Generally, when it comes to studying or revision you make a lot of plans to sit down and revise certain subjects for hours but let's all be honest, it is not often that studying turns out how we had planned or intended it too. Between our phones, daydreaming and procrastination it can be impossible to focus. So I thought it would be fun to round up all these intentions we have and show was actually happens. Most of this list is true for what me and most of my friends used to be like anyways. Hope you enjoy it!
Listening to music
Expectation: Helps you focus and makes studying more enjoyable.
Reality: Is actually distracting and you end up singing along and the notes become messy. You are continuously losing your train of thought as you can not think clearly with the noise. But I will admit that it does make it more enjoyable just takes four times as long.
Little Tip: If you are going to listen to music listen to slow paced music at a low volume. Also possibly listen to music that is only acoustics Wirth no lyrics so you are not tempted to sing along.
Working through a textbook
Expectation: You get through the entire specification by getting through the entire book making notes and flashcards. By the end you know all the content and are completely prepared for any question in the exam.
Reality: You end up skipping topics because you think you know them and skipping the topics that are too hard, then you get through it quickly but actually don’t know any of it and end up having to redo it all.
Studying for an hour
Expectation: One hour of constant hard work, you will get loads of your work done and not have to do much else that night.
Reality: 20 minutes setting up your stuff, 10 minutes picking music, 10 minutes procrastinating and day dreaming, 20 minutes of study. Never has an hour of studying meant one full hour of constant note-making.
Cramming the night before
Expectation: One last chance to learn it all, you will go through the entire book making last minute notes and doing practise questions. Realising you know it and are prepared.
Reality: Thinking well what is the point doing all this last minute it will never go in. I guess if i don’t know it now i won’t know it at all which results in not actually doing it or doing very little and getting no sleep and then feeling awful for the exam. It is really just on flats night of feeling unprepared and getting very panicked.
Colour coding texts
Expectation: Looks really neat and organised, it is now easy to find everything and this makes it easy to see and you can imagine the notes when you are in the exam.
Reality: Your book is now a colourful mess there is too much colour because you only highlighted the important bits but it’s all important and now you can’t find anything and may have to reprint the text or just cry really.
Studying with friends
Expectation: Focused helping each other learn the content, groups mean you can go through flashcards, question each other and compare answers when you are finished to see if you missed anything.
Reality: Starts studying but goes off on a tangent and starts talking about absolute rubbish for 3 hours then realises you haven’t got any work done. The feeling even worse be cause you have wasted a few hours.
Making a Study schedule
Expectation: Sticking to it 100% getting 4 hours of studying done almost everyday until your exams. This means you will be prepared for every exam when it comes around because you have planned all your time out.
Reality: If you haven’t stuck with it from the beginning you probably won’t stick to it at all. It will just be stuck on the wall and every now and then you’ll think maybe i should do some revision now and you regret not following it or wasting time making it.
Putting your revision notes on the walls
Expectation: You will look at it every single day when you pass it multiple times so it will definitely be remembered.
Reality: You do not look at the notes you become so used to the paper on the walls it is almost part of the decorations, you either give up and take it down or leave it up for weeks and when it finally comes off the wall it has ruined the paint.
Doing past papers
Expectation: Going through past papers means you can see which parts of the content you missed and be prepared for any of the different types of questions it might ask.
Reality: You end up looking at the mark scheme because you can't do the questions and then realise you have missed an entire chapter of the book, extreme panic begins to set in.
Hope you guys enjoyed this post, if you did let me know! Also check out some of my other posts such as 35 Quick Study Tips if you related to any of these! Thanks for reading