It's the end of another week here at Hunter, and I'm feeling a bit exhausted. I'll be studying for my Stats 213 exam this weekend, and I'm really not looking forward to it. I don't like when my weekends are swallowed up studying for exams and/or writing long papers. You can be the best student in the world, and those kinds of weekends will still feel like torture. But by Sunday night, when you've completed the studying/writing, you feel so good just to be done. But I know that I'll be even more relieved by Monday afternoon when my exam is over. Sigh. This semester's academic struggles are slowly but surely beginning.
Speaking of exams, people always give advice about how to best prepare for an exam, but hardly anybody ever talks about what to do during the actual exam.
Below are a few tips I have about how you should be thinking and what you should be doing during an exam in order to increase your chances of getting a fantastic score:
- When you first receive the exam, take a deep breath and block out all distractions. Do not think about your family, your friends, or the guy/girl you like that might be sitting beside you. Just focus on the paper in front of you.
- Tell yourself that this exam is only a piece of paper with words on it. You have a whole beautiful brain with amazing thoughts. The exam has nothing compared to what you have. Do not let it intimidate you.
- Write your name on the exam. Seems kind of obvious, but when people are stressed, they tend to forget the basics.
- Before tackling any of the questions, flip through the exam, and note how many pages there are (make sure your aren't missing any), and note how many questions there are. This should help you figure out approximately how much time you should spend on each question.
- As you go through the exam, read all of the questions thoroughly. Read them several times, and underline key words.
- Do not lose your focus during the exam. But at the same time, do not drive yourself to insanity. When you're stuck on a question, look away from the exam for a bit. This helps you to relax your brain for a bit, and may also help you get the answer. When your brain has a few seconds to breathe, you may make a connection that you didn't see before.
- This is kind of an obvious one, but since cheating still goes on in college, it's definitely worth mentioning. Please do not look at other people's exams, and do not talk to anyone during the exam. And don't look at illegally obtained exams given by the professor in years past. That gives you an unfair advantage, and that is just wrong. If someone tries to talk to you during an exam, pretend that you don't hear them. It's not worth putting your academic integrity at risk for a few points. And don't put other people's futures at risk by cheating off of them. Cheating is stupid and gets you nowhere. You may cheat and get a way with it and get an amazing score, but you're always going to know that you didn't earn it the right way.
- During the last few minutes of the exam, when you're struggling to finish the last few questions or tackle the most difficult ones, you have to be at your best. Do not panic. Do not focus on that fact that you have only five minutes left to finish. Just do it. If you're trying to finish the last couple of questions, just read quickly and write something down. Give it a shot. If you're struggling with that last question and you just want to give up on it and just give your exam in, don't. Hang on, and just think about that question in a different way. When that adrenaline is pumping through you, you tend to make the necessary connections. Just don't give up.
- If you have some time left at the end of the exam, check your work. Make sure your calculations make sense, your sentences don't have typos, and that your handwriting is legible. Fix mistakes quickly and without panicking.
- Give in the exam, gather your things, and leave the room. Take a deep breath. Avoid discussing answers to exam questions with your friends. This will just freak you out.
- Try to go outside for awhile, eat something, and just relax.
- You did it, and you can be proud in the fact that you didn't give up.
I hope that this was helpful for anyone reading this. Exams are just part of a student's life. The better you learn to handle them, the less painful the experience will be.
Now to a completely different topic. haha.
I went to the Brooklyn Book Festival last Sunday. It was held in downtown Brooklyn on a beautiful sunny day. It was the perfect weather to discuss reading, writing, and the modern literary experience. The highlight of my day was getting to see Lois Lowry (The Giver Quartet, Number the Stars) and Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries). I grew up reading their books, and it was so exciting to see them just a few feet away from me. I must have sat there with my mouth open the whole time just absorbing everything they said. I was also introduced to a bunch of new authors whose books I'm eager to tackle during our next college break.
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| Lois Lowry (At left) |
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| Meg Cabot |
September is already ending...and with it the first month of my junior year. Here's to continued success for all of us as we tackle this semester.
S.
Song of the week
I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands
Hope I get the chance to travel the world
But I don't have any plans
Wish that I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes
Life's a game made for everyone
And love is the prize
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself
And I didn't know I was lost
~ "Wake Me Up" by Avicii
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