Author: Sabour Al-Kandari

So your exam is in one week, you haven’t studied properly, you’ve skipped classes and homework – and now you’re trying to pull a miracle and slip through the cracks. Feel like a total loser? You should because you are one loser face, maybe you should have read my other article about improving your grades.

But listen here Mr. or Mrs. Loser, there’s no point in lecturing you now about how you should have studied properly, that can’t help you anymore, what you need is some emergency situation advice and that’s just what I have in store for you.

The truth is, even the best of us have been in that situation in one way or another – as in completely unprepared for an exam. Luckily for the screw up in all of us, here are four simple points for pulling out of a nosedive:

 

1. Don’t Panic!

Rule number one, do not panic. It seems simple enough, but most people who get stuck in a bad situation would prefer to complain and lament about how much the world is out to get them rather than figure out solutions. The world may or may not be out to get you, who cares, what are you going to do about it?

 

Look at it, planning something diabolical.

 

True leaders don’t complain, they highlight a problem, find solutions and execute. The best way to understand this point is to picture a person who is guaranteed to be in a plane crash in a few minutes. Does it make sense to spend your last moments cursing out incompetent pilots, or rather doing something productive like saying your shahadah some last du’as and maybe even some good deeds.

Now of course, there’s a difference between panicking and being scared/anxious. Being scared is fine, use that energy to your advantage to get some work done, but don’t let that fire burn you out and ruin the soundness of your judgment by panicking.

 

2. Don’t get stuck in details.

One of the biggest reasons people get overwhelmed by a subject they don’t understand is getting stuck in the details. If you want to learn a subject quickly, learn the basic point or overview of the material first, then fill in the blanks with details and terminology you didn’t fully grasp after.

If you’re learning history for example, chances are you’re learning about how some person (or people) did something important. What’s the big deal about what happened? WW2 can be summed up by saying gigantic war happened in Europe again, Germany got strong somehow and everyone went crazy. There, you understand the big picture, now you can slowly fill in the specifics about Nazi Political Propaganda and the Invasion of Normandy only after you get the big point.

Same rule goes for example for Chemistry or Physics. Don’t get lost in the terminology or algebra, the basic logic of what’s being done is never complicated. If you do get stuck, always ask yourself, “what do I not know to solve this problem?”  When you answer that question with either math you can’t set up, an equation or fact you didn’t memorize, then you can quickly target what you need to study.

 

3. The Mark-to-Time ratio.

Of course, your biggest problem is that you’re limited on time. What does any smart person do when they’re limited on resources? They prioritize for the most important.

How do you decide what’s going to cost the most marks before the exam? It’s in the course outline, Einstein (hey that rhymes). If you used rule #2 well, you already get the important points and you can use that to figure out what’s worth more studying. Looking at the other tests, assignments and exams available to you to helps you to see what’s been focused on before.

When you’re in an exam, this is much easier because the amount of marks is right beside each question. If you don’t get something just star it and come back when you have time. Some people get stubborn on tiny one-mark questions as if they were taunted or something, don’t be foolish like that.

 

What did you say about my momma?

 

4. The all-nighter.

The oldest trick in the book and the last ace in the hole. The entire point is to buy the time you need to study, and every good all-nighter has the same basic features:

1. Lots of time for studying.

2. Method for staying awake.

3. Method for combating occasional hallucinations.

Remember, there’s no point in an all-nighter if you’re going to waste it on Facebook or reading random pointless articles (like this one). Shut everything out and get to your work, the only thing that needs to be done.

As for staying awake, it’s better to use healthy meals, food and maybe a little physical activity than getting loaded up on coffee because you may actually crash before you need to. Hallucination-wise, just politely let them know you have to work and they’ll understand.

 

Not now Mr.President, I have work to finish.

 

The biggest problem with an all-nighter is that you’ll be at less than 100% for the test, which is why it’s a bad idea under normal circumstances. The only reason you would pull one is from a carefully calculated trade-off. To minimize the damage, bring some snacks to have during the test so you can get some last bit of energy to collapse over the finish line.

 

Conclusion

So there you have it, a few simple points to do the best you can. Of course none of this is going to be pleasant, that’s why it’s a bad situation. Hopefully you’ll learn from this mistake and plan more carefully in the future. Since you’ll probably be back here again somehow, you always have this article you can review =).