Features: Beat the exams

The end of the academic year signals exams for many people but there's no need to panic as a little bit of preparation can help avoid the late nights and stress.

Whether these are your first university exams or your last they are equally as important and the advice is the same - be prepared and be calm. Surely it’s as easy as just revising and making sure you know your stuff, however the problems start with how you revise. The common misconception is that locking yourself in a room under a mountain of books and not venturing out until you can recite the notes backwards will guarantee exam success - for most students this is not true.

Get organised

Sort out your work space and differentiate between the areas where you will study and the areas that you relax in. Once you have done this the next step is to make a revision plan allocating more time to subjects you are unsure about or did a long time ago. This isn’t set in stone as some areas will take longer than others. You need to be realistic about what you think you can actually get done in a day. Make sure your plan takes into account any other commitments that you might have during that time.

Do what works for you

There is no right way to revise, it’s all about finding what works for you and using that. Some students use their notes and make mind maps and diagrams to help them remember key facts, others use cue cards while a lucky few just read their notes straight through and remember the information.

Take a look at past exam papers so that you can see the format and maybe answer some of the questions so that you can get a rough idea of how long it takes you. Most universities will run revision classes and workshops around exam time and so you should take advantage of any help that is given to you.

Be selective

It would be impossible to know every fact on every subject in every module so be selective about what you do know. However, it is still good to have a basic knowledge of everything so that you could answer a question on a topic if that was your only option.

Before you can look at which subject areas to revise and how to break this down, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t spend a week revising subjects that you already know well because while this will probably make you feel more confident, it won’t help you out when it comes to the exam. It is also a waste of your precious revision time.

Look after yourself

Just because you spent the most hours revising it doesn’t mean you know more than your friends. In fact, staying up until 2am and doing ten hours revision is probably going to be detrimental to your success. As well as studying, take time out to do other things that you enjoy, eat well, drink plenty of water and - though it might sound ridiculous - don’t over-revise.