How to Prepare for an Exam

It's probably happened to you before:

You go into an important mid-term or exam, and everything goes wrong. You're late, the room (which took you three or four tries to find) is freezing cold, and the questions are blindsiding you as if they were being dropped in from outer space. You're distracted because you had burnt breakfast, and your car ran out of gasoline on the way over. Then at the end of the test you leave the room, you walk out in a daze, because you think yoiu did badly. "How can this be", you think, "when I went to the library yesterday to study all night?"

The following are a list of details that don't look test-related, but they are very much so. One or two might sound counter-intuitive to you, but do try to add these things to your usual test preparation routine, if you already have one.

1) Tie Your Shoes - And do the laundry. And clean the room. And stock up on groceries. And do the dishes. And fill up the car with gas. And so on and so forth. As early as one week (or more, sometimes) before the big test, you have to get as many of these little errands out of the way as possible. You would be surprised how many of these small emergencies will pile up as you approach the last minute, and seriously cut into your study time. Before you know it, you're cramming the day (or night!) before, worrying if all the information will stick, because you didn't have time to review due to all the errand-running that took up all your time. Plus, if you follow this tip, your house or apartment will at least be in better order for it.