There are many things you shouldn't do when cramming for finals. It would be fair to say that finals week is probably the most stressful period that any student goes through in their academic career. When you have left revisions a little bit too late and your first exams are just around the corner, it can start to feel like the world is closing in on you, but try not to worry, there are definitely things that you can do in order to come out of this period unscathed! This isn’t an article, however, about all of the tips for what you should be doing to prepare for exams. Instead, here are five things you shouldn't do when cramming for finals.
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1. Too Last Minute
Waiting until the last minute is one of the top things you shouldn't do when cramming for finals. When you haven’t done any revisions at all, it can be easy to adopt the attitude that doing some very last minute stuff is better than nothing at all and just leave it at that. No! The moment that you get the first thought about finals is your body’s way of telling you that you need to get going with the studying right away. There is leaving it late, and then there is leaving it last minute. When you leave things to the last minute, you are so stressed at that point that hardly any of the information stays in your head anyway.
2. Stressing out
You need to try your hardest not to fall into a pit of stress and anxiety about this because those two emotions and feelings are going to stop you from being able to digest any revision at all. Clear your head and open your textbooks; it is the only way that you are going to be able to get some work done before the real exams.
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3. Underestimating
Don’t underestimate what your exam material could be like. Just because you have a pretty good class attendance record, and did most of your homework over the year, it doesn’t mean that the exam questions are going to be super familiar to you. You should always prepare for the hardest thing possible so that you can be pleasantly surprised when you sit down and turn your paper over.
4. Poor Time Management
Having good time management is a key factor in having a good revision period before exams. If you know that there are topics you are less confident with, then give them priority over ones that you are happier with right off the bat. The aim is to arrange your revision time so that you come out on the other side with a decent knowledge of all subjects rather than superb knowledge of just one.
5. Keeping Distractions around
You are not going to succeed in your late revision if you don’t do anything to remove your distractions. Send your friends away, turn your TV off, hide your smartphone in a drawer, basically rid your working environment of anything that has the potential to take you away from your work!
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