Exams = Coffee & Chocolate

Exams season is upon me and many other UNISA students and this is the time of the year I literally live off black coffee (as many as I can take in for the day), less hours of sleep because I really need to get a lot of content into my brain and the numb feeling in my head of information overload.

While this seems to look and feel like a never ending story, I am particularly excited about this exams. This would be my third last exam and that means I will have another two exams left before I graduate and I get capped as an Educator!! How EXCITING is that? I am bursting at my seams because I have been working so hard and for the most part I have disciplined myself in not having a social life.

Being a Wife, Mother and a full time working woman I have had to learn the art of managing my time effectively. It was not easy in the beginning because obviously as you try to carve out a new habit one or two things will fall by the way side however I have learned quite a few things about myself.

One being I get very stressed out if I leave things for the last minute therefore where doing assignments is concern I literally spend one full day just planning my assignments and that means I draw up a schedule that has my module codes, which assignment, type of assignment , due date and   column for tick when done. This is my go to page in my journey to complete my assignments. I do the same for exams using actual month calendars and though it is draining it does help ELIMINATE the stress factor.

I have also managed to complete all my assignments this year in the 5 week teaching practice period, so when I don’t have lessons to teach at the time I use my “free” time in class to write out my assignments and complete the questions thoroughly instead of scramming a week before the time, this way I have full confidence in knowing that I have given a good quality assignment in and I do submit the assignments way before the time. This is also another way of me ELIMINATING stress for myself.

As far as studying is concern, though I have a lot of content my study sessions is only plus minus two hours long because I have learned that I can only be effective in retaining info with a study session of two hours after that my brain switch off, so this means that I do more TWO HOUR sessions and I get MORE information in.

There are a few things that helps me to be effective when it’s study time and they are:

·         Music (Gospel) playing in the background

·         No TV

·         A quiet spot with a table and comfortable chair

·         Coffee

·         Paper lots of it as I do mind maps and anagrams

·         Colour pens this helps with my mind maps

·         I still study the way I used to and that is lots of rewriting until I can remember

·         MEMORIZATION is my best friend

·         Did I say COFFEE

·         I change my WhatsApp display picture that will say “STUDYING DO NOT DISTURB” Or something in that line to eliminate any other distractions like chatting (let's just be REAL)

·         For relaxation after I have prepped I KNIT J (Key is to do something you enjoy that relaxes you just before exams so that you are in a CALM space mentally and emotionally)

·         I forgot to mention CHOCOLATE for energy this is the only time of the year I actually enjoy the benefits of chocolate that being that it gives me a SUGAR RUSH J

·         I do my BEST in preparation and I leave the rest up to God in the EXAM room

How do you study? I would love to hear your thoughts on exam preparation. I can learn a thing or two from you.