My 3 Top Tips on Coping With Exams

by Jordan Gale

As the exam period quickly approaches, I’m going to share with you my top 3 tips for staying productive and coping with exams at university.

To begin, my name is Jordan, and I study Digital Marketing at the University of Chester. I’m in my last year, so it’s safe to say I’m currently feeling the stress of exams and assignments!

No matter what uni you’re at, or whether you live in student flats in Leeds or Newcastle, being well prepared for your examinations and assignment submissions, in my opinion, is the best approach to reducing the pressure and stress that comes with them. So, keep reading to find out my tips on coping with exams!

Tip 1 – Don’t Work From Your Bed

From experience, working from bed is a big no!

It can be so tempting to grab your laptop and stay in the comfort of your bed. However, it can have negative effects as you are literally bringing your work to bed!

Healthline suggests that working from your bed can decrease your sleep quality, which leads to decreased productivity, energy levels, mood and quality of life. It can also affect your posture!

Instead, make an effort to work in a different room and try to create a morning routine that gets you in the right frame of mind for a day of uni work.

Personally, I try to get up at the same time each working morning, make my bed, change out of my pyjamas, have a coffee and snack and then make a plan for the day ahead.

Tip 2 – Take Mindful Breaks

I find that taking small breaks helps boost my productivity even if it’s just taking a quick techtimeout by getting up and getting some fresh air by going for a 5-minute walk.

Breaks are important, as evidence from Shiftbase suggests that breaks can help improve focus, concentration and energy levels.

If you are worried that taking breaks will disrupt your flow, you should give a productive technique called ‘the Pomodoro technique’ a go. This popular technique began in universities, and it teaches you how to work intensively for short periods of time.

I’ve been using techtimeout’s Pomodoro timer to break work into time intervals and have short breaks in between, and it’s really helping. It also eliminated the anxiety I used to get even thinking about beginning to revise or write, which made coping with exams that extra hard.

Tip 3 – Get Enough Sleep

Now, if I’m honest, this is the tip I struggle with the most because I see myself as a night owl. However, sleep is so important!

Sleep deprivation from working can leave you feeling very lethargic, less creative, and even make it very difficult to focus on your exams and assignments, which could affect your grades.

For me and a lot of people, the reason I struggle to get to sleep is due to mindlessly scrolling through my phone at night! It is shown from a survey that 86% of people reported that they have trouble sleeping due to being on their phones before lying down to sleep!

I would recommend using the techtimeout sleeping pouch as it’s a perfect way to give you and your phone a well-deserved rest. It allows you to rest your mind and enable better sleep as you can’t go on your phone. Oh, and you’ll also find that it helps with coping with exams!

(Bonus tip: put the pouch in a different room – out of sight, out of mind!)