so you've got exams coming up and you're
just not sure where to get started with
it all are you on the right track should
you be doing something differently what
are the most high yield topics have you
studied enough or do you need to kick
into gear and put your foot on the gas
it's also difficult not to compare your
technique with other people on the
course or to doubt if what you're doing
is actually gonna work
what is up guys karma medic here and
welcome back to another dose if you've
got exams coming up then this video is
for you it's hard to know whether your
studying technique is going to get you
the grades that you want or need so here
are five life-saving exam tips to help
you get through the exam season my first
tip is to have a plan and to have a plan
early it's so important for you to know
how your course is structured and when
your exams are you also need to know the
type of exams you're going to have so in
medical school for example most commonly
we have single best answer questions or
mcqs we have oski's anatomy spotter
exams and so on i think students really
underestimate how beneficial it is to
start early with understanding the basic
layout of your course and when you can
expect to be having your exams so that
you can be better prepared for them it's
easy to think that your exams are at
some point in the summer and just have
that sort of in the back of your mind
and then before you know it you're a
month away from exams and you're
cramming in all the work and you're just
really stressed and it's a bad time i
find it helpful to meticulously plan my
year at the start instead of waiting for
the last term and then panic ensues it's
always worth remembering that we're
really good at talking ourselves into
and tricking ourselves into the belief
that we have lots of time ahead of us
and that we shouldn't worry or we can
leave planning until tomorrow when we
all know that tomorrow doesn't really
come the ideal situation is to use the
information on your course and the dates
of your exams other assignments and
reading weeks etc from day one so that
you can plan your studies around it and
try to avoid the trap of tricking
yourself into believing that you can
leave everything until the last month
before exams you probably can and i'm
sure a lot of people get away with that
but it comes along with a lot of stress
and anxiety and that's something that
we're trying to avoid here on the
channel if you haven't already done this
don't worry or freak out you know it's
never too early to start i always say
having a plan no matter when in your
studying journey is going to be very
very helpful so just think about making
a plan so you have a general idea of
when things are going to be before we
get into what you can do if you're in
the thick of it in exam season i kind of
want to talk about falling behind with
content i've made an entire video about
the steps that you can take if you've
already fallen behind but i just want to
try and remind everyone to make it your
goal to not fall behind to begin with if
it's avoidable and the reason that i say
that is because if you stay on track
throughout the semester then it's a
little bit of work every now and again
consistently and you stay where you are
once you've fallen behind everything
kind of becomes exponentially more
difficult to get back on track and then
get ahead once more and so just trying
to remain a little bit consistent
throughout time is a lot easier than
having that falling behind sensation and
having to just do tons and tons of work
just to get back to the same starting
point now i know that a lot of the time
it isn't avoidable if you're unwell or
if you have other commitments outside of
academics or you're just having a really
bad day you can't reschedule something
like work etc but i think that building
into your study routine the fact that
you might fall behind at some point and
sort of building in this margin of error
or this safety net is really helpful
when it comes to planning and one way
that you can get around this is that if
you ever find yourself with a little bit
more free time you know obviously take
that time to go on have fun and see
friends and whatever but dedicate a
sliver of that time to looking ahead you
know at lectures that are already
available or doing some of the readings
that you know you're gonna have to do
anyway next week or in a couple of weeks
sometimes lectures from the previous
years are already available online and
so you can just look at those and get
ahead with that little bit of free time
that you have this can be really helpful
especially as you approach exam season
because once you reach exam season you
kind of just want to be reviewing the
content and the notes that you've
already gone over and that you've made
you don't really want to be looking at
new content making new notes and seeing
things for the first time so close to
your exams and if you've had a little
bit of free time throughout the semester
to do a little bit of reading ahead it
usually just propels you that much more
so that when it comes exam time you're
less stressed you have your notes ready
and you can just review them for me
personally the idea of cramming or
pulling all-nighters or you know
studying really really intensely before
exams causes me a lot of stress and
anxiety and part of the reason that i
work so hard throughout the year and
that i work so hard generally is because
i'm trying to avoid that stress i'm
trying to avoid putting myself in a
position where i would be so anxious and
worried and stressed pulling
all-nighters and things like that and
one of the ways that i've been able to
do that is by reading ahead in some of
my free time or down days i cannot
stress enough how important active
recall is but also how important doing
active recall is early on in the
academic year it's helpful to get an
idea of what your uni is going to be
testing you on way before you even get
to exam season the benefit of this is
that you're doing something that is
going to help you remember and
understand and apply the content for
exactly what you're going to be tested
on if you do pass paper questions early
on in the year then you're going to be
able to learn the exam structure learn
the type of questions that are going to
be asked for you and see the cumulative
effects of learning information at space
intervals as you get closer to the exam
i've said it before but at least in
medical school i feel like 80 of the
marks that you get in your exams are
going to come from something like 20 of
the content so you really benefit from
learning what these topics are early on
in the year doing past paper questions
or going through flash card decks that
you might have gotten from the older
years in your university even if it's on
content that you haven't quite gone
through yet it doesn't matter starting
early to build up that familiarity with
topics that you're going to learn about
in the future that you even might not
know about right now is really really
helpful and it can tell you what to
harness and focus your efforts and your
energy on when it comes to studying
obviously if you haven't seen this
material before and you're not familiar
with the questions then you might not be
scoring as well as you'd like but
especially at the beginning i really
wouldn't worry about the scores it's
more about getting familiar with the
types of questions with the types of
content and just getting used to what
you're going to be asked on the exam as
time goes on and you review that
material and you go over those topics in
your lectures and your tutorials et
cetera then you can be expecting to
score better but i really wouldn't worry
about it at the beginning okay so if
you're only seeing this video a month
before your exams and you need some tips
right now for while you're in the thick
of it the best tip that i can give you
is to be really clear about what your
time is worth i see a lot of people
spending hours on making flash cards or
notes and other resources that already
exist out there i think this can
generally be a pretty big waste of your
time you could be using this time to
actively engage with your content
through past papers and past paper
questions it's so important that you
consider where your time is going
especially when you don't have a lot of
it and with limited time you want to
make sure that you're focusing on the
most high yield materials the most high
yield content and topics that are likely
to come up on the exam and will actually
move the needle for you in terms of
getting a better grade using resources
from older years exchanging study notes
with your friends organizing study
groups and finding more creative ways to
use your time instead of just sitting in
the library or in your room studying
alone reviewing your notes over and over
again can be really helpful you've
always got to be thinking about what's
gonna best engage your brain are you
gonna do better with doing one hour of
flashcard making or one hour of
flashcard answering oftentimes students
don't realize that there are already
resources out there which can prevent
them from duplicating that work and
putting a lot of time and effort into
doing the sort of preliminary stuff
before the actual highly engaging stuff
like answering questions and recalling
information my advice is to use all of
the resources available to you and to
continuously ask yourself am i spending
my time in the most high yield way
another important thing is about
organizing study groups one of the main
reasons that i did so well in my oski's
is because i studied with other people
you'll learn so much from other people
on the course and you can ask them about
things that you're struggling with and
you can consolidate your learning by
explaining things or teaching them to
other people as well if you don't know
people that well just start a what's up
group and add people who you'd like to
know better or you'd like to study with
and get in charge of organizing
something i've personally been the king
of this method every year before exams
i'd always make a whatsapp group and i'd
put like 10 to 20 people in there who i
knew on the course i'd send a message
with something along the lines of all
right guys the time is here we have to
start preparing for finals let's pool
all of our resources together in this
group and share everything that we have
and then people would send over their
notes their flash cards their past paper
exams like everything you name it and
suddenly we were all in a much better
position with all the shared information
and resources than if we were all just
studying on our own and all of this
because i made a whatsapp group and
messaged 10-20 people which took me like
five minutes everybody wins and you'll
be surprised about how much people want
to be included in something like this
especially when you get closer to exam
season just most people don't want to
take that initiative and take charge of
actually making the group so my last tip
is to rest meaningfully and consciously
even if you've left everything to the
last minute you still need rest there's
no scenario where you're gonna study day
and night for multiple days in a row and
still keep your sanity you're gonna go
crazy and you're gonna be really
stressed you can't study effectively if
you're not resting regularly and
meaningfully i mean look maybe you can i
don't know but i'll speak for myself and
in order to study hard i definitely need
to rest hard as well i personally keep
quite a strict schedule which includes
resting time for doing whatever it is
that i want in my day and also to make
sure that i get my seven hours of needed
sleep at night if i don't do that then
i'm much more likely to burn out and
then also when i'm studying during the
day and i'm tired it's not the best
thing for you know retaining all of that
information and actually learning it
properly you need to rest between topics
and between blocks of studying in order
to be able to learn that information
more efficiently as you've seen in my
previous videos i have a really strict
study routine especially around exam
time but it's so good to know that in my
downtime i can do whatever it is that i
want i have this really strict
differentiating line between my studying
time and my resting time and that means
that when i'm studying i'm completely
focused and i don't have my phone i
don't go on social media and i'm just
doing all the hard work and then in my
resting time i don't have to think about
work i'm not guilty about not studying
because i know that i've already done
that and i can focus all of my mind and
my energy on having fun and resting even
though in my resting time my to-do list
is still full of things i need to do and
i know that i have a lot to get done i
know that i deserve this break as well
and i should take advantage of it and
rest as much as i can i really like to
remind myself as often as i can but it's
important to rest my mental health in
order to get the most out of my studying
time or my productive time in the day if
you are finding it difficult to get in
enough rest or your mental health is
deteriorating then please reach out to
your friends your family your personal
tutors at university or anyone who you
trust who might be able to help i know
at least here in medical school there is
help available and you know universities
are used to dealing with students who
are struggling with their studies with
their mental health with whatever and so
they have experience dealing with these
issues and they're available to talk to
if you need them so please do remember
that and don't suffer through it on your
own or struggle through it by yourself
talking to other people is a really
really great way to sort of get tackling
the problem you know moving past any
difficult period that you're in in your
life and that is it guys those are my
five life-saving exam tips that will
hopefully help you get through your
exams hopefully this video will have
added value in some way shape or form
that can help you adapt your studying
routine for the better i hope there's
something that you've been able to take
away from this video even if it's just a
reminder to reach out to friends to
study together or to take rest or even
just to start planning for exams from
now no matter how far into the academic
year you are if you have any tips that
you think might help other students then
please do leave them in a comment down
below and if you're interested i have my
patreon the karma club where we do lots
of these live study with me sessions and
you can ask like-minded people questions
about studying and everything else it's
just a great place to be i'll leave a
link in the description down below if
you're interested and that's it from me
i'll see you in the next one peace
all right show them
amazing huh
greek blizzard