I woke up this morning feeling utterly sick to the stomach - as if the slightest movement would send a whirlpool of hurl to come racing up my throat and splash miserably all over myself. No - I'm not ill, neither did I eat something funny.
My exams are tomorrow.
Exams *shivers run down every single teenagers spines around the UK as that dreaded word echoes through their minds.* It's a very stressful time right now for everyone and in all honestly it's only going to get worse. It's not fair that our futures are now set in place due to some exams that we take when we're 16...well 15 in some cases. Furthermore, it's not fair that everybody is judged on the same skills either. Like that famous picture where they're asking an elephant, monkey and a fish to climb a tree. Of course the monkey will ace it, the elephant will attempt and the poor fish can do fuck all but dream. But I decided to do a blog that was going to warm up and brain and hopefully help everyone in exam period to have a smooth and relaxed set of exams. So here we go:
Step 1: You need to set up some sort of motivation for yourself. Think about a reason why you should do really well in your exams, perhaps a dream job you really want to do when you're older, or some big city you want to live. Holidays you hope to venture on. Or maybe just someone that you want to make really proud - that person could even be yourself. You didn't spend the majority of your life in school to flush it down the drain now. Once you have this motivation you may want to write it down somewhere where you can read it everyday. For me, above my desk I have some motivational quotes:
"If you're going through hell, keep going"
"If not now...when?"
"Happiness depends upon ourselves"
"True champions are those who get up when they can't"
I love these quotations and every time I am procrastinating or I am feeling stressed I read those quotes and really get into the mindset of doing well.
Step 2: Structured revision. Make sure you have a timetable of what lessons you are going to revise each day and maybe have an action plan of how you are going to revise them. The funner the better for you. It's also an absolute priority that you include breaks in your structured revision - if you don't take a break then everything that you have revised will dance through your brain and right out your ears. Take it from someone who knows, I was so worried about history I did around 5-8 hours continuously drawing spider diagrams and writing revision cards and when I had finished I stared around at everything I had accomplished and burst into tears. That's right I started crying - because I realized everything I had just done didn't all go in because I didn't take a break and let my brain rest for 15-30 minutes. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A BREAK. Grab a cuppa tea and cuddle your cat for a few minutes, honestly it will help. Also, make sure you aren't cramming too many subjects into a limited amount of time - within weekdays I advise about 3 hours of revision with half hour breaks between each hour or 15 minutes between each half an hour. It depends what you prefer, I like doing solid hours and then breaks because it's like a school period.
Step 3: Before revising, you need to make sure your brain is up and working. Eat breakfast, nothing too big or else you'll start to feel bloated and tired. A nice healthy breakfast, with some fruit or something - I am not good with healthy meals but you get the the gist of things. After this take a little break for the food to go down and then start revising. I prefer to do something that I can physically show to people as an awesome piece of revision, normally spider diagrams with thousands of colors - something I can take into my Mam and say "hey look at my amazing spider diagram, when have you ever seen a spider diagram better than this one right here?" Some people may like to sing their revision, makes raps and limericks. Or perhaps watch some you tube videos about certain topics and makes notes. There are thousands of ways you can revise and make it fun. If you're enjoying it - chances are you're going to better!
Step 4: Lastly, stay calm. Exam periods are always the most stressful time of the year but like my wall says "If not now...when?" Just make sure you are keeping it all together, my teachers at school always say "crying gets you no marks" but if letting a few tears out every now and then is going to empty out all the stress and emotion to leave space for revision then hell yeah do it. I know I do it. As long as you are doing your best to keep calm and relieve stress then that's good. I find speaking to other people about my stress and finding out they are stressed too helps me, it makes me feel human. Some people go for a run or just dance around the room to their favorite song. Make sure you're relieving that stress every now and then, because if you hold it all in for ages it's going to burst and if it happens in the middle of the exam...well you know the rest.
So, when I woke up this morning feeling sick - I just took a deep breath in and followed these steps. It's always going to be different for everyone but I hope this steps can help you guys out. Remember that it's all going to be over soon and in the end you are going to be extremely proud of yourselves. In 5 weeks, you can all put your pens down for the last time and really feel that pressure release, enjoy prom and leavers day and most of all our fucking twice as long summer holiday! It's going to be pure heaven and we're all doing to deserve it. Good luck for exams everyone, I know you're going to try your best and achieve your utmost best. I'll see you on the other side!
My exams are tomorrow.
Exams *shivers run down every single teenagers spines around the UK as that dreaded word echoes through their minds.* It's a very stressful time right now for everyone and in all honestly it's only going to get worse. It's not fair that our futures are now set in place due to some exams that we take when we're 16...well 15 in some cases. Furthermore, it's not fair that everybody is judged on the same skills either. Like that famous picture where they're asking an elephant, monkey and a fish to climb a tree. Of course the monkey will ace it, the elephant will attempt and the poor fish can do fuck all but dream. But I decided to do a blog that was going to warm up and brain and hopefully help everyone in exam period to have a smooth and relaxed set of exams. So here we go:
Step 1: You need to set up some sort of motivation for yourself. Think about a reason why you should do really well in your exams, perhaps a dream job you really want to do when you're older, or some big city you want to live. Holidays you hope to venture on. Or maybe just someone that you want to make really proud - that person could even be yourself. You didn't spend the majority of your life in school to flush it down the drain now. Once you have this motivation you may want to write it down somewhere where you can read it everyday. For me, above my desk I have some motivational quotes:
"If you're going through hell, keep going"
"If not now...when?"
"Happiness depends upon ourselves"
"True champions are those who get up when they can't"
I love these quotations and every time I am procrastinating or I am feeling stressed I read those quotes and really get into the mindset of doing well.
Step 2: Structured revision. Make sure you have a timetable of what lessons you are going to revise each day and maybe have an action plan of how you are going to revise them. The funner the better for you. It's also an absolute priority that you include breaks in your structured revision - if you don't take a break then everything that you have revised will dance through your brain and right out your ears. Take it from someone who knows, I was so worried about history I did around 5-8 hours continuously drawing spider diagrams and writing revision cards and when I had finished I stared around at everything I had accomplished and burst into tears. That's right I started crying - because I realized everything I had just done didn't all go in because I didn't take a break and let my brain rest for 15-30 minutes. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A BREAK. Grab a cuppa tea and cuddle your cat for a few minutes, honestly it will help. Also, make sure you aren't cramming too many subjects into a limited amount of time - within weekdays I advise about 3 hours of revision with half hour breaks between each hour or 15 minutes between each half an hour. It depends what you prefer, I like doing solid hours and then breaks because it's like a school period.
Step 3: Before revising, you need to make sure your brain is up and working. Eat breakfast, nothing too big or else you'll start to feel bloated and tired. A nice healthy breakfast, with some fruit or something - I am not good with healthy meals but you get the the gist of things. After this take a little break for the food to go down and then start revising. I prefer to do something that I can physically show to people as an awesome piece of revision, normally spider diagrams with thousands of colors - something I can take into my Mam and say "hey look at my amazing spider diagram, when have you ever seen a spider diagram better than this one right here?" Some people may like to sing their revision, makes raps and limericks. Or perhaps watch some you tube videos about certain topics and makes notes. There are thousands of ways you can revise and make it fun. If you're enjoying it - chances are you're going to better!
Step 4: Lastly, stay calm. Exam periods are always the most stressful time of the year but like my wall says "If not now...when?" Just make sure you are keeping it all together, my teachers at school always say "crying gets you no marks" but if letting a few tears out every now and then is going to empty out all the stress and emotion to leave space for revision then hell yeah do it. I know I do it. As long as you are doing your best to keep calm and relieve stress then that's good. I find speaking to other people about my stress and finding out they are stressed too helps me, it makes me feel human. Some people go for a run or just dance around the room to their favorite song. Make sure you're relieving that stress every now and then, because if you hold it all in for ages it's going to burst and if it happens in the middle of the exam...well you know the rest.
So, when I woke up this morning feeling sick - I just took a deep breath in and followed these steps. It's always going to be different for everyone but I hope this steps can help you guys out. Remember that it's all going to be over soon and in the end you are going to be extremely proud of yourselves. In 5 weeks, you can all put your pens down for the last time and really feel that pressure release, enjoy prom and leavers day and most of all our fucking twice as long summer holiday! It's going to be pure heaven and we're all doing to deserve it. Good luck for exams everyone, I know you're going to try your best and achieve your utmost best. I'll see you on the other side!