Hey everyone! We are so excited about todays post, we have something a little different to talk about today! With exam season upon us we decided to share some studying tips we use throughout the semester, but especially when trying to complete the final assignments and exams of the semester! With being in our third year of university, we have been through many exam seasons and exams in general (last year we have a total of 26 exams in 24 weeks – it was not a fun time lol). We think by now we have created a pretty good system for ourselves – which seems to be working, and wanted to share it with all of you!
Agendas
First off Agendas!!! We both are obsessed with using agendas and in particular our agendas (we might be a little bias but we think they’re the best lol). Ever since high school we have utilized agendas and found them to be extremely helpful. In particular we love using 17-month agendas, which allows you to use it throughout the school year rather than using one from September – December, and then being forced to buy a new one mid-way through the school year. We both love using the agendas with a widespread overview of the month as a whole, rather than weekly calendars. With us both being very visually oriented, it is so nice to be able to see your month as a whole and plan accordingly. With most universities and colleges operating with a week by week schedule, it can be very easy to assume due dates are much further then they actually are. We LOVE using highlighters in our agendas – it just looks so nice and bright and we like to colour coordinate our agendas to make it easier to see and differentiate fun plans with school related tasks. Every year we buy matching agendas (surprise, surprise lol), and this year we are in love with the adorable design. These are particularly our favourtie brand – the size, layout, and covers are so cute.
To Do Lists
A second thing that really helps us is writing out to do lists as this is something we like to do for both school and non-school related things. Again, it makes it really easy to stay on top of everything you need to do and plan out what you’re going to do and when. With to do lists you’re able to figure out an order of importance with what needs to completed. Its also so nice to check off or scratch out what is completed, and see a fully completed to do list (there is truly no better feeling lol)! It really helps us to stay motivated when we’re slowly accomplishing things, and coming close to tackling everything off the list!
Procrastination
Procrastination is a HUGE problem for us lol! We like to call ourselves the “procrastinating princesses” lol, but we truly procrastinate everything and anything we have to do whether its school related or not! We will even find random tasks to do, and deem them as more important than what we should actually be doing! Although procrastinating is something that we will never fully overcome or correct, we feel we have come a long way and do a better job managing our time and completing work well before the due date, and (trying) to study with ample time before exams. Something that we found to really help us is to still be productive and while procrastinating, complete another smaller, less difficult task or assignment on your to do list. This way you’re still completing things you should be doing, just maybe not in the order of importance. We are 100% still guilty of procrastinating but we have truly come a long way (we promise lol). We used to say the infamous quote “we do our best work under pressure” – let’s just say that’s not always the case once you’ve gotten into university lol. We’ve found when you budget your time accordingly, it allows you to have more free time for fun things in the long run, so that in itself is what sold us on aiming to improve our procrastination problems lol!
Make Reviews/ Study Notes
Making reviews and study notes is something we’ve always liked to do, all the way back in high school and still today in university. They are so helpful, and making them in advance saves you time and allows you to actually study when the time comes for the test or exam, rather than scrambling looking for the information. We were surprised that in university some of the nice professors provide you with a review and particular topics that will forsure be on the exam. When professor’s do not provide reviews to follow, we create our own notes based on lectures and the textbook. This is something we like to do because they’re so fun to make (for us anyways lol), acts as studying without even knowing it, and you’re able to share it with people! It really helps to narrow the content down and re-read the notes you made rather than flipping through big textbooks – which can be intimidating if you’re a first year! As for math based courses, study notes can act as rewriting formulas and just continuously practice the steps and rules to make sure you fully understand what you’re doing!
Friends
We know majority of students are not as lucky as we are to go to school with your best friend (we weren’t lying when we said we’re attached at the hip lol), so making friends or even getting to know people in your classes is really important when it comes to assignments and exams. We are able to share the work load with taking turns making reviews, or each of us being responsible for a portion of the review and combining them. Even if one of us needs clarification on something or help, we know we have each other to ask questions and understand particular things better without needing to ask a professor (which both of us don’t like to do lol). As for physically studying, people at school always wonder and ask why we do not study together, and that because NOTHING would be accomplished lol. We’re just chatty Kathy’s and can’t help ourselves. Honestly, we get nothing done, its sometimes hard for us to buckle down and get focused when it comes to studying, plus we both study and retain information differently. We have tried the whole studying together thing, and it always ends up with us shutting down the laptops and talking/watching a movie lol! So for the future of our grades, that is something we do separately lol!
Reward Yourself
This is a really big one for us – we always work best with small rewards and working towards them. Our phones are a big distraction for us, if we start scrolling through, Instagram, twitter, Facebook….or YouTube, its honestly game over are we’re not getting back to work lol! So, we like to reward ourselves with working for a certain amount of time then looking on our phone for a bit. We always give ourselves time frames, for example, if we work until a certain time we can have the rest of the night off lol. We also love just getting out of the house for a bit and treating ourselves with a little drive and treat (typically doughnuts and iced coffee lol). Sometimes this happens more often than it should…or we might even go to the gym (which should happen more often lol). But, we find it easier to work well when we know we can take frequent breaks rather than spending hours upon hours working.
We hope these small tips help you get through your exam season! If you enjoyed this post and wish to see more school related posts, we’d love to hear your suggestions! Good luck!
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