ThatDutchGirl's survival guide: exams.

Hey there!

The time has come for mental breakdowns, a lot of coffee, and crying, way too much information, and a lack of concentration. Yes ladies and gentleman, it is time for exams. 

The months of the year where in a lot of countries, students turn mad, become smarter than they've ever been and take all sorts of exams. Now I know that all throughout the year exams are held but around May the amount of exams being taken in the world reaches a climax. For us Dutchies, May means final exams. Your Dutch high school finals and boy, do they cause a lot of stress. 

I've taken my final exams a few years ago, so you might call me 'experienced'. I chose experienced because 'expert' is definitely not what I am when it comes to exams. Up to this day I still choose 'procrastinating and believing in myself' over 'start studying on time and actually remember a lot of information'. 

Anyway, lets pretend I'm a good student and amazing at giving study advice. ThatDutchGirl's survival guide: exams, here we go!

- Start studying at least two weeks in advance! This is the advice I give myself and try to stick to with every single exam I take. Sadly I'm not to good with this advice as 90% I ignore it completely and actually wait to the night before or even the morning of the test. Let me tell you something PROCRASTINATING DOESN'T WORK! So if you want to be well prepared and actually know what you need to know for the exam, then start early. Trust me it works!

- Cut all the information into bits! Something I tried and which actually helped was taking everything I need to know and to cut it into small amounts of knowledge. That way you can study one bit today and another bit tomorrow. If you're really feeling adventurous you could start with one bit today and repeat it the other day before adding a new bit of information to your brainbox. This is something that has actually helped me so much over the years. Thanks to this method studying for an exam doesn't become this infinite black hole of doom but the amount of information you have to study becomes reasonable. 

- Quiz yourself or let somebody else quiz you! Another brilliant tip that has helped me survive many exams and normal tests. After I studied a certain piece I let somebody else write down some questions or just ask me some questions on what I had just studied. If I answered them correctly I could move on to the next bit, or the next level if you want to sound cool. This way you are encouraged to study and it gives you a lot of confidence every time you pass one of the quizzes. 

- Stay grounded! Now this one might sound a bit weird and maybe unbelievable but I'll let you decide for yourself. A couple of years ago I went to see a hypnotherapist, this was a person who put me under hypnosis and via the hypnosis she helped me deal with troubles from my past. As I visited her in the year of my final exams she also gave me some tips and tricks to survive them without stressing out too much. One of the many useful tips she gave me was keeping your feet on the ground. Put your feet steadily on the ground. That way the stress and anxiety can leave your body through the floor, via your feet. Now I know this sounds weird but trust me it works! And hey exams just are very stressful happenings so why not give it a try?

I think that's enough for today. Hopefully I've given some good and useful advice for all the people who have (final) exams soon. If you have any useful tips and / or tricks yourself, don't be afraid to share them with the rest of the world! You can do so by leaving your tips / tricks in the comment section below! Let's beat examseason together!

Good luck, and lots of love!
ThatDutchGirl96