Exams are a vital part of every student’s life, whether as a student going to school every day or those who are undergoing other learning and other languages. More often than not, exams affect not just you but your friends and family as well. From cute kids in preschool to adults in postgraduate studies—everyone dreads exams. But, just like any other challenge, there’s nothing that can beat being prepared not just mentally, but emotionally and physically as well. Here are a few tips that guarantee preparedness for your hell week.

1.  Relieve Stress

Admit it: stress sometimes gets the better of you. Most of the time, pressure is put down so hard during exams from parents, teachers, and most of the time, from yourself. Try to relieve this stress because this can cause low self-confidence in overcoming the exam, eventually leading to poor performance.

2.  Drink Plenty of Water

Time to get off the coffee and energy drinks! Caffeine boosts your productivity in a single shot, but quickly drops right after. This is not the kind of energy boost you need when preparing for exams. Opt to drink lots of water that rehydrates your tired body and clears your mind.

3.  Review Past Exam Papers

Teachers and proctors usually have a certain style in creating their exams. Try to review past exam papers and look for patterns on how questions are formulated. Sometimes, questions are also just reworded but contain the same context. Try to watch out for those too.

4.  Explain Your Answers to Others

Essay-type questions are usually taken for granted during exam preparations mainly because the answer is not in black and white. There are a lot of people who spend so much time constructing their statements in essay exams. Save yourself some time and practice articulating your answers to other people. Afterwards, get feedback if you made your point with what you said. It not only gives you a guide on how to construct your answers well, but trains your mind to answer more spontaneously.

5.  Study in a Comfortable Environment with Friends

Overcome the struggle of memorizing facts and data together with your friends. When you are with friends, you brain isn’t so conscious about having to study. Learning while having fun also eases out the exam jitters, and lets you digest the lessons subconsciously.

6.  Prepare a Proper Schedule of Your Exam Time

Know when your exams are and plot them in your calendar the moment you find out about them. Some exams take place all at the same day, and it would be very good for you if you knew these things way ahead. Take a look at your exam schedule and try to plot in which times you could squeeze in a quick review session.

7.  Take a Regular Study Break

Too much studying is bad for you! Just like when you’ve had too much food to eat, your brain has the tendency to block information when digestion hasn’t completed yet. Especially for technical subjects like foreign languages or science, taking a break could definitely refresh the brain.

8.  Use Language Tutors

For those whose academic language is not the same as their native language, it might be best to have a language tutor to learn different languages like urban Spanish, French, German & many more other languages. Compared to using an online translator, talking to an actual person helps you recall and understand words more. Language tutors can also take a look at your composed thoughts and help you out in articulating them to writing.

9.  Set Your Priorities

Exams can come to you all at the same time. If you feel like you don’t have enough time to study, learn to prioritize which subjects go first. Assess which subjects are critical for you and which ones you’re already good at. If other activities such as sports training or musical lessons get in the way of your studying, weigh out which is more important.

10. Give Yourself Enough Time to Study

Do yourself a favor and avoid cramming as much as possible. Know when your exact exam date and work your way backwards in scheduling your review. Try to break down different sub topics so you don’t get information overload and schedule your study sessions at times where you are not tired or distracted. Having enough time to study is the most important factor because it doesn’t give you as much pressure as cramming does.