EXAM is a four-letter word. April, May and June. The start of spring, a time when the flowers start blooming and people can finally shrug off the scarves and gloves. Sounds good doesn't it? Unfortunately its also the start of exam season.
Exam. That word is enough to strike terror into any student's heart, especially people with study phobia like me. While the rest of the world is busy planning summer hols and spring cleaning the only thing we students get busy with is our books.
Exams can turn the easiest going person into an uptight maniac. I've lost count of the number of times my sweet-natured friends have turned into screaming harridans when I have asked them for an innocent thing like last year's politics notes.
Us women totally forget the grooming routine and I've seen boys almost come to blows over the last copy of a book in the library! I'm sure that sales of Pro-Plus and Nescafe shoot up as students descend into exam hell.
It is so unbelievably stressful knowing that the destination of your whole life depends on that one word. Discuss
Lots of places have come up with a list of hints and tips as long as your arm to enable you to have the perfect exam experience. The only problem is that we have lives to lead as well as study. Here is the Chika Cunningham version for the real student!
Make a timetable: The real revision plan is like a full-time job. Unless you have a brain like Einstein, I wouldn't even try to revise for more than four hours a day.
Find somewhere quiet: If you live in halls or a student house, this is like getting blood out of a stone. You would find more peace and quiet sitting in the middle of the Ainley Top roundabout at rush hour. Go to the library. The town library is an oasis of calm and you won't be tempted to log on to eBay when doing your revision.
Revision notes: The university year started last September. If you are like me you won't be able to find the notes that you made last week. You need to make friends with someone reliable and borrow their carefully-indexed typed ones. Oh, and a word of advice - trying to compress your notes on to report cards is impossible. Believe me, I've tried. You will only end up with a million report cards that will get lost.
When you find yourself getting over-stressed, take a deep breath and go shopping. Retail therapy cures everything - and pink highlighter pens are my exam period purchase of choice.
At the end of the day it's only an exam. You can always resit it! Come on, they aren't that hard. Remember GCSEs? Every summer you read about exams getting easier, so that must be true. Good luck!
