Final exam syndrome

Assalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

I'm home from Dengkil & I am back for good!! Alhamdulillah.. 10 months of pure struggles and the fact that it is done, I am so so happy! I have so much to say and ideas are flowing like waterfalls right now let's just get into it before everything runs away.

The title gives you an idea of what this post is all about, I suppose. I want to share how I got through final exam that just recently ended. I hope I can help anyone of you who is also struggling with upcoming exams or tests. Mind you that this just my 2 cents and what I think works best for me. As some of you might have read my previous entry about my rant on how I barely surviving, and now that I am done with it, IT WAS A CHALLENGE. But alhamdulillah He made everything easy for me. Last entry was actually a rant on a particular subject which is Chemistry. I hated it, I still hate it and prolly will always hate it. I seriously never had chemistry with Chemistry. Even the subject never liked me. I failed every test there is.

  EVERY TEST.

 EVERY.

I kid you not. First semester; Test 1 failed, test 2 failed. Final exam I got B (fuhhhhh thank goodness!)

Second semester; Test 1 failed, test 2 I prayed harrrrdddd please let me pass for once! but nope, I failed, again. Final exam dunno yet. I just hope for the best.

With that damage has been done, I was so worried for finals. Can I pass? Do I still have hope to pass? Is it possible? Can I do well enough to pass? I have so many questions in my head which made me feel so pressured and stressed out. To make things worst, Chemistry was my last paper, masa tu kepala dah fikir rumah and all the movies I want to watch and all the hours I want to spend sleeping. Sighhhh

I knew I had to sacrifice a lot to achieve something; in this case, just to pass Chemistry. And the other subjects too, of course. The amount of topics I had to cover for the other subjects were way more than Chem itself. So I started to plan my schedule. I like last minute studying because I always forgot what I have covered just a few days later, so I did not start so early. I waited until all lectures and classes were done, then only I started revising. Thank god the final lasted for only for 2 weeks. Revising can be so tiring! I stayed up, sometimes all night long, sometimes half of the night, pukul 3/4 pagi camtu masuk tidur sbb tak tahan sangat mengantuk. Sometimes dengan housemate, sometimes alone. I drank nescafe to make me stay awake but at times kecundang jugak haha. If I had any other way of doing it I wouldn't be sacrificing my sleep. Thing thing is....I don't. I'm all about getting enough sleep. Some people prefer sleeping early and waking up at 4 am, I can't. I swear I tried but nope, I cannot wake up. I set 10 alarms but none of them successfully woke me up. I can't hear them and I don't know how my ears did that. I can hear 6 am alarm loud and clear, but not 10 alarms before that. How crazy..

My advise is, study when you can. Don't force yourself if you can't wake up early in the morning, don't force yourself if you can't say up till late night. It depends on individuals, really. Like I said, I can't wake up early so I had to stay up (with the help of a few shots of caffein, obvs). That one worked and I know that is my style of studying. You need to find the perfect time for you to study too. Not just that, figure out the perfect environment for you to study. Whether it is with music or without, alone or in group, by reading or doing exercises, Put yourself away from distractions. If you put your 100% focus, you can be done with revisions in a few hours (few hours is a JE for me bcs I usually take the whole day). Like my lecturer once said, it's not the amount of hours you put in the revision that counts, it's the quality of the revision.

Always keep yourself organized. Write down your plans, harini belajar apa, esok apa pulak and so on. Trust me, it will help you to be more systematic. Or probably it's just me. I love writing/jotting down notes and plans. I write down everything, from my current goals, long-term plans, my weight every month, to my period every month even though we have tons of applications that can do that job. Write. You have nothing to lose. Worst that could happen is you will be running out of ink.

Don't forget to take a break. You need it. It doesn't matter if you are running out of time and you still have tons of topics to cover, take a break. You'll get nothing if you keep forcing information into your brain but your brain is already too tired to take all that in. Have 5-10 mins break. Or 15 mins, you deserve it. Make yourself a drink, check your social medias, take a shower, get your mood and motivation back.

That are all the tips I can give. I did all of that during finals for both semester 1 and semester 2. Put aside the outcome (result), it is solely to prepare yourself for the exam, not to do well in exams haha there's a difference, okay. I wish all of you who will be sitting for an exam, or a test a very good luck. May you pass with flying dancing smiling colours :) x