Exam season: keeping balanced

Keeping your work-life balance during exam season is crucial. I have experienced first hand what it's like to feel like your whole life revolves around exams. But as you can probably guess, this definitely doesn't help the situation. If you let exams completely take over, it will lead to even more stress, anxiety, illness and even in extreme cases: depression. I know it sounds exaggerated but it's so important to keep a balanced life. I'm going to be trying to discuss the issues and just suggest a few things you could do to stop it from getting too much.

Firstly (and probably quite obviously), keep your variety and leisure time. No matter how overwhelmed you are by the upcoming exams, don't let them be all you think about. If it's a sports club for an hour a week, something more creative (like writing a blog eh eh eh) or even running your fan girl account on twitter, doing something that you love for a break will reduce the amount of pressure you're putting on yourself for that short period of time. I go swimming once a week with my friend- even if I haven't finished revising. If I am really stressed out I will take my flashcards to test myself in the car, but I give myself one hour of just being 'free' from revision and exams (whilst burning calories for my summer figure!!).


Do something that will completely distract you for an hour so you will avoid being distracted during good revision time. It's not a break if the whole time you're thinking "I should be revising history right now!!" or "I know nothing about chemistry, I might as well give up." Just  empty your mind and enjoy yourself for an hour (at least).

Next is organisation. (Again! I know, I'm sorry!) In the long run, organising your revision with about 6 weeks to go before exams is a very good idea. It's not just about what times you're revising though. Organise your subjects so you know which topics you still need to do a lot of work on, this will show you where you might need to spend a little more time revising for certain subjects with a lot of content.

Also, organise your exam timetable. If you're anything like me, you will've got that long list of exams (with loads of other useless information) and just started crying inside. So on my day off, instead of just revise revise revise, I took the time to make a calendar in my style with all my exams on (colour coded... dur?)

Obviously isn't mine because I don't want to use my current one

This way, you will know which topics you need to revise for most AND which subjects exams are closest. Obviously it's important to revise everything, but don't intensely focus on exams which are at the end of the 2 month period. You will probably still have quite a lot of time to revise them after exams and at the weekend. For now, your first subjects and subjects with most content are a priority.

By organising your revision into different categories, you will start to feel more in control. You will know what you have done, what's left to do and by when. Preventing you from feeling like you're drowning in work.

Another important thing to do leading up to and during exams, is to talk to people. I don't necessarily mean deep conversation about how you're feeling about life (although these are sometimes helpful and thoughtful.) I mean: don't cut you're friends and family out because of revision. This might sound cringey, but this is the time you're going to talk to your friends and family least, when it should be most. Human interaction relaxes the brain, and talking to someone (even if it's about your new nail polish) will put the exams into perspective.

Revising with your friends is a really good idea! Not only does it help you work together, test each other and use each others materials, but it stops you from isolating yourself. You're still revising so shouldn't be stressed out, but seeing your friends and revising together encourages you to talk about things and not feel like you're going through this hard time alone. It's something we very easily forget: the rest of the country is doing it as well. So don't isolate yourself, talk to family and friends because very often they can help rather than hinder.

Finally, kind of pulling everything together, don't forget to live. Yes the exams this summer are important so it's good that we're all working hard. It's bad enough that we stop going out and enjoying leisure time: never stop eating, sleeping or talking.

Have a coffee date with someone!

I know sometimes it feels like you don't have enough time to eat or sleep because you have so much revision to do. But if you ever feel like that... stop. Trust me, the revision you're doing is not only unhealthy, but unproductive because our brains can't work on no sleep or food. Not forgetting that in the long run, increasing you sleep is more likely to get you better grades than decreasing.

Other things that are just normal can be integrated into revision as well. Why not watch your favourite movie/tv programme whilst using flashcards to test yourself. Or go to the park, as long as your promise to do an hour of revision on the hardest subject (that'll be physics then?) Because really, revising your worst subject for an hour is a lot more productive than revising something you already know for 2 hours.

However, if you ever do feel so stuck that you're putting off eating or sleeping,  follow these steps:

1. Put the revision away for now
2. Eat something or go to bed
3. Have a shallow conversation with your mates or best friend. I don't care whether you're talking about a certain someone that's just left one direction, or who you want to win on The Voice. Talk about something easy but fun.
4. Talk to your parents or someone you trust (a teacher will always be there to help.) Tell them you're struggling and talk about how you can improve you revision and work/life balance.
5. Organise your revision so you can clearly see what you have to do & when you have to do it.
6. Set realistic amount of times to work through each topic, stick to it but give yourself leisure time.

I'm sorry that felt really formal but it is a serious issue around this time that people don't really talk about! Anyway, I better get back to revising ;)

I hope this helped some of you, good luck and don't forget, all you can do is your best!

See you next time,

Laura Stone x (@laurastone_)