Earlier I addressed my anxiety over exams as well as my general tendency to become anxious over everything without necessarily having a good reason. Tomorrow is my Chemistry final and my track record for final exams is not looking so great. It seems like our teacher offers no partial credit, something I have a hard time existing without and I am not sure of what concepts I am confident in and which ones I am not. The exam counts for 25% of my grade, and there are "resurrection points" for sections that are on previously covered material. "Resurrection Points" means that if I do better on Section I than I did on the first test, my points on Section I will replace that test grade. This is essentially the best thing I've ever heard so I am striving to really do well on those previous sections. At the same time, I am concerned about compromising my score on the last section since I attended none of the Gas Law lectures and only briefly read over the chapter.
SO here I am, in the completely anxious and panicked state about this final exam, and writing seems to be the only thing I can do that will allow me to detach from Chemistry. Even now, I am flipping back and forth between this and a Chemistry practice test out of fear that any moment lost is the different between a B+ and a D. (I'm being realistic here).
My advice here about being calm will do nothing, so instead I will write a few brief points for survival.
1) Khan Academy
www.khanacademy.org
The video clips on this website have saved my life on multiple occasions. The website basically consists of 10 minute tutorials on a variety of topics; although they are brief and simple, I find them thorough. My favorite topics right now are Chemistry. The clips aren't necessarily in order of the progression of the semester, so you should choose to watch clips based on your needs rather than just watching them in order.
2) Good Music
This is not the time for your break-up playlist. The last thing you want is to be prompted into an emotional breakdown. There are three types of acceptable music for exam week: Classical Music (to be highly focused), Pop Music (to be highly motivated) and Classic Rock (because it's auditory pornography). If this post were for procrastination rather than anti-anxiety I would post 8-tracks playlists of each of these genres but for now this is not an option. (Maybe tomorrow?)
3) Flashcards
For vocabulary, formulae or anything you need to memorize, I suggest heavily using 3x5s or whatever dimension of flashcard suits your needs. I prefer smaller flashcards for vocabulary and bigger flashcards for math and science oriented points of memorization. Plus you can sneak them anywhere and study without bringing giant text books or your computer.
4) Do not party
I don't know why you would need this advice; I feel like it should be intuitive, but you'd be surprised about how many people forget the entire hangover feeling and will go out the day before they plan to "crackdown" and study. I'm sorry but there's no way you can effectively learn while nursing yourself back to health. You should be trying to keep yourself alive during exam week not clutching a toilet emptying your guts. That is not the goal.
5) Sleep
I've been trying to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night for the past four days to ensure that my body is completely rested for my Chemistry final. I've done it all before: stayed up until 3, pulled the all-nighter, woken up at 4 am to work and frantically started my studying only hours before a test. None of these things have helped more than getting 8 hours of sleep and being able to think straight on an exam. Keeping your mind awake will allow you to use common sense when you don't know the answer, something you can't do when you're tired.
Some of these are pretty intuitive to a good student, but good habits fly out the window when confronted with the possibility of failure.
SO here I am, in the completely anxious and panicked state about this final exam, and writing seems to be the only thing I can do that will allow me to detach from Chemistry. Even now, I am flipping back and forth between this and a Chemistry practice test out of fear that any moment lost is the different between a B+ and a D. (I'm being realistic here).
My advice here about being calm will do nothing, so instead I will write a few brief points for survival.
1) Khan Academy
www.khanacademy.org
The video clips on this website have saved my life on multiple occasions. The website basically consists of 10 minute tutorials on a variety of topics; although they are brief and simple, I find them thorough. My favorite topics right now are Chemistry. The clips aren't necessarily in order of the progression of the semester, so you should choose to watch clips based on your needs rather than just watching them in order.
2) Good Music
This is not the time for your break-up playlist. The last thing you want is to be prompted into an emotional breakdown. There are three types of acceptable music for exam week: Classical Music (to be highly focused), Pop Music (to be highly motivated) and Classic Rock (because it's auditory pornography). If this post were for procrastination rather than anti-anxiety I would post 8-tracks playlists of each of these genres but for now this is not an option. (Maybe tomorrow?)
3) Flashcards
For vocabulary, formulae or anything you need to memorize, I suggest heavily using 3x5s or whatever dimension of flashcard suits your needs. I prefer smaller flashcards for vocabulary and bigger flashcards for math and science oriented points of memorization. Plus you can sneak them anywhere and study without bringing giant text books or your computer.
4) Do not party
I don't know why you would need this advice; I feel like it should be intuitive, but you'd be surprised about how many people forget the entire hangover feeling and will go out the day before they plan to "crackdown" and study. I'm sorry but there's no way you can effectively learn while nursing yourself back to health. You should be trying to keep yourself alive during exam week not clutching a toilet emptying your guts. That is not the goal.
5) Sleep
I've been trying to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night for the past four days to ensure that my body is completely rested for my Chemistry final. I've done it all before: stayed up until 3, pulled the all-nighter, woken up at 4 am to work and frantically started my studying only hours before a test. None of these things have helped more than getting 8 hours of sleep and being able to think straight on an exam. Keeping your mind awake will allow you to use common sense when you don't know the answer, something you can't do when you're tired.
Some of these are pretty intuitive to a good student, but good habits fly out the window when confronted with the possibility of failure.
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