Don’t do these 5 things when you’re doing exam revision
Nobody likes doing revision. Here’s 5 big don’ts to help you get on with it
It’s the least wonderful time of the year! Still feeling bloated from eating what must have been half a flock of turkeys and perhaps nursing a post New Year’s Eve headache, you discover that the January exams are almost on top of you. That means having to do a whole bunch of revision, too.
In fact, if students sang carols about January, they’d go like this:
In the Bleak Midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Christmas had diminished, most of your Student loan,
Despite all your timetables, and colour-coded plans,
You still feel you’re not ready, for January exams.
I’m sure you’ve already been revising a fair bit. If not, stop reading this, stop procrastinating, and get back to work. Here’s my 5 top things not to do:
1. Don’t procrastinate
Procrastination is, as I’m sure you know, the chief enemy of revision. For the majority of us, virtually anything is more interesting than reading over notes again and again. Some of you will end up mindlessly scrolling through social media. Others will suddenly become very helpful around the house doing all the chores they would usually neglect. Some even end up writing blogs about how not to procrastinate.
Unfortunately, the only thing to do is to stop doing the other things and just open your books.
2. Don’t get complicated
A lot of people say that the way to stay focused is to make revision more interesting. They suggest creating games or doing lots of little bursts of work followed by rewards of chocolate. This may well work for some but I take the more old-fashioned approach: just get on with it. As fun as it might be to devise games to ‘help’ with revision, it probably takes up more time than it’s worth. And eating chocolate every five minutes, whilst pleasing on the endorphins, isn’t the healthiest solution. At the end of the day, revision isn’t meant to be fun; it’s a chore which, alas, we students just have to put up with.
3. Don’t forget – you’ve done this before
Now, if you’ve made it to university and you’re revising for January exams, that means you’ve probably passed a good few A levels and GCSEs in your time.
Well done you! So I’m not going to regurgitate all the tips you’ve probably heard countless times before. (I know personally that I’m sick of people ordering me to colour code my notes – I study Natural Sciences, not Geography!). If you colour code your notes already – great! If you don’t, don’t start now.
Basically, if you’ve got to this point, you probably know the best way for you to revise. My only advice is to keep on revising.
4. Don’t go all arts and crafts
It’s very easy to get distracted from the task in hand but it is imperative that you resist distraction. You may find yourself thinking “If only I had a timetable, then I would be able to keep on track”. To some extent, that may work, but it is far too easy to spend hours and hours making the “perfect” timetable which you will inevitably ignore anyway. You may think “They’re only January exams – I can make up for them in summer” but the time of mock exams has passed – these sadly count as much as any other.
5. Don’t lock yourself away
Write those notes! Find those past papers! Pester your friends and lecturers with questions about those lectures you missed! Don’t actually lock yourself away and work non-stop 24/7. You should still eat and drink. And doing an hour of exercise a day certainly is good, if hackneyed, advice. But just stop faffing around and get on with it!
Or, as Christina Rosetti might have said, cracking open her textbooks:
How can I face revision, student that I am?
By writing reams of notes and drawing diagrams,
By answ’ring practice questions (while still remaining fit),
By heeding this direction: Just Get On With It!
In case you’re not done procrastinating (stop doing that), you can read our blog on how to stop exam stress here: www.purplefrogproperty.com/stop-exam-stress-driving-mad/.
Making sure you’re full of brain food is also essential. Here’s some deliciously simple student recipes: www.purplefrogproperty.com/5-deliciously-easy-student-recipes/. But seriously, get on with your revision!