To be honest, exams used to make me really nervous—especially when I looked at my notes and realized how much I still hadn’t covered. There was always that feeling of being overwhelmed, like time was running out, and my brain just isn’t catching up. For a long time, I had this habit of waiting until a few weeks before exams before I started reading seriously. I don’t know if it was procrastination or just a lack of urgency, but I always felt like I had enough time... until I didn’t.
The problem with that approach became very clear when I found myself dealing with up to 13 different courses in a single semester. Trying to go through all the materials at the last minute was very stress stressful. And to make things worse, I’ve never really been good at reading late at night. I know some people can stay up till 3am or even 4am and still function the next day, but that’s just not me. My brain is always requesting sleep.
I remember one particular night in my 300 level. I was having about two exams the next day. Initially, i had read to an extent, but then i still had to finish up. So i read into the midnight till like around 3 am. trying to cram the rest of the notes. But then my brain just refused to cooperate. I was tired, my eyes were heavy, and no matter how many times I read a sentence, it just wouldn’t stick, and i was just dozing off. At some point, I just gave up totally, and then i closed the book and went to sleep.
It was from that moment that i decided to switch things up. Instead of waiting for exam week to start reading, I began going through my notes little by little ahead of time. Most of our notes were given in PDF format, but I quickly realized that reading from a phone just didn’t work for me. I would get distracted too easily—before I knew it, I’d be scrolling on social media instead of studying. So what I did was start writing out the key points in a jotter, i honestly can't read without writing something down. So once I did that, it was easier to focus. I’d put my phone aside and read straight from the jotter.
This new method actually made a big difference. During my last exams, I had already gone through most of my materials before the actual exam days. While others were panicking and were burning the midnight candle, I was calm. In fact, the night before one of the exams, I was already done reading and went to bed early. My roommates were surprised. They kept asking if I didn’t have an exam the next day because of how relaxed I was.
And you know what? That exam ended up being much easier for me. I’ve come to understand that exams aren’t always as hard as we make them seem. The real issue is that many students procrastinate or simply avoid reading. Once you start early and find a method that works for you, things would get better.
Thanks for reading.