...So can someone tell me how to cram very very efficiently?


I have an English exam tomorrow afternoon - I need to learn a load of Hamlet quotes and John Clare poetry. I then need to practise some essays and write out practice plans...

I have a History exam on Thursday morning (need to do practice essays and check facts and things), and a Latin exam in the afternoon (I've got lots of vocab and grammar to learn).


I know this is just an incoherent panic but HOW DO I MANAGE IT???




Before I'm chastised yet again, I've only used this forum in my 10 minute breaks I have every 90 mins - I revise from 10am 'til 10pm (with an hour or two for meals), and I still find that I've got loads left to learn for tomorrow and the day after.... I haven't been revising fast enough.

I know, I know, I should stop wasting my time posting on here, but I've just come out of another exam and needed time to clear my head (30 mins).



So what do I doooo, aside from using my common sense??
(I'm good at working late into the night....)

some advice, for what it's worth...

if you run out of time/start feeling too panicked, drop the hamlet quotations and poetry (you can wing the poetry if you read it with your wits about you). practise a couple of essays, referring to the text of hamlet while you are writing. this will allow you to pick out quotations relevant to different topics.

ditto with the history essays. you might find while practising writing an essay that you know more than you think. but can't help you with latin...

and don't stay up all night revising! your sleep is more important than a few marks, and your lack of sleep would be more detrimental to your exams than a few unsure facts.

you'll come through it... remember that exams aren't the most important things in the world.

Hi

just a note. i find it easy to remember things when i compare to other things or create a funny story or else i create a mental image. It worked for me when i had to learn some lyrics for concerts - had more than 15 songs to memorise!!

ex. i had to memorise fantasy one stanza was like this (reasoning is in colour), my choir mates laughed at it but they remembered it too:-

And, as you stay for the play; right, we're in a theatre
fantasy has in store for you; fantasy is the company organising the play and there's a store for the costumes and scenery etc
a glowing light will see you through; it's very dark in the store so you need a glowing light...
it's your day, shiny day, all your dreams come true....; still dealing with light, if you have the lights on you can see and so all your dreams will come true

I hope you can understand what i mean and hope this will help you out someway. i sort of invented a story and images i could memorise in order to remember lyrics, and i've studied these 2yrs ago!!

Don't worry and don't stress yourself too much cause you'll not remember half of the things you're studying. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

This is the best possible advice.

Use your ten-minute breaks to get some air, stretch your legs and so on - don't stay in front of the computer, even if you are doing something different.

Definitely don't stay up all night revising - it doesn't work, just makes you very tired and then have a major panic at 7am when you realise that you have 2 hrs to go to the exam and you still can't remember anything (been there, done that ).

What I found helped me to memorise things was to say them out loud, as if I was explaining it to someone who had no knowledge about that subject. For the essays, I would start by noting a few key words as reminders and I found that when I did that, I could get the essay to flow, as I could always go back to my key words to make sure I had remembered the key points. It also stops you from panicking and getting a mental block. Work out roughly how long you think it will take you to write an essay, then add another 5-10 minutes on top as a comfort zone.

Don't try and cram too much at once, someone once told me that your brain can only absorb information for about 20 minutes at a time. So revise for 20 minutes, have a short break and then start your next session with a brief summary of what you've just revised.

Good luck with the exams

I agree with what's already been said. As someone who got to the night before her final Latin exam and realised that she didnt know half of the prescribed text, getting some sleep certainly helped more than staying up all night revising. I just got up a bit earlier and looked over some notes. Good luck.

This is probably no help at all but the lunchtime before my geography exam a bunch of us had lunch in a cafe. I took out my book and read a paragraph. That exact subject came up in the exam and I could answer the whole question in full! Talk about cramming!!!! (or just plain luck )

Oops I see you posted yesterday - hope things went well for you today and I'll have my fingers crossed you get the questions you want Good luck - let us know how you got on

I certainly agree that a good night's sleep is better than staying up all night "revising". When I reach a certain threshold, I can't take anything in anyway and my efforts are not paying off, and will just cause further trouble in the morning. Hence, a good night's sleep is always the answer! I've been quite amazed in the past at just how much you can do the morning before an exam when the adrenaline kicks in... Not that I'm suggesting you do all your revision the hour before the exam!

Good luck!

You'd be surprised how much you will remember after a good nights' sleep. The brain chugs away subconsiously and stores a lot more information during rest than you might think.

Definitely get a good nights sleep.
I found that I remembered loads after having a good nights sleep instead of staying up late.
I would say don't panic and try and religious learn stuff, depending on what sort of person you are, read through your notes, highlight, make spiderdiagrams, but find the important bits you need and find a way of making them seem important (ie highlighting). Try to keep calm, the calmer you are the more you learn i've found.

Read over your notes before going to bed, and in the morning.
And have breakfast!!

Good Luck
Maddie.

EDIT: don't revise stuff you know, it may seem nice to think oh i know this, but make sure you focus on the stuff you don't know. x