5 Best Techniques That Will Keep Students Sane During Exams

Test prep is arguably the most hectic time of the semester. You try to make sure you’ve submitted all papers and none have been lost while also preparing for tests nearly every day. And while you can delegate your written assignments to paper writer, nobody can deal with exam prep but you.

In this article, we will look at some of the techniques you can use to pass all your tests, score high and stay sane. Keep reading to learn more.

Start in Advance

Sure, this may not seem realistic for many students because you can’t turn back time. But if you happened to be reading this at the beginning of the semester, now is the perfect time to start.

Keep your notes tidy and organized right from the start. If you revise regularly, you’ll be prepared for the next lecture, which means you will be able to have a conversation with the professor. If you actively engage with them, they will remember you for sure and might even cut you some slack on the exam. The goal is to work smarter, not harder.

It’s not a guarantee, though, that a professor who remembers you as a diligent student will automatically give you a higher score. Some profs are just unpredictable. Yet, if you take your time to revise notes before each lecture, you will remember the material much better. Then, when preparing for the exam, you won’t need to study from scratch - just recall what you already know. This way, you will be calm during the test and are likely to score higher.

Eat & Sleep Well

Exam prep is extremely stressful. And if you spend hours cramming, drinking coffee, and chewing on protein bars, you’ll start losing hair before you know it. In a stressful time like this, you need to be especially careful with your health. You can try using paper writing services in combination with eating and sleeping properly is the basis and the only condition under which your body can operate properly. You can’t expect your brain to memorize or recall tons of information if it’s malnourished.

If you’re having trouble remembering to eat and going to bed at a proper time, set reminders for yourself. Set alarms for at least three meals a day. Try to have pre-cooked meals in the fridge that you can assemble and heat up. This way, you don’t have to break your intense study mode. Do take a break, though. Your brain needs this time to process and internalize all the new information.

When you do take a break, try not to take your phone and start scrolling through feeds immediately. The fast information social media trains us to absorb is quite harmful to our attention span. This means you will have a much harder time focusing on books after scrolling through Instagram. The same goes for falling asleep. If you pick up your phone before bed, you can fall into the endless trap of scrolling and end up sleeping hours later than you intended.

It’s best to avoid social media during the test prep altogether.

Plan & Prioritize

Having a study plan can save you from anxiety, stress, and doubts. Write down every test, assignment, and unfinished business. Try to calculate how much time you need for each thing on the list. Looking at this data can be really scary. But your job is to discern the most urgent tasks and start dealing with them right away. Eat the frog.

While you’re dealing with that, you can’t be bothered with anything else. Look at the list and see if you can delegate any of it. Try to clear up the to-do list without actual involvement. Do you need to write down class notes using an entire semester’s worth of audio? Ask your mom to do it or have someone do it for money. However, doing that yourself would help you remember it.

Learn to prioritize - if you have a calculus test next week, and you’re unprepared, you can’t be bothered writing an English essay.

Take Breaks

We’ve touched upon this, but this topic is worth exploring. When we are busy doing something as intense as test prep, we often don’t even think about taking time for ourselves. But if you’re stressed, on edge, and extremely nervous, you can’t be a good learner. The best you can do in this state is cry in the exam room. So you do want to come prepared, well-rested, and ready.

Sure, if this is a professor that is notorious for kicking people out of the exam for not knowing some ridiculous detail, you can only know so much. In this case, why bother anyway? Not saying you shouldn’t prepare. But do so reasonably.

Take your time to eat, sleep and walk outside. Don’t punish yourself for needing a break. When you take a break, you assimilate the information you’ve just learned. Then, start the new study session by recalling what you’ve learned, finding weak spots, and going over them.

If you don’t take breaks, you might feel stuck. Breaking regularly will allow you to reboot your brain, making it ready to absorb again. You might even take a power nap. Just make sure it’s not more than 20 minutes.

Get Together

Study groups can be a great motivational tool. If you’re there to have a productive study session, you can help each other support your friends and explain complex subjects to one another. However, it can also turn into tomfoolery. Make sure that when you get together, you set goals, discuss them (everyone agrees with those goals), and schedule your session.

Studying with others can help keep you accountable. People are proven to act differently when others are looking, and you might find yourself acting more responsibly than you usually would. Besides, you can actually motivate each other, externalize your thoughts and deal with this together.

While it’s not recommended to have all your studying done in a group, it can be an amazing tool for everyone involved.

Wrapping up

While exam prep is hard, stressful, and nerve-racking, there are ways out. If you start early enough, you can avoid the stress altogether. And if you didn't have that opportunity, there are still measures you can take. By keeping your physical health in order, eating and sleeping well, and taking breaks, you will ensure your brain is at maximum capacity. And by carefully planning your sessions, studying with friends, and avoiding social media, you can maximize the effect of your prep and ensure not a single second is wasted.