So exams are round the corner for most of us (finished, for some? I know Maddie's done - congratz!), and I'm here to share a little study tip that I think is pretty useful! (Sorry Maddie it's a bit too late for you.)

I don't pretend I know THE SECRET to exam success, but I (sort of) came up with a daily study plan that I personally think is quite good. Heh. This probably isn't something new, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded!

So the main idea is to break your day into study blocks. It gets really tiring when you're trying to plough through your notes for hours and hours, so this is a great way to break up the monotony. I have a 9.30am - 1.30am day, and this is how I do it:

  9.30am - 10.30am   Wake up and have breakfast, read newspapers
10.30am - 11.00am    Buffer time to check emails, updates, etc
11.00am -   1.00pm    Study Session #1
  1.00pm -  2.00pm    Break for lunch
  2.00pm -  4.00pm    Study Session #2
  4.00pm -  5.00pm    Break for tea/shower etc
  5.00pm -  7.00pm     Study Session #3
  7.00pm -  8.00pm    Break for dinner
 8.00pm - 10.00pm    Study Session #4
10.00pm -11.00pm    Break
  11.00pm -  1.00am    Study Session #5
    1.00am -  1.30am    Prepare for bed

Yup so that's the general plan. I don't follow it religiously though. The idea is just to break up your study hours into manageable blocks so you don't get too tired of it. I know most advice say 1 hour study with 5 min break or something but then I get distracted sometimes during the 2-hour blocks anyway and I don't think it's possible to concentrate so hard for so long (for me anyway). So 2 hours of about 90% concentration is quite good in my opinion. It's best if you switch off your computer and leave your phone somewhere far far away, though I know some people have issues about this (you could always use the "I was studying" excuse, which isn't really an excuse!), so you do what works for you.

There are many variations you could do. You can adjust each study timespan, or wake up earlier to squeeze in another study session (I'm too lazy for this), or just plunge straight into studying when the last of your breakfast is shoved into your mouth. I don't recommend this though. If you rush for everything, you'll just create, or exacerbate, the feeling of stress.

Of course this comes with a longer-term study plan, i.e. how many days you have for each subject, which days you plan to study which subject(s), what are you looking to complete by today. This will trickle down to each individual session. It's important to be clear what you're aiming to do within each 2-hour block. If you finish ahead of time, you can bring everything forward, or just work on something else. If you need more time to complete something, either push it to the next slot (bearing in mind you already have something else to do then) or just cut a bit of your break. Oftentimes you will find that you'd rather take a cut in your break just so you can complete a particular chapter or topic. (And then you'll feel proud of yourself for choosing study over break, like what?!)

Okay this is kind of getting very long and I presume you guys have to go back to studying (but hey, it's break time!), so that's all, folks! Hope this helps in your revision. And so very sorry for the lack of posts recently. Us girls succumb to the mug-mug-mug mantra all too often.


Best of luck for your exams,

Labels: author: ji inn, how-to, personal, school and schooling