The night before your big exam, you find yourself in a predicament. You neglected to study earlier, leaving you with no choice but to pull an all-nighter.  

The next day you feel groggy from staying up for over 24 hours. As you sit down to start your exam, you struggle to even make it through the first page, feeling like you barely remember anything you studied. Eventually, your exhaustion catches up with you, and you doze off, completely missing the rest of the test. Later, you turn in your work, knowing deep down that you have bombed the exam, regretting not starting your studying sooner.  

“Doing homework and studying along the way is the most effective way to process information into long-term memory,” said Melanie Bauman, Director of Wellness. “Short pieces over a long time and access the information, understand it and use it in some other context than the one you have been taught.” 

The best way to use your time to study for your exam is to take it day by day. Sit down for an hour, review only a little bit of what’s in your study guide, and then repeat it the next day. Therefore, you will not have to cram a 12-hour study session in one night and forget everything the next morning. 

Understandably, there may be occasions when you don’t feel motivated to study in advance of an exam.  

Sometimes, you may find yourself too busy with other commitments to dedicate extra time to studying days before the test. In these situations, it is natural for your performance on the exam to fall short of your expectations. If you are still studying and you are exhausted, go to bed instead of staying up later. 

“When you stay up all night to study, it adds stress to your brain, and on top of that, you are going through sleep deprivation and put[ing] our brain in an anxious state,” Ms. Bauman said. “It’s better to go to sleep than to stay up all night studying or else your brain will not be able to rationalize, and your reading and listening comprehension will drop.” 

Remember, everyone experiences failure sometimes. It is through these setbacks that we grow and learn from our mistakes for the future. If you feel disappointed with the results, try not to stress or worry excessively because in the end, everything will eventually fall into place.