Prepare for a university exam while living alone: is it really as difficult as someone say?
It can be, especially if you are an off-site student and you have to spend a not marginal part of the day dealing with the management of shopping and a home.
In reality, a lot depends on how one organizes: with some careful planning, it’s possible to live alone in Milan, as an off-site student, without turning exam preparation into a nightmare.
Here are some practical tips on the subject!
How long in advance is it okay to prepare for exams?
One of the reasons that prevents many students from keeping up with the exam schedule is the inability to allocate the necessary time to prepare for the exam. The rush to study at the last minute is quite widespread and constitutes a penalty that students need to avoid.
In principle, it is correct to prepare for exams as lessons continue, dedicating time to study every day, in order to avoid to jump through hoops close to the exam session.
In this way your study will certainly be more solid and you’ll have all the time to go deep in all of the topics, before it’s too late.
It all starts in the classroom: take advantage of the lessons and take notes
One of the best tips to follow is to start studying in the classroom. Therefore, take advantage of the lessons as these are essential moments for studying, and take clear notes that are consistent with your studying method.
Once back in your apartment, review them and add any comments, underlining the links with the previous notes: the benefits of these simple habits won’t be long.
Before starting, review the entire program
Before even starting to prepare for an exam, it is very useful to read the teacher's program, the bibliography and all the teaching material that you have been advised to study.
In this way you will have an effective overview of what awaits you in order to understand how to set the study with greater concreteness.
How to prepare for the exam
So far, we’ve seen some preliminary tips that all students should follow: a sort of work base on which you can generate your own personalized program. But how to prepare for the exam?
Build your daily work plan
If you have read the previous lines carefully, you should now know that one of the key points for a correct preparation for an exam is that of reading the entire program in advance, just to understand what awaits you.
Well, now that you have an overview of the expected commitments, use a spreadsheet (or another tool that you think may be useful and practical to use) to divide the study into steps to follow, in order to trace a path towards the exam, compatible with the timing you have available.
Eliminate all distractions
Before starting your program, try to eliminate all distractions. Organize your study corner in a way that doesn’t make you fall into temptation like TV, social networks and other disturbing elements.
Remember that it is much better to reserve 30 minutes of highly focused study, rather than 2 hours carried out superficially, constantly interrupted by Facebook notifications or reading messages on WhatsApp!
Create goals to achieve every day
If an exam seems too big and too difficult to take, try breaking it down into many small goals to achieve each week.
For example, if the book you are preparing for the exam is a voluminous tome of 20 chapters, try to make a commitment to study 2 per week for 10 weeks.
Apply theory and exercises
A very effective way to better understand the concepts learned is to create connections with practical cases.
For each purely theoretical element that you read in books, or hear in class, always try to make examples that can allow you to find a practical application.
Write summaries
Summarizing what has been studied in short summaries will allow you to better remember the conceptsto be expressed.
When doing this, remember to highlight the keywords in the text and always create links.
What to do before the exam
If you've followed the directions above you should be able to get ready when the time will come. But first, it might still be worth doing some other verification.
Review and repeat several times a day
Once finished, all you have to do is seal your learning with some reviews and repetitions.
If you do not have anyone who can question you, you can write down the questions that may be asked during the exam (or those of previous exams) on a piece of paper and extract them at random to check your knowledge.
Focus on what you don't know well
Many students fall into the temptation to be pleased with their level of preparation by reviewing and repeating what they already know.
Well, you should do exactly the opposite: focus your efforts on the gaps.
Doing simulations under stopwatch
Exams usually last much shorter than one might imagine. This applies both to the time taken when a written test is carried out, and to the answers given during the oral test.
Therefore, try to do some simulations with the stopwatch: they will help you get used to the rhythm of the exam.
Conclusions
We hope these brief pointers will help you prepare for your next exam. Remember not to underestimate the importance of studying (also) in a group, especially when you have to finalize and perfect some aspects of your performance.