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
Thursday, 2 June 2016
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
A weekend offline.
Hey there!
Let me tell you a little story. A very, very stupid story. Get ready for a lot of cringing.
Once upon a time, also known as last Thursday, a girl named Renée was at school. This Thursday wasn't just any day. No, it was a day filled with lectures, a lot of free periods and a boring class which lasted until 5:30 pm. Our story starts in the early afternoon.
The girl named Renée was sat in the library, together with the other kids (read: childish adults) of her class. They had been there for the last two hours watching anime or normal TV-shows, talking and just blatantly not studying. In these two hours Renée got back into one of her anime phases, whilst enjoying the strawberry yoghurt. However one of her satanic classmates decided to film Renée's yoghurt-anime-sessions and sent it to the class's group chat. Let's say Renée ignored this classmate for the rest of the week.
When the four hours long free period finally came to an end, the class got up from their library position and started the hellish climb to the third floor. Non of them particularly fond of the ridiculous amount of stairs their school holds. Before taking on the stairs Renée and another, less satanic, classmate decided to have a small toilet break. They both went into a stall when it happened. As Renée lowered her jeans she heard a loud "splash". A sudden fear took over as she turned around and without a doubt stuck her hand in the toilet to get her phone out of the toilet. Quick as she was she got the phone out and started drying it with her coat, toilet paper, even her shirt. Whatever it took to get most of the directly visible water off the phone. All whilst standing in her underwear, with a full bladder and a confused classmate in the stall next to her.
Still panicking she went for a pee and reunited with her classmate to tell her the story. Let's say that, even though the other classmate understood her panic, she still couldn't help but laugh. This wasn't even the first time Renée had dropped her phone in the toilet, no my friends, this was the bloody second time it happened.
Once Renée returned home later that evening, she rushed to find a bowl and rice to put her phone in. For the weekend Renée had to survive without her phone. A weekend without the endless scrolling through social media and pointless talking to friends. The first day was pretty difficult as she kept reaching for a phone covered in rice, a phone she couldn't use. The other days went by pretty easily. It gave her a weird sense of peace, not having to constantly look at a phone, to have the rectangular screen printed in your mind. It was a good weekend, a peaceful weekend. Renée found that she didn't need to be online 100% of the time, she found out that it's actually really nice to spend some time offline, to not have to check social media or worry about missing some important messages. She found that when people really needed her they would find another way to reach her.
After the weekend she took her phone out of the rice and started it again. Thankfully the phone did work and Renée came back online. A lot of messages were left on her social media and she didn't even bother to read them all. She announced her return and the important questions or announcements were repeated and the not important things forgotten. Now she's back online which might be her happily ever after, but maybe her happily ever after is realising she isn't so dependent on her social media activity or her phone altogether. Sometimes she just needs to take a break, to clear her mind and to get that stupid rectangular shape out of her mind.
So yes, you could say Renée lived happily ever after. She even has a little protip for all you people out there. "Whenever you go to the loo, check your back-pockets, get your phone or other technological devices out, believe me it makes having a pee a lot less stressful".
Let me tell you a little story. A very, very stupid story. Get ready for a lot of cringing.
Once upon a time, also known as last Thursday, a girl named Renée was at school. This Thursday wasn't just any day. No, it was a day filled with lectures, a lot of free periods and a boring class which lasted until 5:30 pm. Our story starts in the early afternoon.
The girl named Renée was sat in the library, together with the other kids (read: childish adults) of her class. They had been there for the last two hours watching anime or normal TV-shows, talking and just blatantly not studying. In these two hours Renée got back into one of her anime phases, whilst enjoying the strawberry yoghurt. However one of her satanic classmates decided to film Renée's yoghurt-anime-sessions and sent it to the class's group chat. Let's say Renée ignored this classmate for the rest of the week.
When the four hours long free period finally came to an end, the class got up from their library position and started the hellish climb to the third floor. Non of them particularly fond of the ridiculous amount of stairs their school holds. Before taking on the stairs Renée and another, less satanic, classmate decided to have a small toilet break. They both went into a stall when it happened. As Renée lowered her jeans she heard a loud "splash". A sudden fear took over as she turned around and without a doubt stuck her hand in the toilet to get her phone out of the toilet. Quick as she was she got the phone out and started drying it with her coat, toilet paper, even her shirt. Whatever it took to get most of the directly visible water off the phone. All whilst standing in her underwear, with a full bladder and a confused classmate in the stall next to her.
Still panicking she went for a pee and reunited with her classmate to tell her the story. Let's say that, even though the other classmate understood her panic, she still couldn't help but laugh. This wasn't even the first time Renée had dropped her phone in the toilet, no my friends, this was the bloody second time it happened.
Once Renée returned home later that evening, she rushed to find a bowl and rice to put her phone in. For the weekend Renée had to survive without her phone. A weekend without the endless scrolling through social media and pointless talking to friends. The first day was pretty difficult as she kept reaching for a phone covered in rice, a phone she couldn't use. The other days went by pretty easily. It gave her a weird sense of peace, not having to constantly look at a phone, to have the rectangular screen printed in your mind. It was a good weekend, a peaceful weekend. Renée found that she didn't need to be online 100% of the time, she found out that it's actually really nice to spend some time offline, to not have to check social media or worry about missing some important messages. She found that when people really needed her they would find another way to reach her.
After the weekend she took her phone out of the rice and started it again. Thankfully the phone did work and Renée came back online. A lot of messages were left on her social media and she didn't even bother to read them all. She announced her return and the important questions or announcements were repeated and the not important things forgotten. Now she's back online which might be her happily ever after, but maybe her happily ever after is realising she isn't so dependent on her social media activity or her phone altogether. Sometimes she just needs to take a break, to clear her mind and to get that stupid rectangular shape out of her mind.
So yes, you could say Renée lived happily ever after. She even has a little protip for all you people out there. "Whenever you go to the loo, check your back-pockets, get your phone or other technological devices out, believe me it makes having a pee a lot less stressful".
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