Paper One is tomorrow,
and you’re about to discover how sweet it is to cross one exam off your list. This is one hurdle closer to the finish line, the parties, the perpetual sleep-ins and the bonfire of all your study notes (but not before you upload a digital copy for the next cohort – right?). So, the night before Paper One, how are we feeling?
Tonight you need rest.
Paper one starts later than most of your other morning exams, starting at 10:20am tomorrow. That allows plenty of time for a good breakfast, some serious pep-talking (this is not the time for wallowing in self-doubt), and a quick refresher of your notes. For now, get to bed at some reasonable hour and remind yourself that tomorrow you’ll perform to the best of your ability.
Tomorrow you need food.
Those “I don’t eat breakfast” people have got a conundrum coming up – your exam will sit right on top of prime lunch time for the non-breakfasteers amongst us. Give yourself some toast. If you are a breakfast person, make sure you fill up on lots of good things and probably not a breakfast burrito (be considerate of your fellow peers!).
Make up your little exam pack.
You know how it is, labels off water bottles, a little zip lock bag with a sad absence of food and instead a few pens and a highlighter. Don’t be the person who doesn’t have a pen for the exam. Please. Don’t.
Last chance to commit to memory!
Yeah, tomorrow you can revise, but if you’re wanting to get that last quote nice and comfy in the front of your brain, then now is the chance. Don’t beat yourself up staying up late tonight for the sake of memorising. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much information you bring to an exam that you didn’t anticipate. But, if you’re truly cramming, the time is now. Bring it back to basics, the essentials, the backbones of your work. No use remembering a concluding sentence when that brain space is better used nailing a quote. If you want some help memorising for paper one tomorrow, you can get some tips here.
What’s your exam plan?
If you haven’t decided your plan of action for the paper one exam yet, then the time is now. How will you approach each section of the exam? Will you go in order of the paper? Perhaps your weakest section first? Or last? Consider how you’re going to use your reading time. Personally, I tackled the first reading of the unseen texts for the majority of the reading time and tried to knock that out of the park as the first section off the list. All went well, and I finished the unseen texts within the first 30 minutes, then I fled through my memorised creative and approached the essay with the extra time I shaved off elsewhere. Think carefully about how you want to allocate your time.
Walk in confident!
There’s a lot to be said for holding your head high and giving yourself a little pat on the back before the exam. You’ll be around people who are comforting one another with their comparable lack of preparation. Trust in the ability for fake confidence, or real and outwardly confidence, to carry into the exam. If someone asks you how you think you’re going to go, the answer is, “I think I’m going to go really well, it is what it is.” Don’t let the puddles of self-pity around you drag you down, because if you’re feeling confident, let that light shine. If you’re feeling less than confident, FOOL yourself into thinking that this exam was MADE for you.
And some good feels:
This is the beginning of the end. It is the beginning of a painful ending to a strenuous year. You’ve done it! You’ve carried yourself, you’ve carried others, and they’ve carried you. This is no time to be soppy, but dammit give yourself a jolly pat on the back. Push through tomorrow, and keep on keeping on. The end is near, dear friend.
Give yourself the best start to the exam rush as possible. Set a good tone early on and be proud of yourself. REALLY PROUD OF YOURSELF. When you walk out tomorrow, the thoughts of “I completely screwed up section one” are incomparably sour in contrast to the tiny but mighty voice inside you that wants to acknowledge your solid effort. When you walk out tomorrow, it’ll be one exam done.
I know you feel like you’re crawling, maybe scraping, possibly being dragged, across the finish line. Get up and turn it into a sprint. The final leg is here, now make it yours.
Need some help?
Ask last minute questions here and get a quick response.
Looking to stamp out some easy mistakes that can be made? Find out what they are here.
Not sure how to feel calm in an exam? Jamon shares his tips here.
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