The time is approaching for you to get down to business in earnest. We say in earnest because we know you’re a very responsible student who has kept up with your studies.

But of course, this is the moment to put the review sessions aside and get serious about studying. Now you breathe, eat, and live for exams. It’s that time of year, and you have to give it your all.

And we’re here to lend you a hand with all this work. We want you to not waste a single second and for all your effort to be rewarded with a great final grade.

Tips and advice for better organizing your study time during exams

In your battle to devour credits and take new subjects, you need a little guide to help you stay focused. We say this because it’s very easy to get distracted and lose your way. Madrid has so much to see and do, and you probably already have a great group of friends who are thinking about doing many things, except studying.

Plan your time and put it into practice. Procrastination, that thing so hard to say and so easy to do, may be the most common problem among students. And we’d love to tell you it goes away with time, but the truth is, it doesn’t. It’s a bad habit that needs to be tackled and eliminated as soon as possible.

For those unfamiliar with the term, procrastination is the noble art of putting off tasks. And continuing to postpone them as much as possible until it almost costs you a bad grade, a failing grade, or even getting fired.

That thing that sounds so ingrained in our culture and should be a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage can really mess you up in your studies, so it’s time to get serious.

Plan your week, no matter what method you choose: a traditional planner, a digital calendar, or a paper one, it doesn’t matter. Forget about leaving everything to the last minute, giving up, or setting unrealistic goals.

Wars are won battle by battle, and you’ll earn your degree by passing them one by one. So set achievable, easy-to-reach goals, like reviewing for 30 minutes or tidying up your notes, whether you took them yourself or downloaded them.

This will create a good study habit in you, and it will also boost your morale as you realize you can achieve what you set out to do. Remember, one day at a time, one step at a time.

Within this plan, we recommend creating smaller sections; break down the content into small knowledge capsules, with each capsule corresponding to a different study area. This will help you maintain order and a sound approach, as well as progress steadily and consistently.

Then, stick to your plan religiously. The reason is that once you’re halfway through the week, your brain, lazy as can be, will find a thousand ways to get distracted, and one of its favorites is creating unnecessary things.

Whether it’s tidying your room or even reviewing another subject, these are just activities that will distract you from your main and real objective. So, create your schedule prioritizing and addressing the urgent and real need for each study block and subject.

Try to keep things simple at all times. Because we love to complicate our lives, with new methods and convoluted approaches, why? Exactly, because your brain is eager to do anything but what it’s supposed to be doing. We bet anything that back in high school I was more of a mess than you, and you, who’s not much of an organizer, would have had your room spotless by exam time.

Study Techniques and Methods

It’s true that trends come and go, and there’s always a new study from some obscure university claiming to have found a shockingly effective and incredibly easy new study method. Well, we’ll see about that.

Just in case, and until they invent patented concentration pills with a 100% pass rate, we’re going to recommend what (almost) always works and what more than one of us has used to get a degree.

Besides our main recommendation to keep up with everything, we love the active practice technique. This means that once you’ve grasped the main concepts, you should jump right in and leave all the theory behind, making way for practice. Learning by doing, so apply what you know through exercises and exam questions.

We know what you’re thinking: “But if my subject isn’t practical, how do I do it?” We have the perfect solution: explain. That’s right, imagine you’re the teacher and you have to explain it to a student—poor thing! Explaining and teaching something helps your brain assimilate and understand it better. Try it and you’ll be surprised by the results. Your classmates at CATS Residence better watch out, because they’ll probably hear more than one lecture from you during exam time.

Do mock exams, and not just for the questions, but for the atmosphere. Recreate the exact length of an exam, with questions taken from previous years or by reviewing the syllabus yourself. Creating your own questions also helps you understand the topic at hand.

Flashcards are a must—the classic study cards you can use on your own or to help you study with classmates. Although this is a very personal matter—how, where, and with whom you study—the challenge lies in finding the ideal conditions for you. Some people need absolute silence, while others can’t even scratch the floor without music. There are those who prefer to create a fun Q&A session with classmates and those who just want to memorize like machines, endlessly repeating something in their room.

Whatever your style, find what motivates you, relaxes you, and helps you achieve your goal.