There are so many times we've all said "This time it's going to be different." We all like to think that we will study a week in advance when exams come around, but then it gets to be the day before and you still haven't cracked open your books once. We've all been there and it's definitely one of the worst parts of college life. The feeling of getting that test grade back and realizing that you clearly could have studied for is like nothing else.
1. The procrastination stage
Pure denial. No, I don’t have an exam on Monday, so I should definitely go out with my friends both nights of the weekend right?
2. The extremely ambitious stage
Let’s be real, this one doesn’t last longer than 15 minutes. This is the hype you’ve built up about getting better grades, and studying more productively. This is like the New Year’s resolution on a cycle every time exams come around that never is reached. You have good intentions, but they never hold up.
3. The “I can just take a small break to reward myself” stage
They say you can only effectively read a textbook for number of minutes equivalent to your age… so that obviously means a break should come every 20-ish minutes right?
4. The sick of studying stage
This is the time when you feel like nothing else you’re going to go over is going to help you anymore. Even though you know you could definitely study more, you just don’t care anymore and you want to just give up. Except you know you can’t.
5. The nap time stage
This one is extremely hard to get away from once you fall asleep once. Being tired while studying is the absolute worst thing to happen during your cram session. Nothing stays in your head quite the same once the dozing starts.
6. The panic stage
This is one of the last stages because you realize that several hours later, you still have gotten hardly anything accomplished.
7. The acceptance stage
You’ve reached the point where nothing else you do will change the outcome, and you’ve accepted that you could very well fail or ace it, it’s all up to chance now.
I wish you the best of luck with your attempt at trying to stop this relentless cycle from happening to you this exam season!
