If the question of how to prepare for the session makes you nervous, increases anxiety and deprives mental balance, you definitely need to buy a chainsaw
What for? look here
You will learn about it from our article. Before you-7 effective tips on the topic of preparation for the session. If you had to become the protagonist of a horror film called “Session is coming”, do not choose the role of the victim. Don’t be afraid of the session, let the session be afraid of you!
Tip 1. Don’t panic
Honestly, it’s not that terrible session, as it is painted! What scares you most? Psychologists say: 1) uncertainty; 2) inability to influence the situation. Uncertainty is a factor that makes a child afraid of the dark, and a freshman student tremble before the session. How to deal with this problem? (Not with darkness, and with session). Find out as much as possible about what awaits you:
- Learn what and when to take (tests, exams), make a schedule – it will help to distribute the forces. To score the schedule in the computer and smartphone to always be at hand. For clarity, it can even be printed on a sheet of A3 and hung on the wall.
- Find out the conditions of admission to each test. Record the conditions directly in the schedule, under a specific exam or test. Example: offset to the white magic it is necessary to pass for admission essay, to offset the black to work all the missed lectures and seminars exam the course on throwing fireballs to pass the Colloquium exam for the preparation of magic potions – don’t forget the three laboratory, and then the witch will eat with giblets. Roughly so
- With the help of senior students and other sources of information (see 80 tips for freshmen) to collect information about how to pass a particular test, exam, make psychological portraits of teachers.
- Learn from older brothers in mind, as well as from the teachers themselves, what sources (lectures, textbooks, articles, monographs) it is better to use to prepare for exams.
- To know exactly how to take the “tails” as possible to “fill up” exams and when will the extra session. Let’s hope you don’t need this information, but having it will reduce your anxiety. After all, if you know how to take the “tails” terrible uncertainty (what will happen if I don’t pass?!!) turns into a backup plan of action (not passed? Moving from plan A to plan B).
The second factor of fear is the feeling that you are not in control of the situation. This factor, by the way, is the basis of aerophobia. It is difficult for a person to understand how this multi-ton thing is kept in the air, he is tormented by the feeling that he is completely dependent on the pilots and in General on the air element, and he can not do anything. Therefore, one of the ways to treat aerophobia – a detailed explanation of the principles of the aircraft and the basics of aerodynamics. And if you let a person into the cockpit “steer” or sit next to the pilot in a small plane or helicopter, he in most cases ceases to be afraid of flight, as it feels about the same as next to the driver of the car.
You know what this is about? We need to take control of the situation. Understand what and how. It is the lack of control over the situation that causes fear of the session not only among first-year students, but also among seasoned students who had a negative experience of “Stripping tails”. Therefore, to combat confusion before the session after the stage of collecting information, it is necessary to consider their further actions:
- What do I need to do to prepare for the session?
- Where to get the necessary training materials?
- How best to prepare for the session, to have time, what methods of preparation to apply?
The answers should be specific and constructive!
Tip 2. Chop the elephant, it’s too big
So, in General, coped with panic. There is a readiness for a constructive solution of the tasks. But how, how to overcome this mass of abstracts, textbooks, scientific journals, multi-ton collections of works?! You collected information about the session, breaking the unknown, but the block seems unaffordable.
What to do? Pick up the chainsaw!
One of the basic principles of time management says: to eat an elephant, it is necessary to prepare a pile of steaks.
First, immediately begin to eat such a huge so scary that I want to postpone this activity for later. The task seems unreal (you burst, baby).
Secondly, biting off from the trunk, then from the left leg, then from the right, then from the area around the tail, you lose the logic of the work. Eat steaks one by one, that is, divide the work into specific tasks and subtasks.
Third,” piecing ” and gnawing on the elephant from different sides, even with a tightly stuffed belly you will see in front of you almost no decreased whopper. The division of the carcass into steaks allows to estimate the amount of work done.
In General, make the most specific, divided into tasks and subtasks, the plan of preparation and delivery of the session. And-Bon appetit!
Tip 3. We set priorities, delegate tasks
Now imagine yourself as President. Well, or at least the Director of a large enterprise. If the deadline is running out, the mountain of steaks is still intact, and teachers are already hinting at a free life outside the University walls – imagine yourself an anti-crisis Manager.
- Choose the best strategy for preparing for each of the exams and tests.
- Identify priorities (the most difficult subjects and topics for you; tests and exams of the strictest teachers; the most urgent and important reports-abstracts). Guide ranking the tasks in order of importance. It makes no sense to devote the lion’s share of the credit of the teacher who put the painting in the record book, not listening to the answers, to the detriment of preparing for a difficult exam.
- Build up a supply. Find out from whom you can take notes, whether you can download the necessary books on the Internet, how much it will cost to order a control or Cribs from students (if necessary).
- Delegate some tasks to those who can help you. For example, students. They are happy to help you chew not that elephant, and the whole Brontosaurus
- Negotiate, make connections. Get in touch with your teachers. A significant part of the non-admission problems can be solved through negotiations.
- Keep records. Not only plan the preparation for the session, but also mark the passed stages of the way. By the way, these skills will be useful to you in your professional life! However, many students preparing for the session like another role – the role of the commander. It is a matter of taste and temperament. Consider tests and examinations as fights and military campaigns, develop personal strategy and tactics of victorious war. Decide where to throw the main forces, where to plan a breakthrough of the blockade, and where to attract the resources of the allies. Studenter lend-lease stew not expelled, but provide cheat sheets, reports, monitoring, laboratory and abstracts.
Tip 4. Motivation
Work on motivation. The stronger the motivation-the easier it is to prepare for the session. Determine for yourself the goals of this training. Write, draw, print motivators. Hang on the walls, put in notebooks and textbooks.
Note that such goals as” do not fly out of high school”,” do not crash into the army”,” do not get scolded by ancestors “and even” get a scholarship ” work poorly. Develop motivation that affects aspects of self-realization, future professional achievements. Well, something like”I’m getting ready for a session to be a cool special in ten years and buy a Villa in Sorrento.”
Oh, by the way: don’t start motivators with denial. Forget the “not” part. Motivators should be positive, affirmative. Even primitive “to Stay in the University,” the subconscious mind motivates better than “Not to depart from the University,” and a simple “Pass examinations” – better than “to fill up the session”.
Another feature: set rewards. And intermediate, and global. This increases motivation.
Do you feel that despite all the motivators, you are drawn to the swamp of boredom? Treat the session like a game. You do not need to motivate your favorite tanks or spaceships, or what you like to play there? That session can be a fun quest-it all depends on your attitude!
Tip 5. Do not pull a gun
Join this game early! Especially if your University has a score-rating system of tolerances or simply teachers are very closely monitoring your progress during the semester.
Even if you’re a fan of the sprint preparation strategies for exams (to put it simply ready to learn Chinese for the night), plan battles it is necessary to make in advance. After all, in addition to preparing for tests and exams, the session includes many other things. And sometimes getting admission to all these exams and tests is a more difficult task than preparing answers.
Underestimation of these moments often leads to the catastrophe of very smart guys who can answer any question of the examiner on the fly… and are self-confident in the exam, not taking into account the fact that they have no admission. Especially dangerous for such students are the teachers-bureaucrats, buried in piles of reports-abstracts. More dangerous, the teacher-daffodils, stoned from their own lectures. And, of course, believe that this delight should be shared by all the rest of humanity, and who skips lectures – the enemy of the people and the candidate for expulsion.
Tip 6. Bring the brain to tone
To successfully prepare for the session and not to fall asleep to a neurologist, use these recommendations:
- Learn the methods of mnemonics, concentration, get acquainted with the method of associations and other intellectual chips that will help you better assimilate the information.
- Create optimal working conditions for yourself. The optimal temperature for training is 19 – 22 C, humidity 50 – 60%. The best light of the day absent-minded. Help focus the flavors of lemon and eucalyptus. Order on the table improves concentration. Learn to also say a solid ” no ” to gadgets, social networks and other distractions.
- Optimize power. Often include in the diet of 10 products that improve brain activity, and less – beer and other ungrateful substances.
- Sport-an excellent method of recovery of the body after intellectual stress. It provides a perfect switching of operation modes.
- Do not forget about the rest. Do not load on your camel more than it can bear, otherwise in the middle of the session the poor man may collapse under the weight of a straw. But at the same time, do not forget that rest is the process of recuperation after work, not instead.
Tip 7. Don’t dramatize!
You can do it. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, not so terrible session, especially if you are armed with a chainsaw, motivators and a well-functioning brain. One of the problems preventing to prepare for the session is dramatization of the situation. Remember how terrible it seemed the animals cockroach out of a fairy tale Chukovsky?
