Hey guys!

In two weeks my final exams for my Gymnasium degree are starting and I'm pretty nervous! After seven years of high school I'm so done with it and I can't wait to graduate and finally go to university! Today I thought I'd share my five tips for studing for your exams. These are the things I do while studying or the things that help me with studying. Maybe these tips will help you out a bit for your exams!

I know you probably aren't in the mood to clean up your room or you think you don't have any time for that, but trust me it definitely helps you studying when you're room isn't a mess. Last week I decided it was time to finally clean up my room and I found it really relaxing actually. Now I can finally study at my desk again without having to move stuff. Also, if you've cleaned up your room, you can't get distracted by that random magazine that's laying on the floor. Though, if you really don't have any time to clean up, don't, but find a place where you have enough space and is a bit cleaned up, like the dinner table.

You've probably heard this many times, but plan ahead! Write down when your exams are and what you have to do for it, so you know what to do. For studying I make a weekplanning most of the time, because I've tried to make dayplannings but they didn't work for me. In my weekplanning I write down what I want/need to do that week for each subject and every day I just choose which subject(s) I want to do that day. Most of the time I start with the subject, which exam is the first or which I find the hardest. For my final exams, I've written down all my subjects in order of which I find the most important or the hardest. I also have made a list of what I find the hardest or what I have to practise more for each subject, so I know what I have to focus on. 

I think these sticky notes are very useful. If I find a page that's really important, I just use these notes so I can't forget to learn it.

Make sure you also relax and take a break of studying. Your brains won't work as good as before after 4 hours of studying, so take a nap or do some fun stuff so your brains can relax. What I like to do is go to the gym or work an evening so I'm not constantly thinking about my upcoming exams. What also really helps me to relax is to play some relaxing music or play my piano (I play piano for 10 years now). On Spotify you can find playlists for differents moods, including focus and chill. Here you can find different playlists for while your studying (most are instrumental or classical music) or while you're chilling out (acoustic or ballad songs). 

Most of the time I choose one of these playlists to relax:

Alt Chill: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/4qboye2hevAIWlf9GfeLlh

Piano Ballads: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/7urGFUTDExzJDxSX3Jd6OO

Afternoon Acoustic: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/16BpjqQV1Ey0HeDueNDSYz

Peaceful Piano: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/63dDpdoVHvx5RkK87g4LKk

Another thing that's really important during studying and during your exam, is staying hydrated. Research has found that drinking much water gives you more energy so you can concentrate better while studying. So next time, don't grab some energy drink but just drink a big glass of water. I can understand if you don't like to drink water all the time. If you want to drink something, make yourself a smoothie. You can find lots of recipes on the internet or just make your own kind of smoothie with your favourite fruit or/and vegetables. I love to make the 'basic' strawberry, banana smoothie with orange juice, I love the taste of the combination of these fruits with the juice.

Also, make sure you eat good. When I'm hungry I can't focus anymore and start thinking (daydreaming?) about food. Especially around dinner time so most of the time I stop studying then and continue after dinner.

I think this is the hardest point for me: not getting distracted. Especially when I'm using my laptop or phone during studying I suddenly end up on Facebook, Instagram or on our blog (that's the reason I'm writing this blogpost right now...). That's why I hide my phone or leave it downstairs when I'm studying in my room. If I don't really need my laptop I'll just leave it downstairs either. If I really need it, I just try to stay focus and close everything I don't need at the moment so I can't get distracted by that. If I don't need my laptop for a while I just close it or disconnect with the WiFi. I always have to look up the WiFi password, which takes some time, so I'll only go looking for it when I really need it. It also helps me to make kind of deals with myself, like 'if I have finished this, I can take a break and browse on the Internet a bit'  or something like that.

So these were my five tips for studying for your exams. 

You've probably heard of them all before, but these are the ones I find the most important and I use these the most. I hope you find these a bit useful! 

Do you have your exams soon? Are you also (hopefully) graduating this year? :)

x Sherilynn