How To Get Through Studying: A Sort-of-guide

In one week’s time I will be sitting the first of my final exams for this semester. And it sucks.

After the best 6 months of my veterinary career to date which included attending my first state and national conferences, spaying my first cat, seeing practice for 3 weeks at my local clinic, learning a huge amount of clinical skills and booking my trip to volunteer in India, I’m back to reality. With that reality comes stress, and my failed attempts to deal with it. So far I have re-hung three doors in my house, watched a season and a half of House M.D., cooked some incredible meals, and made half a dozen study schedules. Up next on the list is painting my bathroom and finishing the next six and a half seasons of that terrifically amazing medical drama.

I don’t know what it is about impending academic doom that makes me shut off, maybe it’s the hope that if I ignore it for long enough it will go away, or maybe it is a subconscious mechanism for avoiding stress, or maybe I’m just lazy. Whatever it is I know it’s bad and isn’t a healthy way to approach exams. But, is there a healthy way to approach exams? I’ve tried to figure out the keys in the past, and here is my best attempt:

1. Stay Happy
   The key to keep a good attitude is supporting a good attitude, and the best way to do this is by staying happy. Everybody finds their happiness in different ways, but what’s important is that you find what works for you and do it lots. The Huffington Post published this (above) graph, and while I can’t vouch for the science that they used to conduct the study it should be a good starting point if you’re in need of inspiration. Personally, I like to listen to happy music and do something physical in space that’s different to where I am studying.
2. Sleep!
   There are a few things that you can miss out on and still function at your best academic level. These include caffeine, alcohol, and chocolate (TRAVESTY). The one thing that should be non-negotiable is sleep. Sleep is not only important for being attentive during the next day, but sleep actually helps to establish connections in your brain so that you can retain all of the things that you learnt the previous day. Without enough REM (deep) sleep you may as well have skipped the day before, something which someone studying for exams can’t afford to do.
3. Keep lists
   With multiple subjects on at once keeping up with tasks can be a challenge. In a single day you might have 5 or so different tasks that need your attention (or if you’re like me that can be 15!). It’s easy to forget them or get distracted and focussed on one over the others that are equally important. Writing down everything you need to do in a day will help stop you from forgetting, but also give you an excellent sense of satisfaction when you cross it off. This leads me to my next point;
4. Set tasks
   Setting yourself a task of writing an entire essay is an easy thing to do on paper, but when it comes to sitting down at your computer it can seem anything but. Before you know it you are surfing facebook or answering a question about time management on your vet school blog… Setting achievable goals is the key to completion. Tasks such as ‘review lecture 5′, ‘check what grade you need to pass’, and ‘review lecture 5 again’ are all doable and important. By setting yourself achievable goals you not only stay focussed and avoid procrastination, but finishing them and crossing them off your to-do list gives you a great little dose of dopamine – which never goes astray!
   
5. Procrastinate
   Despite the tone at the beginning of this post, procrastination is a vital aspect of studying. It is impossible to stay focussed at a single task for hours at a time without your performance slipping. There’s a reason that ‘stop, revive, survive’ is such an important road safety campaign in Australia. More than two hours is way too long to be focussed on a single task. Try to aim for at least 10 minutes every hour of non-study activity.
   The trick, however, is to make your procrastination effective. Make yourself some food (nutritious and fresh if possible), do star jumps, play with your pet, watch the most recent episode of your favourite TV show (so as not to start an accidental marathon – damn you House!)… Anything that distracts your mind from your work and the space that you’re in will do. When you finish that up you’ll be refreshed and ready to keep going.

These are the best tips I can come up with, and hopefully they will help a bit coming into finals. Let me know in the comments if you have any other study tips or tips for keeping happy and focused!