Exam day routine + last minute study tips to get those A’s *✧･ﾟ:*

Summary

In this video, you'll learn an effective exam day routine to maximize your performance. The host shares strategies such as deleting social media apps, studying with minimal distractions, and preparing everything the night before. Tips include doing practice questions, avoiding caffeine for better sleep, and using exercise to wake up on exam day. During the exam, focus on answering easy questions first, then tackle harder ones, and double-check your answers. The video also highlights useful tools like Blinkist for quick learning. Follow these steps to reduce stress and improve your exam scores.

Takeaways

• 📅 Plan your exam day starting the evening before, ensuring you gather all necessary materials and pack them the night before.
• 📱 To avoid distractions, delete social media apps from your phone and use airplane mode while studying.
• 🎧 Utilize tools like Notion to embed study videos or use background noise websites like I Miss My Library to avoid distractions.
• 📖 On the evening before the exam, review your notes and exam summaries, and do practice questions or tests under timed conditions.
• 🔍 Practice with a timer to manage time pressure and minimize simple errors by thoroughly reading and analyzing each question.
• 📚 Understand and leverage cognitive concepts from books like Thinking Fast and Slow to improve decision-making during exams.
• 🍎 Avoid caffeine in the evening to ensure a good night's rest and wake up early on exam day to review material and energize your body.
• 🏃‍♂️ Exercise briefly in the morning and consider a hot and cold shower to wake yourself up before the exam.
• ☕ Delay your caffeine intake until about an hour before the exam for optimal performance without crashing during the test.
• 📝 During the exam, write down key formulas and dates, skim through the questions to plan your approach, and allocate time for reviewing answers.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to provide a simple but comprehensive exam day routine and game plan to help students perform well on their exams.

What strategy does the speaker suggest to avoid distractions during exam season?

The speaker suggests deleting all social media apps from their phone several days before the exam and putting their phone into airplane mode while studying to avoid distractions from text messages or notifications.

How does the speaker recommend preparing the evening before the exam?

The speaker recommends going over a checklist of all the things needed for the exam, sharpening pencils, filling mechanical pencils with lead, ensuring pens work, charging the calculator, writing down the location of the testing center, and preparing any snacks for breaks.

What does the speaker suggest doing if there are chapters not covered by the night before the exam?

The speaker suggests reading through the outline of the chapter at the end of the textbook and doing the practice questions there. If time permits, they recommend reading through the entire chapter and taking minimal notes to review the following morning.

What technique does the speaker use to practice for exams under time pressure?

The speaker practices with a timer to match the time constraints and questions of the actual exam, which helps to combat rushing through questions and making simple errors.

What book does the speaker reference to explain the concepts of intuitive and rational thinking?

The speaker references the book 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman to explain the concepts of system one (intuitive and instinctive thinking) and system two (rational and executive function thinking).

What morning routine does the speaker suggest on the day of the exam?

The speaker suggests waking up at least two hours before the exam, doing some physical exercises like jumping jacks or stretching, taking a hot and cold shower, and having a quick breakfast that avoids sugary or processed carbs.

How does the speaker recommend handling difficult questions during the exam?

The speaker recommends answering the easiest questions first, flagging medium difficulty questions, and circling the hardest questions. For questions they don't know how to answer, they suggest using process of elimination and guessing the best they can.

What should you do at the end of the exam according to the speaker?

The speaker advises double-checking all answers and ensuring that the bubbling matches the chosen answers. They recommend using the entire exam time to review and correct any errors or silly mistakes.

What platform does the speaker use to find summaries of non-fiction books?

The speaker uses Blinkist, a platform that breaks down over 6,500 non-fiction books and podcasts into bite-sized summaries called 'blinks' that can be read or listened to in just 15 minutes.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Exam Preparation Routine

The video discusses a comprehensive exam day routine, including practical tips and strategies to achieve high grades and score in the top percentile of standardized tests. The speaker emphasizes the importance of deleting social media apps to avoid distractions and suggests embedding study videos in Notion or using websites like 'I Miss My Library' for background noise. The night before the exam, they recommend organizing materials, preparing snacks, and setting up an outfit. The speaker also advises against listening to music while studying and recommends using practice questions and timed tests to avoid simple mistakes.

05:02

📝 Study Tips and Tools

The speaker highlights the importance of studying until the last minute, reviewing notes, and using exam summary pages. They suggest reading textbook outlines and doing practice questions, emphasizing time management by using timers to simulate exam conditions. The concept of 'Thinking Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman is introduced to explain common cognitive errors, recommending strategies like reading questions twice and underlining key parts to avoid mistakes. They mention using Blinkist for book summaries to quickly grasp essential points, citing its benefits for busy individuals.

💡 Using Blinkist for Efficient Learning

Blinkist is promoted as a valuable tool for summarizing over 6,500 non-fiction books and podcasts into 15-minute 'blinks,' allowing users to quickly grasp main ideas. The speaker shares their experience with using Blinkist to refresh on key concepts from books like 'The 12-Week Year.' They explain Blinkist's 'Spaces' feature for sharing favorite titles and highlight a 25% discount offer for Blinkist annual premium subscriptions for viewers.

☕ Preparing for a Restful Night

The speaker advises avoiding caffeine in the evening and aiming for an early bedtime to ensure a good night's sleep before the exam. They stress the importance of waking up early on exam day to have ample time for review and preparation. The speaker suggests physical activity and a hot-and-cold shower to wake up, followed by a nutritious breakfast while avoiding sugary foods to prevent a sugar crash during the exam.

⏰ Exam Day Strategies

On exam day, the speaker recommends waking up at least two hours before the exam to prepare thoroughly. They discuss reviewing notes and key information, writing down important formulas and dates, and quickly skimming through the exam to gauge the number and type of questions. The speaker advises allocating 10 minutes at the end for review and using a strategic approach to answer questions by starting with the easiest ones and flagging harder ones for later. They also emphasize the importance of double-checking answers and matching them with the correct bubbles on the answer sheet.

🎯 Final Review and Best Wishes

The speaker concludes the video by emphasizing the importance of continuous review until the very last minute of the exam. They encourage viewers to use guessing strategies for challenging questions and to ensure accuracy in their answers. The video ends with well wishes for the viewers' exams and a reminder about the Blinkist discount offer.

Keywords

💡Exam Routine

The exam routine refers to the specific set of actions and practices the speaker recommends for preparing for and taking exams. It includes strategies like preparing materials the night before, studying until the last minute, and using a timer for practice questions. This routine aims to maximize efficiency and performance on exam day.

💡Distraction Management

Distraction management involves techniques to minimize distractions during study sessions and before exams. The speaker suggests deleting social media apps, using airplane mode on phones, and studying in environments with minimal distractions, such as using ASMR or library background noises. These strategies help maintain focus and enhance productivity.

💡Checklist

The checklist is a digital list of items and tasks the speaker prepares before an exam. It includes essentials like sharpened pencils, working pens, a charged calculator, and the location of the testing center. This ensures that all necessary materials are ready and nothing is forgotten on exam day, reducing stress and potential mishaps.

💡Study Environment

The study environment refers to the physical and auditory conditions in which the speaker studies. The speaker emphasizes creating an exam-like environment by studying in silence or using specific background noises, avoiding music, and eliminating distractions. This practice helps simulate the actual exam conditions, making the student more comfortable and prepared.

💡Practice Questions

Practice questions are sample problems or previous exam questions that the speaker uses to prepare for an exam. The speaker practices with a timer to simulate exam conditions and improve time management skills. This method helps identify areas of weakness and build confidence in answering similar questions during the actual exam.

💡System 1 and System 2

System 1 and System 2 are concepts from the book 'Thinking Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman. System 1 is the brain's fast, automatic, and intuitive mode of thinking, while System 2 is slower, more deliberate, and logical. The speaker uses these concepts to explain the importance of double-checking answers and avoiding rushed, intuitive mistakes during exams.

💡Flow

Flow is a psychological state of being fully immersed and engaged in an activity, often leading to peak performance. The speaker suggests that avoiding distractions and following a structured exam routine can help students enter a state of flow during their study sessions and exams, enhancing focus and efficiency.

💡Caffeine Management

Caffeine management involves strategically consuming caffeine to optimize alertness and avoid crashes. The speaker avoids caffeine the evening before the exam to ensure a good night's sleep and delays caffeine intake on exam day until an hour before the test. This timing helps maintain steady energy levels throughout the exam.

💡Morning Routine

The morning routine includes activities the speaker performs to wake up and prepare for the exam. This involves light exercise, a hot and cold shower, and a healthy breakfast. These practices help wake up the body and mind, ensuring the student is alert and ready for the exam.

💡Blinkist

Blinkist is a service that provides summaries of non-fiction books and podcasts in short, digestible formats. The speaker mentions using Blinkist to quickly grasp key concepts from books like 'Thinking Fast and Slow.' This allows the speaker to efficiently absorb important information without reading the entire book, saving time during exam preparation.

Highlights

Delete all social media apps and put the phone in airplane mode to avoid distractions.

Use background noise websites like 'I Miss My Library' instead of YouTube to minimize distractions.

Prepare a digital checklist for exam day essentials and ensure all supplies are ready the night before.

Choose comfortable, layered clothing to adapt to varying room temperatures on exam day.

Study until the last minute, focusing on re-reading notes, exam summary pages, and practice questions.

Use a timer while practicing to simulate the time pressure of the actual exam.

Read exam questions twice, circle key words, and underline important parts to avoid rushing and making errors.

Perform light exercise and take a hot and cold shower to wake up and energize before the exam.

Have a balanced breakfast avoiding sugary foods to prevent a crash during the exam.

Delay caffeine intake until an hour before the exam to ensure it helps without causing a crash.

Review exam summary pages and missed practice questions on the morning of the exam.

Write down key formulas and dates on the exam paper before starting.

Skim through the entire exam to understand the number and type of questions before starting.

Allocate the last 10 minutes of the exam to double-check answers and ensure proper bubbling.

Use process of elimination and logical guessing for difficult questions to maximize scoring potential.

Transcripts

so you have exams coming up and right

now you're panicking caffeinating crying

procrastinating and clearly scrolling on

YouTube since you're here Al last do not

fear for in this video I will show you a

simple but comprehensive exam day

routine and game plan that I myself used

to get straight A all throughout middle

high school and college score in the top

1% of the SAT and ACT get fives on over

10 AP exams okay you get the idea so

let's get down to business and defeat

those exams so let's start with the

evening before the exam since can make a

huge difference first off a lot of you

guys asked how to stop getting

distracted during exam season and so at

least several days before my exam I

actually delete all the social media

apps on my phone and when I'm studying I

put my phone into airplane mode so that

I don't have any distractions from text

messages or notifications also instead

of going on to YouTube to find study

with me is during exam season what I

like to do is either embed my favorite

study with MES into my notion so that I

don't have to see all the videos on the

side that could easily distract me or I

just use a website like I miss my

library where I just have some

background noise playing but there's no

other videos showing and there's no

other distractions and already usually

the day before I actually don't listen

to any music I just like to study in

silence or even use like an ASMR

schoolroom background noise or like I

miss my library because I actually want

to emulate the environment of the exam

and pretend like I'm already taking the

exam so the evening before the exam I

also go over my checklist for all the

things that I need to bring specific for

the exam and I usually make a digital

one so that I can just reuse it every

single time so I go through my checklist

and I make sure that I have everything

already set up on my desk at that point

I will sharpen my pencils I will fill my

mechanical pencils with Le if I'm using

a mechanical pencil I'll make sure that

all of the pens that I bring work that

the calculator is charged and also if

I'm taking the test in a certain testing

center I'll make sure to write down the

location of the testing center and also

use the maps app to estimate how long it

will take and maybe add an extra 10 to

15 minutes for morning traffic I also

prepare any snacks for the brakes if

there are breakes allowed or just a

snack right before the exam so now that

I have everything gathered I pack my

backpack with all the stuff so I also

set up my outfit for the next day and

usually I just wear some really

comfortable jeans and then either a

sweater or a t-shirt with a jacket on

top since usually it's cold in the room

but obviously it depends so I actually

recommend overall wearing layers just in

case the room is hotter than expected

okay so now that I have fully prepped

for the next day I'm actually studying

now for the exam and I one of those

people who likes to study until the last

minute I know some people recommend

against it but honestly it just works

for me and I've been doing it my whole

life basically and so usually that

evening what I do is I reread my notes

that I already have and my exam summary

Pages which I've discussed in previous

videos if you want to check them out in

the description or here but if it

happens to be that there is a chapter

that I have not gone over yet and it's

the night before the exam at the very

least I will read through the outline of

the chapter at the end of the textbook

and do the practice questions there and

if I have at least a few hours I'll then

read through the entire chapter and take

minimal notes on it so I can review the

following morning so the main thing that

I like to do though the night before is

to actually do practice questions or

practice test if I can if I don't have

access to practice questions I'll just

make up questions from my own notes or

go over old quizzes is if I have access

to them but what I like to do is I like

to specifically practice with a timer

for time pressure to match the time

amount and the questions that I have for

the actual exam and this really helps

because one of my and I think a lot of

you guys' biggest problems is just

making simple errors because we rushed

through questions and that basically

happens because there's two systems in

our brain system one is just our

intuitive and instinctive part of our

brain and it basically makes rapid

judgments and is more of a subconscious

process while system to is more of our

conscious brain and our executive

function and basically where we make

decisions have rational thoughts and

beliefs so just look at this question

here for a second and quickly read

through

it so the price that probably first came

to your mind was 10 cents and that's

because a very intuitive and automatic

system one so if you actually take a

minute to reread the question and do the

math you can see that the correct answer

is 5 Seconds and so that's why we have

to consciously remember that we are

probably going to try to rush through

questions and maybe make them simpler

than they actually are and so a great

way to combat that is to read the

question twice and also Circle Key

wordss and underline Key Parts and

really make sure that you've double

checked the question and actually I

didn't come up with these Concepts on my

own they're from a really insightful

book called Thinking Fast and Slow which

I'd always heard about but never got

around to actually reading until I found

it on blinkist and listen to the blinks

blinkist is amazing because it breaks

down over six ,500 non-fiction books and

podcasts into bite-sized blinks which

are basically summaries of the most

important points of the book and can be

read or listen to in just 15 minutes you

were probably in a state of what

psychologists call Flow so if you're not

sure that you actually want to spend

your money and buy a certain book or if

you just don't have the time to sit down

and read the entire thing you can either

read the blinks or listen to them while

you're driving to or from school or work

doing chores Etc I even found one of my

favorite books the 12we year on blinkist

and use their blinks to refresh the main

ideas before I made my planning video a

few weeks ago talking about the 12we

year blinkist also has spaces which

allows you to add and share your

favorite titles from the blinkist

library with your family and friends or

like I am with you guys in the study to

success book club space and if you join

a space you can access all the books in

there even if you don't have a blinkist

premium subscription and since blinkist

is kindly sponsoring this video you can

get 25% off blinkist annual premium

start your 7-Day triy by clicking the

link in the description box okay so I

also avoid caffeine in the evening so

that I can have a good night's rest

since caffeine does wake me up a lot and

I also try my best to go to sleep early

to get good rest and also wake up early

the next day okay so now it's exam day

so I try to wake up at least 2 hours

before the exam to give myself time to

really wake myself up and also review a

little more and so the way I wake myself

up is the first thing I do is like 2

minutes of just jumping jacks or jump

rope or some kind of stretching just

waking my body up because studies show

that exercising actually does release

certain hormones that really help us

wake up I also like to usually do a 5

minute hot and cold shower because it

also really wakes you up and then after

that I'll have a very quick breakfast

and I always avoid anything that's too

sugary or with processed carbs because I

don't want to have a sugar crash during

the exam I also delay my caffeine intake

in the morning if I am drinking caffeine

and if you aren't drinking caffeine then

just don't drink caffeine like don't

change your routine right now but I

usually take it like an hour before the

exam so that it has enough time to enter

my bloodstream but I'm not crashing

during the exam so in the morning I'm

just reviewing my exam summary pages and

also the questions that I missed on my

practice exam or practice questions the

previous night and I'm also going over

any formulas or key dates or anything

specific I want to remember for the exam

okay so now I'm actually at the exam so

the first thing I do is write any

formulas or key dates that I remember

onto a blank space on the paper next

what I like to do is I quickly skim

through the exam for just a couple

minutes and just see how many questions

there are and also just the types of

questions so that I can prime my brain

to solve them later I then try to remove

10 minutes from the amount of time of

the exam so that I have at least 10

minutes at the end to double check my

answers to double check the bubbling to

make sure that I chose everything

correctly and so then I try to work with

a time that I have remaining so as I'm

going through the exam I first answer

all of the easiest questions to get

those easy points and I just guess on

all the other questions and I'll also

flag the medium difficulty ones or put a

star next to them so I know that they're

medium difficulty and then I Circle the

ones that are really hard and I honestly

feel like I don't really know how to

answer so then once I've gone through

all the easiest questions I then go over

the medium ones and I do all the star

questions and then once I've done all

the star questions I go over all the

circle questions or the hard questions

and so for the questions that I

absolutely don't know how to answer I

have a whole video going over testing

strategies to maximize your guesses so

be sure to check that out I'm not going

to go over all the guessing strategies

here but yeah for the circle questions

that I absolutely don't know how to

answer I just guess the best that I can

and try to use the process of

elimination to find the most logical

answer and at the end once I've gone

through all the questions and guessed on

all the ones I didn't have any idea how

to do I then double check that my

bubbling matches or that I chose the

correct answer choice that matched what

I chose and I do this until the very

last minute I have never once submitted

an exam early I always just keep

checking over and over to make sure that

there are no errors or no silly mistakes

and that's it I hope you guys enjoyed

the video and found it helpful and I'm

wishing you the best of luck on your

exams and don't forget you can get 25%

off blinkist annual premium start your

7-Day free trial by clicking the link in

the description box