My first exams at WUR

Day one, first period and my only worry was the final exam. Luckily, one of my subjects was only about projects, but the other one its final grade was based on a final exam (50%).

Every day at classes the only thing I could think about was how bad/well I will perform in the exam. My attitude was changing a lot depending on the academic content. Somedays, studying the content of the lecture, I was thinking “Ok, I think I understand this one”, and other days, I was more like “I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THIS”.

I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself.

Probably, because in the University where I did my Bachelor everything was around your grades. I didn’t enjoy studying for that exam I had a lot of -unnecessarily- ups and downs because of my self-pressure and because of all of the changes I was facing. Everything mixed up together isn’t a great combination.

Exam preparation:

I started reading the reader in my free time on weeks 5 and 6 but when week 7 arrived was when I properly started preparing for my exam in combination with doing one paper and a group project.

The subject I had my exam was related to Statistics and for me was really challenging because I’ve never had a similar course before. Everything was new to me and programming is not one of my skills. Even when the exam was written they also put questions on “code verification”.

However, I did the best I could but also trying to be kind to myself to not get overwhelmed.

Days were passing and I started to understand a bit more. Two days before the exam I could solve the exam model and I was very happy about it.

Surprisingly for me, the exam was very similar to the practice one, at least with the level of difficulty and the type of questions. I managed to solve it all, and the 3h were enough for me to also check my answers.

Surprisingly for me, the exam was very similar to the practice one.

I got a good grade for the exam and the result was even higher than I expected. In the end, the part I was more afraid of was the one where I performed the best.

Here I let you some tips that worked for me and that may help you prepare for the exams of next week:

Tips

1. Find a study partner to motivate you every day to get out of bed and start working. You don’t need to talk or discuss about the subject all the time but somebody you can motivate to go to the Library with and to have relaxing breaks.
2. In case the Library is full (that it will be) wake up earlier (if you are a morning person) to find a spot or go in the evening where tends to be less crowded. Also, on Campus, there are some other spots to study, like empty classrooms or common spaces of the different buildings. And don’t forget about the Library at the City Centre
3. Don’t hesitate to ask questions to your classmates or to your professor if you don’t understand something
   Try to keep a scratch paper with you while you are studying so you can write down every question that you have. Don’t trust your brain to remember you all of them.
4. Have a good 8h sleep the day before the exam. Nothing is better than a well-rested brain.
5. Bring water and some food like nuts or fruit to the exam in case you start to feel hungry. Don’t forget to ask the examinator if you can eat there.

Comment below if you have more tips for preparing for the exam week or if you know secret spots to study on Campus.

I wish you good luck and success in your exams and well-deserved happy holidays!