ESL Blogs

If you like to party the exam period can be tough. After all, you’ve probably not been attending that many classes and your notes aren’t going to be that thorough. What’s more, the lure of the party scene is still going to be there when the exam period rolls around.

So how will you ever pass? Fortunately, it’s not as hard as you may think. You’ve just got to realize that the human brain works better in some ways than others and take advantage of that. It doesn’t end there either, as there are apps and programs to help you cope.

So what am I talking about? Read on!

Stagger

No, not home from the bar. I’m sure I don’t need to give you any advice on how to do that! What I’m talking about instead is that you’ve got to stagger when you study. We’ve got this idea that the best way to study is to spend the last days before an exam buried in their books, reading, reviewing and trying to cram everything between their ears.

That isn’t the best way to study, however. You see, our brain needs breaks. A much better strategy is to stagger your work. Do a few hours of cramming, then go do something else. Then rinse and repeat. In this way, you’ll allow your brain to reset.

Of course, the best thing to do is to start early. Don’t do this in the last week but instead start two or three weeks in advance. Then, even if you only manage to study for an hour a day, you’ll be much more likely to retain that knowledge than if you tried to study 10 hours per day for the three days before an exam.

Block distractions

As you’ve got a very active social life and you don’t want to spend any more time behind the books than you have to, make sure that when you sit down there are no distractions. The best way to do that is to get an app like ColdTurkey. These will block websites for you, like your social media and Netflix, for a couple of hours.

That means that you won’t have the temptation to go do other things and can, therefore, get on with it.

And that is the best way to deal with temptation.

Take naps

Naps significantly help us lay down memories. So use that to your advantage! Before you go to bed, re-read some of the notes that you’ve studied. It doesn’t have to be long. 10 to 20 minutes will suffice. Then they’ll be fresh in your mind as you hit the sack (and they’ll probably even help you sleep better!).

Do this every night where you don’t have a party (or make it a routine to have siestas) and you’ll be in a much better situation with a lot more memorized than you otherwise would.

Get summaries

Don’t have the time to go through everything because that 3-day party ate into your study time? Then bite the bullet and get a summary of what you’re supposed to study. You see, often there’s only so much information that you really need to know, while the rest isn’t that important.

So, get the meat and leave the gristle by getting somebody else to summarize for you. Pay the class nerd, or alternatively use a writing service – you can find out which are the best by checking out the writingservices.review because it shows the real comments and reviews of writing companies, which are written the same college students as you.

Use the dead times

As a party animal, you’ll always have your phone with you. So why not turn it into a studying tool? With something like Evernote you can actually scan your documents and your note pages and always have them there in your pocket, wherever you go.

Then, when you show up early at a bar, pull out your phone and take a look at your notes even while you order you first bevy. Similarly, if you take the bus, or you’re waiting for a class, or you’re sitting on the john, pull the app and read over some notes.

The best part? You can actually make note, highlight and write new entries to help you remember and form new documents. In that way, you’ll actually make progress. So skip the status updates, don’t scan your friend’s Instagram, and don’t comment on your last meal. Instead, spend that time studying. Don’t panic! It’s only for a short time.

If you can explain it, you understand it

Another good strategy is to get together with some other people that are trying to do the same work and explain certain parts to each. If you divide up the work equally, then not only will you make certain that you all have to study less, but you can also make sure that you actually understand what you’ve studied.

For really there is no better way to make sure that you understand information than to explain it to another person. They’ll ask questions and that will force you to actively revise and revisit what you thought you knew. From there, you’re so much closer to having the information down.

Last words

Parties and studies do not need to be mutually exclusive. You can both excel in the social scene and in the classroom. To do so, all you need is a bit of creativity and to ditch that belief that the books are completely boring.

They’re not. Some of the stuff you’re going to learn will be immensely useful in the years to come. So don’t sell yourself short by trying to cram it all into your head two days before the exam date, as then you won’t actually remember any of it. And then what will you have paid that huge university bill for?

After all, you can get drunk anywhere.