Survival Guide for Exams

As much as I love school there is one part which severely reduces that love and that is exams. In my 19, almost 20 (aaaahhh) years of living I have been through my fair share of exams, and what is becoming increasingly obvious to me is that exams only get harder with time, not easier. It would have to be said that I do not cope that well with stress or pressure, so therefore I have to compensate for this by following a set choices in order to survive exams and the build up to them. I hope therefore that this quick overview of tips and tricks will help some of you who are also going through the inevitable stress of exams.

Schedule – the importance of scheduling your time cannot be overstated, and is something that I used to be horrendous at doing. As I have got older, and hopefully wiser, I have made scheduling my time my first priority in the lead up to an exam period. There are clearly several ways that you can do this, but how I ensure that I dedicate enough time to revision and preparation is firstly by making myself aware of all I need to know for the exams. That sounds obvious, but it is amazing how the simplest information is often what we forget. Whilst it would be optimistic to think that you could revise nine hours a day every day, this is not realistic, and it also isn’t healthy. By scheduling your time and assigning yourself specific tasks or topics for specific days, it will become much easier to balance yourself.

Balance – the work, play balance is something that I continue to struggle with, and especially when it comes to revision for exams. When all you want to do is watch that extra episode of Scandal, or go for drinks with your friends, or simply just have those few more hours in bed in morning, it is extremely difficult not to give into yourself. The way I see it is that hard work deserves rewards, so therefore if you work throughout the day, give yourself the evening to do what you want to do. Nobody can be expected to work all the time!

Discipline – the only way to manage a balance of time and a schedule is with self discipline. Particularly as I am getting older, and I don’t live at home anymore, I no longer have my parents or my teachers monitoring how much I am working. I now have to be strict with myself, and discipline myself to stick to the plans that I put in place. It sounds so cliché to say, but at the end of the day, the marks you get in your exams are as result of the work you put in. The only one who will be punished for not being disciplined is you, and for me that is what motivates me.

Motivation – when it feels like you've been reading the same paragraph for the last 2 hours, it can be difficult to stay motivated. All of my favourite ways to stay motivated involve taking a small break and taking 5 or so minutes just to chill, let my brain rest. Recently I have been watching Anna Kendrick and Jonah Hill interviews in my breaks, because they have both become two of my favourite people. Another way I love to motivate myself is by negotiating with myself, for example if I can get through this chapter, I can afford a caramel macchiato break. During exams, Starbucks becomes my best friend.

Nothing here is particularly revolutionary, or something you will never have heard before, but they are all things that help me prepare and keep calm during the hell that are exams. What I always have to keep in mind is that by over-stressing and by putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself, I am only hindering my own chances of doing well. To conclude, be organised, take breaks and use your own potential success as a continuous incentive!

Thank you all so much for reading, and to anyone who is taking exams at the moment or in the future, good luck!!

B xx

The New Years Post

These types of posts and videos have never appealed to me in the past because to me New Years feels like nothing more than the passing of time, just like any other day. However last night after catching up on a whole host of resolution style videos and blog posts, namely, of which Essie’s from essiebutton, I realised that using the New Year to focus some self improvement techniques in no bad thing.

In the last few months of 2014 I had already made quite a few changes in my life, and I aim to continue those into 2015. Most of these come about because of me moving into my first house without my parents, which means the cooking, cleaning, house running can no longer be left to mum and dad!

When setting these aims it was really important to me to set ones which I believe are realistic. As although it would nice to say that I was going to give up chocolate and watch less TV, it makes no sense to be to set goals which I already know I will not achieve. So instead here are my five 2015 New Year resolutions:

Eat Better – thought I would start with the most obvious, and the one that you can probably find on almost everyone’s New Year resolutions. Having said this, this year I do truly want to continue what I had started at the end of last year, which is incorporating more , fresh food into my diet and cutting back on processed, readymade meals. To me this resolution is not about not eating the things that I enjoy, like cheese, no way am I cutting out my love of brie! But what it means is that where I can eat healthier alternatives I will, for example swapping potatoes for sweet potatoes and reducing the amount of meat I eat.

Waking up Earlier – I love sleep, along with eating and Vampire Diaries, it is up there with my favourite things ever. However when I am sleeping in until mid morning, this is a result of laziness rather than a love of sleep. During the week when I have lectures and seminars to attend, I think I need to set a target of being up and out of bed by 8:30 at the latest, which compared to the time I had to get up for school should be no difficult task. By waking up earlier, it means I can actually start my day at a reasonable time rather than only being ready to face the world by lunchtime!

  

  Save then Spend – I have a very bad habit of spending money that is not necessarily always being replaced in my bank account. As in, the money going out of the account, is not the same as the money going back in on payday. I am lucky enough I have a part time job, which means I do have a cash flow coming into my bank, but that does not entitle me to spend whenever I want. So my plan for this year is to be more sensible about money, meaning during the month I spend when I need to. And then on payday at the end of the month, allowing myself to fulfil by shopaholic addiction and treating myself to a more #feelingspendy purchase.

  

Work Play Balance – this is something which I feel strongly about, and has also become increasingly difficult in recent months. For those of you who don’t know, I am currently in my second year at university, so therefore workload is fairly heavy, which results in a lot of time spent in the library. Whilst I treat my studies as my number one priority, I also know how important it is to take time to chill and distress. Whether this is taking time to myself to catch up on Pretty Little Liars, or hanging out with my friends, this is time that I have to balance out with my workload. Last year I fluctuated from one extreme to the other becoming somewhat of a hermit in my corner in the library at one point, to going out multiple times a week, so my aim for 2015 is to find a happy medium between the two.

      

Take More Chances – saying yes to things has always been a massively problem of mine whether that be because of shyness or laziness. But increasingly it is becoming more obvious to me the hundreds of opportunities and experiences you miss out on when you fail to say yes to the right things. So to conclude my resolutions for 2015, I want to, in the words of my spirit animal Taylor Swift become more Fearless.

I realise that none of these resolutions are particularly groundbreaking or revolutionary, however I do feel that with these small five guidelines in mind I can hopefully use 2015 as a year to change and improve some things about myself. And hopefully I will be able to report throughout the year and then in 2016 how successful I have been.

Thank you for reading, and Happy belated New Year!

B xx