Wow. We are finally here. We just need to finish finals and then it’s winter break!!
If you’re like me, the excitement of reaching winter break is the only motivation needed to keep studying. Classes are done, school’s out in less than 20 days, and I’ll see my loved ones and be able to rest soon. Hence, I feel like it’s only fair to dedicate the next couple of weeks to studying hard and doing my best in school.
That, and the fact that I impulse bought $120 worth of skincare products, and justified it by saying that I’ll work extra hard before the school year ends. People always talk about rewarding yourself after you complete a difficult task, but what about rewarding yourself beforehand TO encourage yourself? Maybe it will work for you.
Let’s do a quick semester-in-review before we jump into exam season discussion.
- Money spent on impulse purchases: $120
- Visits to the pier: 2
- # of Engineering losses in the Eng-Comm basketball game: 1 (1 too many)
- Existential crises: 3
- Visits to CoGro: Too many to count
- Average phone screen time: 1.5 hours/day
- Prizes won during QASA Night Market: 1
- # of handwritten math assignment answer pages: 86
- Cheese and wine nights: 1
- Grades: not sure about achieving dinner with Dean Deluzio but crossing my fingers…
So, this semester has been tough, rewarding, and the epitome of Engineering.
Now, we are in the season of calculating how much we need to get on the final exam to pass (or maybe get an A+)!
Here are my tips, based on my last 4 years of good and bad experiences, to make the most of the December exam season:
- SLEEP. Sleep. Sleep. This is from personal experience. I’ve had tests where I’ve slept 5 hours the night before in hopes of gaining more studying time. Sometimes it works and I’m energetic and blaze through the exam the next morning. Most of the time, though… It doesn’t work!!! You get tired and lethargic and can’t think properly during the test. Your brain needs a good night of sleep to consolidate your memories and retain information. Please, please, please sleep well, ESPECIALLY the night before the exam.
- Incorporate spaced practice and active recall. Instead of cramming one subject before each exam, try to review material over a long period of time. When you “forget” something after some time and review it again, the information moves to your long-term memory, and you’ll be able to recall the information more easily. So, try to study a couple of different courses every day.
- Do some practice exams in a fake exam setting. Many STEM exams are formulaic and past papers can sometimes be found in the ExamBank. My BIGGEST recommendation, especially if you get nervous during tests and exams, is to do some fake ones. This means getting an old exam from your professor or ExamBank, setting aside the amount of time the exam requires, and doing the entire exam as if it were the real thing. You can even gather a group of friends to do this fake exam with you and discuss the answers after.
- Firstly, this builds muscle memory so that when you walk into that exam hall, you know what to expect. Hopefully, since you’ve done so many practice exams, the real thing won’t be as stressful.
- Secondly, you’ll learn what you need to study more of and what you’re good at. From then on, you can re-allocate your studying time accordingly.
- Lastly, you’ll see how comfortable you are with the entire course. How well did you do on the practice exam? Is this what you expected? Transparency with your knowledge (or perhaps lack thereof) will give you insight into how well you’re doing versus how well you think you’re doing.
- Do something every day that makes you forget about school. Maybe that’s chatting with an old friend, watching a show, doing a puzzle, or planning a trip that’s far out in the future. In the past, whenever I was hyper-stressed and focused on school, I would forget that life existed outside of it. Sometimes we must remember that we are not defined by our academic journey alone, and that we are much more than some letters on a transcript.
I sincerely hope your exam season is smooth. You are going to crush it. Moreover, I wish you a very happy holiday. You deserve it.
Happy New Year!
Liyi