Published by: Tara Lenard

ITS THE MOST STRESSFUL TIME OF THE YEAR, HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO MAKE IT  BETTER.  
The month of June is a tough and demanding period of the school year. Facing end of year exams can truly  test one’s abilities and skills for studying, time management and stress. We find ourselves at the last weeks of  the school year overwhelmed by the amount of content and there just seems to be so little time.  There are many studying techniques which you can use in order to manage your time better and to take off  some of the inevitable pressure that final’s month creates. Of course, not every single method is perfect for  everyone, however trying different techniques you may just be able too find the one that works for you.  
THE SMILEY, FROWNY, SAD FACE TECHNIQUE  
Finals can seem overwhelming because of the amount of content which you need to revise for all of your  subjects. This method coming from Ms Vaccaro, might be perfect for those who are intimidated by the  amount of information you need to absorb in what seems like so little time.  
It involves writing down all areas of your syllabus for all of your subjects. Next, you mark each area with a  smiley face, a frown face or a sad face. The smiley face indicates those areas of the subject which you  remember well, those which will probably take you very little time to revise. The frowns face, is meant for  those parts fo your courses which you remember, but might not know extremely well and which you will  need to go over to be able to grasp not completely. Lately, the sad face is the symbol for the topics which you  have absolutely no clue about, the most challenging ones, those which will probably consume the most  energy and time to go over. Once you have done this, the immediate assumption would be to revise all of the  sad face elements of your syllabus, however this is unattainable, will probably make you that much more  stressed and drain a lot of your energy of studying areas which you may not understand the first time you sit  down to revise.  
Ms Vaccaro, tells us to manage your revision around the markers which you have placed on the areas of the  syllabus and to balance between the three. For example, if you are tackling an extremely challenging topic of  maths which you have been focusing on for hours, reward yourself with a smiley face topic. This system is  great to keep you motivated and especially to balance your subjects. 
THE POMODORO STUDYING TECHNIQUE  
It is difficult to concentrate for long period of time, especially if what you are concentrating on is the  opposite of what you would rather be doing. Distracting yourself while you are revising is a natural habit,  you check your phone, you go downstairs to grab a glass of water, you make yourself a coffee, and suddenly  half an hour has gone by. The Pomodoro technique makes and effort to help students to manage their  distractions avoid procrastination and overstudying burnouts. It goes as follows:  
1. Set your timer to 25 minutes and start your revision without doing anything else, this is your intense  burst of work time  
2. When the timer rings take a 5-10 minute break  
3. Repeat for 3-4 times and then reward yourself with a longer break of up to 30 minutes. 
IMAGE CREDITS FROM : https://examstudyexpert.com/pomodoro-method/  
THE SQR3 METHOD  
This method helps students to retain informations from a textbook, or from large chunks of material  in an easier way following these five steps :  
Survey - start by skimming through the material, making note of only headings, titles, charts and  stand out features of the information  
Question - ask yourselves questions about the content such as : What parts do I remember? What is  this section about? Which sections did I find particularly challenging ? 
Read - Begin your reading by searching for the information which will allow you to answer those  questions  
Recite -Summarise the information which you have gathered into your own words, referring back to  the questions you had formulated in the second step  
Review - Once you have finished the chapter, review the material once again and quiz yourself on  the content.  
Of course, not all of these techniques will be useful to everyone . You might already have a  method which works for you, or you might be in need of a way to tackle a subject which you  are not keen about revising . Whatever it is, if these three techniques are suitable for you or  not, remember that end of years’ might seem more overwhelming than they actually are,  they are neither the first or last exams which you will face, therefore handle them with  perspective and try to find the method which will help you review the content in the best  way possible.