preparation

The guarantee for success and good grades is in following a good study procedure, having good habits and a correct method. Forgetting to study and hoping you’ll be lucky enough to pass is really risky, because this can cause you problems.

The level of tension must be adequate to motivate you to do well on tests. If tension is too low, the result is apathy toward both the preparation for the exam and taking the exam itself. On the contrary, if there’s too much tension, it can overwhelm us, making us lose control of ourselves, and making us feel less confident about what we learned; it can block us, and that might stop us from doing the exercise correctly.

As we’ve said before, breaks are really important for studying, especially when we are studying for an exam, because we’re trying to reach a goal, and we should be in good mental and physical shape.

The night before the exam should be calm, with similar activities and schedules as the other days. You need to prepare the necessary supplies for the following day, which will help you avoid rushing and forgetting things because of nervousness before the exam. According to how much time you have, and your mood, you might want to do a normal review or to relax completely. However, there are no set rules: every student faces situations in their own way. What we can say, in general, is that it’s not good to go on last-minute “binges”, because this doesn’t guarantee success.

Lastly, it’s good to rest enough at night, in order to have a fresh mind and to feel completely awake during the exam.

Making environmental changes and being fit is not enough to succeed. There’s still something fundamental remaining: “Mental preparation”; working hard on the other aspects doesn’t do much good if you’re not psychologically prepared.

Remember that studying is a mental activity, so it’s necessary to be psychologically ready to face studying.

You need to be confident about yourself, to be interested and to want to learn, to be optimistic, to set goals and of course, to be able to control your personal problems. How many times has it happened that while you’re studying, you lose concentration because you’re trying to find a solution to something that worries you or makes you mad, like money issues or even problems in a relationship?