I'm getting to the stage of probably having to pull an all nighter before tomorrow's exam. Any advice/tips/guidelines on doing one?
Don't study everything. Go through and briefly review the topics on the exam and only study what you actually don't know. If it is getting late and you still have a lot that you need to study, have some coffee to keep you from dosing off. Be efficient. Don't give yourself too many or too long breaks. Get to bed as soon as you can, while still knowing enough of the material. Have a decent breakfast.
Get six hours of sleep before the exam. That will do more good than studying all night long, especially if you're not used to staying very late and even then you'll be exhausted by the time for the exam. Technically, if you really want to study whole night long, coffee, cigarettes, and sugar can help. In low doses nicotine is known to increase performance and alertness and reduce anxiety, it's basically a very strong stimulant. If you're not a smoker couple of puffs should be more than enough to keep you going for some time. If you O.D. on nicotine, you might start feeling drowsy or nauseous and you'll have difficulties concentrating. In high doses it has the opposite effect (just like coffee). So, yeah, go to bed on time, get up several hours before the exam, go through things that you find difficult to remember and head for the exam. p.s. Bright slightly blueish-white light also helps from feeling sleepy.
Couple of puffs will also help that you end up smoking a package or two everyday, so just don't mess around with it, unless you think you are ready to deal with the consequences... And not even, because you don't want the consequences, period. Strong coffee's effect last one two hours in my case. After that time you'll feel worse than before, needing even stronger coffee,so be very careful with it. Light coffee is sleep inducing in most cases. Electric light will keep ypu awake anyways. Try to use some software to build a music compilation with the right bpm. Electro swing can serve this purpose by the way (the genre of music). Avoid heavy metal for too long, 'cause it will royally f you up : It has been used in the so called 'musical torture' by most armies around the world. ... By the way, talking about torture... Learn from this experience and don't do this to yourself agan. I'm suffering from lack of sleep, and I feel everyday as if I had an elephant on my back and nother one on top of my head, at all times.
I agree. Smoking has serious health consequences and isn't really a solution to getting through an exam. I would strongly urge you not to do that. In my experience, this really will help you get through an exam. A rested mind is a more alert mind. If you're overtired, you're going to be slower and potentially forget everything you spent all night cramming. Study as much as you can in the time preceeding your exam, but when it comes to the night before - just chill. In reality, you've probably learnt all that you can remember by then- frantic last minute revision isn't going to make any difference. Making sure you're not a stressed out gibbering wreck when you walk into your exam, however, could make all the difference.
Best recommendation: Rest well and refresh your mind instead of pulling an all nighter and deal with the major headache + sleep deprivation in middle of the exam. That said, I myself has been in situations that require all nighter before exam before (didn't review at all for example) so I don't judge. It is bad to do it, but it happens. Here is my experience: 1. Space out your caffeine in take. Don't drink energy drink or coffee through the whole night. Space it out by 2-3 hours between drinks for maximum effectiveness. 2. Have some light snacks. Food keeps your body busy with all the chewing and digesting, and generally require it to be up, and also supply some energy. Avoid fatty food though. Try something like rice crackers. 3. Switch position often. Being in a position for too long make you easily fall asleep. 4. Have some energentic, but not distracting music in the background. Just go to you tube and look for some studying music that works for you. Though this should be done before hand, as going to you tube can be really distracting for studying anything in general. 5. Whenever you feel the pull is too strong, get up and do some light excercise for 30 seconds. Even if it is just swinging your arms around, it works you up. 6. Know your body's limit. Understand that, your body can't run without sleep for long. Ensure that you have enough time to do the exam and going home safely without sleep deprivation catching up to you at any time before that. So sleep, even for just 1 hour, if possible. It won't give you full rest, but it will starve off the worst effect of sleep deprivation just enough to keep you going. Needless to say, you won't be at 100% on the exam, but that is the situation you are in. Plan better so you don't have to do it again.
There are leaning institutions, medical schools for example, that require students to cram all the time and they perform very well on average. The key isn't whether or not cramming or sleeping is better but in doing what you are used to doing. So if you cram all the time cramming works. But if you go months without cramming then don't expect it to all of the sudden work for you during finals week.
