[Andy16]

I can't think of a more suitable forum to post this in...

Anyway, my first exam (of 9 in two weeks!) is tomorrow morning. For gcses, I allocated maybe 15 minutes to go through my notes before morning exams.

So, my question is, for my AS exam(s), is it better to maximise my sleep and just head straight to the exam, or cut my sleep by 45 mins-1hr so I can read through the topic quickly?

thanks

[yayifications]

Could you possibly go to bed a bit earlier, get up early enough to read over your notes but still get the same amount of sleep? Maybe only read over the topics you're weakest on if you're pushed for time, but you definitely don't want to be tired before your exams.

[mimx]

I think revising on the morning helps more. It boots your brain into Maths/Physics/Basket Weaving mode before you start the exam. Sleep kills that.

But considering this was 10 hours ago you've probably already decided.

[swiftylol]

Bump!

Any other ideas on this? I'm thinking of doing thise for my Philosophy & Ethics exam. Not sure if it will have negative, positive or neutral effects.

[The Mr Z]

(Original post by swiftylol)
Bump!

Any other ideas on this? I'm thinking of doing thise for my Philosophy & Ethics exam. Not sure if it will have negative, positive or neutral effects.

Likely have a negative impact on your performance - you will be more tired during the exam, having spent less time actually asleep but also having more on your mind and so sleeping worse. Also your work will be unproductive late at night.

Much better to have a relaxing evening and get a good amount of sleep.

Also I generally find it a bad idea to work immediately before an exam as well, as the knowledge you cram then tends to dominate and cause you to temporarily forget/struggle with other things from the syllabus.

[SilverstarDJ]

In the morning I only revised a few formulae or something which I really could not remember rather than spending a lot of time revising before the exam. I preferred a better nights sleep and being less tired as I felt revising in the morning made me panic to much. However, the different things work for different people. Like someone said, would be better for you to go to bed early if you do want to revise in the morning.

[Alexandra's Box]

Make sure you know the course properly beforehand so that a quick reading of unit titles would just get you thinking about all the different topics.

[08rbut]

Most days, I get up at 5.30 am to do revision. It works better for me to go to bed earlier as I get tired easily. I also work more efficiently as I am less tired.

[swiftylol]

(Original post by The Mr Z)
Likely have a negative impact on your performance - you will be more tired during the exam, having spent less time actually asleep but also having more on your mind and so sleeping worse. Also your work will be unproductive late at night.

Much better to have a relaxing evening and get a good amount of sleep.

Also I generally find it a bad idea to work immediately before an exam as well, as the knowledge you cram then tends to dominate and cause you to temporarily forget/struggle with other things from the syllabus.

Think you may have misunderstood, anyways this is what I was planning on doing:

Get a good nights sleep (at least 9h)
Wake up, around 2-3h before exam and cover the entire spec (mind maps + summary sheets)
Go to school, relax -> take the exam

I may just not do any in the morning tho, less stress.

[alexchestfield]

Sometimes I revise for an exam in the morning so I can get fresh information in my head. Also, I stick big black dild0s in my rectum because it feels nice

[Prestoria]

For every single one of my morning exams, I slept at 8-9pm and woke up as early as 3-4am to do some revision before the exam. But doing that is definitely not advisable - it's better to be refreshed than to feel groggy and tired.

[roflcakes1]

I guess it depends on what kind of person you are.
I don't revise before an exam unless it's the afternoon or I happen to be in school too early for it, and even then it's only 30 mins - 1 hour. I find trying to cram can make you stressed out, and for me that has a big negative effect in exams, but that's probably because I'm easily stressed out.
I would say if you do do revision before an exam, make sure it's only going over your notes. Don't depend on that time to revise a new topic or learn something you're really weak on - make sure you've dealt with this at an earlier time so that the morning revision is literally to get your brain going.
Also I'd also say don't wake up too early/go to bed too late if you're not used to doing it. I have a friend who wakes up at 3-4am before exams and revises, regularly, and she's fine, but I also know someone who tried it for the first time before an exam, fell asleep during the exam and got a U haha.

[tory88]

What I dif for GCSE and A-Level exams, and still do for university exams, is just to quickly flick through my notes whilst eating breakfast and pick out concepts I found difficult to read through. Alternately, for some exams I would write a one-page (2 sides) revision sheet out the day before and I would instead read through that. I don't think you should compromise sleep really, just for an extra half hour reading, when you could do that half hour today instead.

[ciclismo]

I always wake up early for morning exams unfeasibly early to get some revision in. If I have done a lot of hard work over a more sensible period of time (highly unlikely!) then it doesn't matter as much, but cramming doesn't commit things into your long term memory usually so I HAVE to get up early to refresh myself with the content or else I will just go blank. I think it's got to a point now where if I didn't do revision before a morning exam I'd walk into it feeling bad and I'd be setting myself up mentally to not do as well. Probably not a good thing but everyone has little stressy exam rituals

[Elzie]

I find revising in the morning before the exam just stresses me out more. So what I do instead is if I'm walking with someone who's doing the same exam, I just talk at them about stuff I know and then they can chip in stuff too. But I learn better from talking and teaching it to others than sitting reading and drawing mind maps.

[HerRoyalPickaxe]

You actually properly store the things you've learnt when you sleep, and revising without giving yourself time to sort through the information you can actually muddle up your understanding. As has already been mentioned, revising when you know there's no time left can stress you out, and the stress and tiredness can cause you to make silly mistakes. However, learning key equations, and repeating what you're already fairly sure of (without external sources) can help make you more sure of yourself in the exam. It's a choice, and the logical answer at the time always seems to be to cram XP

[Andy16]

after posting this thread, I thought no-one replied... It's only occured to me it has recieved responses now.... and all my exams are over haha.

For my first exam I only got about six hours of sleep... sure didn't help. Most of my exams in the first week were AM and I sure did make a few cock-ups. Second week exams were mostly pm, so I was able to get enough sleep.

I can learn from the mistakes I've made, it sure sucks that our school doesn't sit unit 1's in january as I couldve learnt from mistakes then!