Studying for exams can be daunting. This blog aims to help make life that little bit easier for those balancing coursework and exams…

• Prioritisation – something I always do before every assignment. Which exams are worth more? Perhaps more time should be spent on the exam worth 70% compared to another unit’s 30% exam. Or maybe one exam is a week sooner than the other; in that case study sooner for the first one! Constantly weigh up what needs your attention more, for longer and more urgently to plan ahead.
• Creating the perfect study environment – you might not have thought about this before, but a cluttered work space is a cluttered mind. Clean your workspace, have all your study material ready, light a candle, play some music, adjust the correct lighting and your study ambience will immediately declutter your mind! If you can’t study at home, there’s SUBU or the library. For pure concentration, silent study in the library is perfect.

• Visualise – now, I’m an extremely visual person. I work best when all my ideas and plans are on paper, in pretty colours and telling me what I need to do next. Create diagrams and flow charts for key areas in the exam paper while making gantt charts or timelines to organise where you should be focusing your time and effort, in the run up to the exam.
• Study differently – it’s not all about writing pages and pages of notes from textbooks. Try teaching a friend that isn’t familiar with the exam, or revising with people in your seminar. Alternatively, you could try sitting a past exam paper and time yourself to see if you can write everything you need to in the limit you have.
• Keep healthy – although I could probably do better with this, everyone that does do it tells me it really works. Friends that leave the library every couple of hours and walk outside feel better about studying after a fifteen minute break. Others go to the gym to de-stress and it’s always good to think about other goals than just getting that 2:1 in an exam. Eating well and drinking plenty (not just energy drinks) is key to having a fresh mind and a better mood.

Make sure you always have a clear mind by following the above steps, but most of all stay optimistic and good luck! If you have any other tips, please comment below.