Top Tips from other students for getting through exam term
This section is a list of tips from other Cambridge students. The idea is to give an insight into all the different ways of coping with stress, so don't worry if not every tip is right for you! If you've got any exam term tips you'd like to share, email the CUSU Welfare Officer
Take one whole day out of your week and plan to do something special
Help paint May Ball decorations on the weekend.
Group revision sessions.
Stay clear of people that stress you out.
If you are being unproductive take some time out and visit Kettles Yard or the Fitzwilliam Musuem and enjoy some culture.
Go to the bar each night for - just one drink at - last orders
I have to work by a reward system -finish this essay topic and I get to eat jelly babies or have a break! Secondly, have someone who knows what you are meant to have done in a revision slot who you know will ask afterwards - mum, boyfriend, housemate or whatever.
Looking through past papers to see which questions come up most often and concentrating on those areas.
Get into a routine!! Otherwise you wake up late, go check your email, go buy biscuits, visit a friend with the excuse of borrowing books.... and don't get anything done.
Exercising is always good, stimulates your brain... go for a walk or a jog or just get out.
Bribe yourself. Say that if you work for three hours, you're then allowed a pint with your friends. or chocolate, or a TV-show. or two pints.
Hide in a corner of the library and swear that you won't leave until you've taken notes on, say, four chapters.
Don't work in front of a computer that has internet - in fact, if you use a computer to study, delete all games and disconnect the net!
A stressball.
Get a studybuddy.
When revising, visualising whatever it is you're trying to remember using the 'Roman Room' technique to connect different points (i.e. placing meaningful objects in an imaginary (or real) room which act as triggers for remembering things). For example, a bottle of ginger beer with a snail in the bottom would remind me (as a law student) of the case called Donoghue v Stevenson, which involved a lady drinking a botle of ginger beer and (allegedly) becoming ill after discovering a dead snail inside it! It sounds a bit silly and time-consuming but it seems to work for me!
Play ultimate frisbee
Get involved with whatever your JCR or CUSU is doing to relax during work breaks.
CUSU provides confidential, free, non-judgemental support and information to individual students. Contact the CUSU Education Officer, Welfare Officer or Women's Officer by email, phone or by dropping into the office if you would like support or information on any topic.