Manage the stress and smash your test!

So it’s time. Exam season has arrived, and you have a big test tomorrow. If you can already feel the panic beginning to seep in and aren’t sure how you’re going to manage: never fear! I have plenty of experience dealing with proctored exams, and I’m here to give you some of my best advice to organise the night before and the morning of your exam, to keep panic to a minimum and efficiency/chill to a maximum.

Night before: keep your last minute revision to a minimum

Every ‘official’ exam advice out there would tell you to not revise the night before: it does nothing and only adds to your stress. And I think that’s partly true, but let’s be real: we’re all going to do it anyway.

What is true is that you’re not going to change the end result of your exam by studying for one more hour the night before. It’s WAY more important to get a good night’s sleep so that your brain is at the top of its game the next morning.

So, what I do is I decide on an hour to stop studying, and I stick to it. And I try to keep it to the early evening! That way, I can fully relax during the evening.

❗️ If you’re too stressed and know you’re going to have trouble sticking to this plan, you can text your friend and family and tell them you are stopping your revisions right now - telling other people makes it more official and there’s nothing like a little peer pressure to stop you from picking up your books again.

Night before: focus on unwinding

Of course, you’re going to be stressed, and keep thinking about tomorrow. But as they say, worrying does nothing but make you suffer twice, so trust that you have revised enough to smash it and push the stress to the back of your mind!

Some proper unwinding action can help keep you calm: take a hot shower, make a nice dinner and socialise with your flatmates (don’t revise while you eat your dinner, that’s always a bad idea), drink a relaxing cup of tea.

And, it may seem obvious, but go to bed early! Sleeping properly is so important if you want to crush that exam. It can also help what you studied during the day stick better in your brain. And, look at it this way: if you’re sleeping, you’re not stressing and thinking about tomorrow. Which is what we want!

Morning of: schedule everything and plan for catastrophes!

I think we can agree there’s nothing worse than being late to an exam, or even standing in the bus ten minutes before it starts, panicking that you’re not going to make it on time. That’s why it’s important to plan your morning routine .

Don’t hesitate to program your alarm earlier than you usually would for the start time of the exam. That way, you can wake up without feeling like you have to rush, do your morning routine like normal, and still arrive suitably in advance to the exam venue 🚌.

And, because none of us are ever safe from a TfL disaster (that's life in London), think about planning alternative routes to campus, and leave home without enough buffer time that morning traffic or a cancelled train won’t mess up your entire plan and make you late.

Morning of: revise only essential information

Let’s be clear: you’re not going to learn an entirely new concept the day of your exam, especially if it’s in the morning. But if you feel a bit shaky on the spelling of an author’s name or a date, it can be good idea to check them during your commute, so that what you’re unsure of is super fresh in your mind once you enter that exam hall.

In the few minutes before you enter the hall, if you have friends and/or coursemates with you, it’s always nice to talk to them instead of focusing on your last minute revision. In my experience, knowing that other people are just as stressed as me is a good outlet for my own stress! It’s so nice knowing that everyone is in the same boat, and that we’re all going to go through this (and survive it) together. And, believe me, that post-exam debrief will feel even better (especially if you don’t talk about everyone’s answers and just agree on how nice it is that it’s over)!