How to Prepare for Exams and Meet Assignment Deadlines

“Do you think King Joffrey Baratheon...?”

“Shut up.”

“The imp really...”

“I have an exam, back off!”

“In The Winter Soldier, Captain America and the Black Widow actually...”

“Are you not listening to me?”

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Conversations with my friend Bildy are maddeningly distracting. He will never shut up and always talks about something I am interested in.

In his defense, he doesn’t distract me on purpose, but he has not got an impressive IQ either. A sixth grader would be smarter than him. Oh, in case you were wondering, Bildy is my imaginary friend. He stays with me all the time and gets super excited while I am preparing for exams.

“Do you know the girl next door?” He finally got me. The next few hours were spent discussing ‘cool’ ways to look impressive in front of the neighbor, playing PS3 and watching a movie.

Preparing for exams and meeting assignment deadlines can suddenly make absolutely everything except studying incredibly interesting. I would not mind even cleaning my room if it gave me a break from study. But, in order to take off on that alluring vacation trip, first you have to take those end of semester exams and hand in all your course assignments.

I am sure most of you, if not all, have a friend like Bildy and think of exam season like I do. But sitting in an exam and passing it with at least an average score will take some doing on your part. You have to play your role, even if means being pretty stern with your version of Bildy. Here are my tips on how to prepare for exams, set personal goals and make a study plan to help you meet all your deadlines, while still enjoying your life too.

I am usually very upbeat at the start of my semester. In the first lecture, I try to completely understand the course requirements and assignments, especially their due dates so that I can set some personal goals and start writing my study plan. But Bildy usually has other plans. “Look at the guy in the red shirt, he is playing with his iPad,” he whispered as I was about to note the assignment deadline. I shrugged him off, but he had already done the damage. I spent the rest of the session watching what everybody else was doing. I could see most of them had such a friend because they all were doing everything but paying attention to the lecturer.

Anyway, the best way to go about preparing for exams and coursework deadlines is to create a study plan for the semester. Now before I put you off, let me clarify what this means. I am not asking about designing a building. After Week 1 you should know exactly what your personal goals are, which assignments you need to complete, what exams you need to pass, when the deadlines are and roughly how much time you want to dedicate to each task. Planning in advance means you should have more time to prepare for each exam and work on each assignment, and will help you avoid pressure when the deadlines loom.