of my favourite shows in the evening, this meant I was more likely to get the work done during the day.
‘Save The Student’ also mentions how it is important to put your worries into perspective, it is incredibly easy as a student to become fixated on revision and you can lose yourself in the stress of it all.
Taking a step back and realising that the world won’t end if don’t get straight 9's or A*'s and knowing that as long as you try your best then that is all you can do, helps to alleviate some of the worry.
Remember though it is completely normal and common to still experience stress around exam season and it fundamentally shows that you care about what you are doing which is undeniably a good thing.
Good luck if you’re a student who is reading this and has their exams coming up, you’ve got this!
