Congratulations, you have now made it to the final term with just one last hurdle to overcome; the dreaded exams.
For some of you your exam timetable has been released and you’ve find out you finish at the start of June. Not bad you think to yourself, plenty of time to revise and hopefully secure some decent grades. Shock horror, you suddenly find out that all your friends finish in the middle of May, great. They will be enjoying relaxing afternoons, soaking up the sun with a bottle of wine and hitting Sugarhouse at least two weeks before you.
A battle is about to commence: revision vs. a social life. Who will prevail victorious and how does the balance between the two become manageable?
The trick is to balance both. Whilst this is definitely the time to bury your head in a book and revise everything you have learnt over the past 20 weeks, you do also deserve some time off. You can’t be expected to revise all the time that would be unproductive and if not anything else, dull.
One option is to get together with your friends from your course and make a study group, this adds to the fun of revision whilst being sociable. You can help each other on sections that you may have struggled with and have some banter along the way. If you have a productive day then a night off is in order. An alternative option for a night out is simply enjoying a meal with some friends. Treating yourself to a glass of wine is probably not going to result in a banging headache the next day, meaning a productive day of revision can be taken care of.
Time management is key and allows you to still enjoy a night out on the tiles; your weekly plan should just probably not consist of Elements on a Monday, Carleton on Wednesday, Revs on Thursday and a double Sugar weekend. Maybe just the odd Sugarhouse visit to prevent you from having withdrawal symptoms, after all you still need to enjoy yourself and take a break.
As hard as it sometimes may be the trick is to say no. With the excitement of Extravs just around the corner there is a whole week of partying to be had. If you’re a fresher or a second year you have at least another year of university to enjoy. Unfortunately the prospects for final years are less exciting: we will not be able to continue this student lifestyle, but I know I have most certainly enjoyed it whilst I have had the opportunity. As sad as it may seem it is time to lay off the social calendar and crack on with some work, even if this means that the result will be revision one, social life nil.
If you are the one who is finished first however, just remember to give your flat mates some space to revise, if they want to go out and be sociable I am sure they will be the first to let you know. Once exams are over and the highly anticipated results come through, hopefully the end result will be a win win situation.
