prepping for uni and i'm in year 1 lwk scared 🥺🥺 any advices?? 🥺🥺
uni prep sucks 😭 no matter how much you do, you're still gonna feel like something is missing till the very last minute
i remember how traumatising first year uni proff exams were 😭
(when are yours starting btw?)
that being said, here's some advice for you that I wished I knew before:
1. do the basics. they are never, NEVER gonna ask sm hyperspecific topic from the corner of the textbook
2. 99% of questions are gonna be from bhalani/list of important topics that you have (the 1% that you think came out of bhalani? turns out that, too, was in there, hidden, waiting)
3. PYQs!! I swear this saved my biochemistry. paper setters are lazy and WILL repeat questions so plsplspls go through the pyqs
4. sleep. do not think u can power through it with coffee or energy drinks or sheer willpower. sleep. or you will somehow fall asleep in physio 2 paper like I did and be unable to finish the said paper
5. discuss! in the last minute, while you're waiting in line entering the exam hall- discuss as much as you can. one of my roommates predicted the laq in almost each paper and we had discussed it JUST before entering.
6. write more than the question asks for (follow this one only if u have the time for it in the paper ofc) but like, it genuinely boosts your marks somehow, making the examiner feel that you've written stuff even in the questions you haven't
7. FOOD. pls eat and drink enough water and get enough sleep both during the prepratory leave and during the exam days. this is not a time u wanna fall sick.
8. fear is good. well sometimes. it does force you into studying. but its important to not let it overpower you. use the fear to catapult yourself ahead (I started and completed physio cns in 1 day a week before ut started cuz my roommates scared me by repeatedly telling me how important it was, which it was)
9. there are some topics you know are never gonna fit in your brain. ignore those and build stronger concepts in other topics so u can skip that question if it comes in the optional questions section. now here ofc this shouldn't be a potential laq but like, for me I could never never memorise those brain section drawings in anatomy through cortex medulla whatever so I just and if I had spent time on that then I wouldn't have been able to study the stuff that I actually wrote in the exam.
10. you know your brain. this isn't the time to change the way you study because your friends are influencing you saying this method is better or whatever. if you study better by writing/reading/discussing do it. do it your way. that's the best way.
lastly, uni exams feel like a big deal but honestly, it's just another exam. it will come, you'll do the best you can, and it will go, and the day it ends, you're gonna laugh at yourself from 15 days ago wondering why you were even scared to begin with 🫂
