I hate to say this and I know there will be many academic lecturers and teachers frowning upon what I am about to say, but in all honesty, try as you may, you are always going to have to cram..
We all vow to start early and with each passing exam term we promise ourselves that we will never, no matter what, put ourselves under that kind of stress and pressure again, but we do.
I mean, don't get me wrong, you do have to do some work and without doubt I do believe that you get out what you put in... but if it is one week until your first exam and you feel as though you can't remember anything, from my own experience that is pretty normal..
The real learning comes in that crucial few days before the exam when you find yourself in some kind of crazy exam mode when suddenly you are able to sit down, without music blaring through your headphones and read that 12 page paper or huge chapter of that textbook you've been avoiding like the plague.
I am not an exam person at all.
I completely dread them from about Christmas time. No matter how hard I try to have that confidence and arrogance all the really smart people have, I can never bring myself to say 'I smashed that exam' or 'I can't wait for this paper, whatever comes up, should be easy this one' ... No thank you. I certainly will not be tempting fate when it comes to the dreaded exam halls.
It is the most surreal experience sitting an exam. For a whole two or three hour period everyone is completely focussed and you find yourself writing pages of words and facts and information that you didn't actually know that you knew...
Whatever happens you've just got to try and keep calm and remember that it is your chance to 'show off what you know' as they say ... although really you just can't wait to finish so you can cross off another module or topic that you don't need to know any more ...
If you are like me and you are preparing yourself for the most horrible two weeks of the year and frantically popping the vitamin c tablets like no-ones business because you know it is a matter of time before your tonsils flare up with the stress, then I would like to wish you all the luck in the world - it's not our time of year but all you can do is get your head down and get on with it and remember that cold beers and pubs will still be around when you are finished and you would have most definitely earn't that first pint...
Good luck! x
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