Studying When the Exam Is Close
For the last stretch before a test, when panic makes you reread the same pages for hours. It swaps rereading for recall, protects sleep as part of the work, and keeps the days before from eating you.
Study · Stress · Motivation · 8 items · once a day
The checklist
- Write what is actually on the exam — Vague dread covers more ground than the syllabus does.
- Close the notes and test yourself — Trying to recall it teaches more than reading it again.
- Work in blocks with real breaks — Forty minutes on, ten minutes properly off, beats four blurred hours.
- Start with what you avoid — The topic you keep skipping is usually the one costing you points.
- Make the hard bit smaller — One formula, one case, one date; progress needs a size you can hold.
- Protect sleep as part of studying — A tired brain cannot retrieve what a rested one knows.
- Eat and move once during the day — Studying through hunger makes the next hour slower, not longer.
- Stop at a set time tonight — An open-ended evening of panic studying does less than a planned one.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it once a day, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.