Study Guide

Dear O'H dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

We had a very chilled day. It is the day before The Eldest Mini Princess’s first prelim and she was surprisingly clam. She has been very organised and diligent. So much so that she has done everything she needs to do. It was pretty much exactly the way I used to be in the build up to exams. All except for the organised, diligent and not having to revise the day before bits. My exam strategy used to be...

Several weeks before first exam
Plan to be organised and diligent but decide that a study timetable isn’t necessary. Intend to do a minimum of 2 hours revision every day, although, realistically It would probably be considerably longer due to being consumed by the joy of learning; Time would simply fly past unnoticed.

Realise that I would have to timetable regular tea and snack breaks to keep up energy levels as I might forget to eat due to previously mentioned ‘“being consumed by joy of learning.”

Feel smug with new plan. If hashtags had been around at the time, it would have been a #nailingit moment

Decide to start immediately. Prepare with a cup of tea and a snack.

Drink tea. Eat snack. Feel a bit tired after all the planning and decide that I have probably done enough for one day. Avoiding burn out is essential.

Repeat above process several times until...

One week before first exam
Casually chat to friends about how much revision they have done. Feel slightly queasy. Panic chat to anyone who will listen. Find the one person in the school year who fesses up to not having started yet but don’t feel reassured as “Mad Lee” spends most of his time carving his name into desks with a pen knife and loudly declaring to teachers that “this is shit and I’m out of this dump on my 16th birthday.” I’m also a bit scared of him since the time he turned on the gas tap in the chemistry lab and lit it.

Replan to study for 8 hours a day. This is easily achievable on exam leave as I can work all day. I’ll even have evenings free.

If I had been born 30 years later, I would be #winning.

Exam leave week
Alarm goes off at 8 am. Decide to have an extra half an hour. Wake up at 4 pm. Get dressed and spread out books and folders before Mary Doll and Victor get in from work. Lie profusely about how much has been achieved.

After dinner, look out past papers but accidentally spend 2 hours doodling and making up a mix tape instead.

Look blankly at a page of notes for what feels like hours, but in reality is about 15 minutes; Time is flying like a dodo on jellies.

Obsessively tidy room.

#nailingit now feeling more like #failingit

One day before first exam
Replan to pull an all nighter and start cramming like a mad thing. Abandon plan for all nighter by 10 pm. Don’t want to be too tired to concentrate.

#SOS

I will wish my little Princess good luck tomorrow but unlike me, she won’t need it. She has worked really hard and I am so proud of her.

C