Finals Forum offers strategies for exam success

With Finals fast approaching, we recently held a forum for all undergraduate students sitting university exams this year. The session was designed to offer some strategies for successfully tackling the exam period, and to answer any questions. Third-year PPE student Nicole Sparkes was at the event:

It began with talks from the College GP, Dr Leaver, and the college welfare team—the Chaplain, Simon Jones, and the nurse, Catherine Haines. A really important message emphasised by all three was the need to retain a sense of perspective about Finals and to be 'kind' to ourselves.  The next few months will involve a lot of hard work, but I found it reassuring to be reminded that we are all human, after all, and need to remember to eat, sleep, exercise, and—perhaps easiest to forget—to continue to have fun during this important period.

We also received advice from the Senior Tutor, Catherine Paxton, on revision skills. She suggested we approach the challenge of exams just as a sportsman would an important competition:

• identify the nature of the challenge by making use of the multiple resources about exams that are available to us;
• meet the challenge with a realistic revision plan;
• keep to this plan as best we can (the ‘training’);
• then meet the challenge on the day.

I found her chosen definition of revision particularly helpful. Often it feels as if there is a culture of fear surrounding Finals, a sense that we should find this period one of intense stress and that a failure to do so means we are not taking them seriously enough. By defining revision as 'the act of seeing again', however, Dr Paxton encouraged us to compare it to making the ascent to a mountaintop. At the peak, we gain the benefit of a panoramic view, seeing everything we have visited before from a new, clearer perspective. This encourages us to see revision not as a difficult chore to be scared of, but as a positive opportunity to review all the work we have completed over the last few years from a position of better understanding.

Five Merton postgraduate students who sat their Finals last year also provided a student perspective on strategies to deal with the exam period. Each spoke about what worked for them, and what didn’t. Strategies included:

• making sure to schedule something ‘fun’ every day;
• trying to avoid talking about Finals with friends; and
• spending as much time with non-Finalist friends as possible.

It was great to be able to hear some words of wisdom from those who went through Finals last year, and to be reassured that we will all make it to the other side in one piece!

In the spirit of taking proper care of ourselves, even the snacks provided were healthy – fruit and flapjacks in place of the usual cupcakes.

Of course, the nature of our degrees means that a lot rides on Finals, but the forum encouraged me to see this as a positive thing, not something to be feared. The next few months do not need to be ones of cramming, late nights, and stress. Instead, I realise that I have an opportunity to wear in my hiking boots, climb to that peak, take in the view, and then show off the culmination of my achievements over the last three years!