For every hopeless romantic living for academic validation, February Half-term can be a strange but beautiful time- of course I want to eat chocolates and you call me pretty, but I also simply cannot bear to think about Valentine’s Day until I finish revising chapter 3 of calculus.
Do not fret fellow lovergirl, for you have landed on the exact post that can help you navigate this peculiar time- with tips and tricks for you to smash your post-holiday exams.
Movie Night
For every rom-com movie, challenge yourself to study for the same amount of hours the next day. For example, if you spend 1hr 45 minutes watching a particular film, spend that same amount of time going over flashcards, or doing a practice exam paper.
Red & Pinks
If you’re the kind of person who loves colour-coding handwritten notes in your notepad or your flashcards, take this opportunity to associate the particular topics you study this week with love. It sounds crazy, but making a connection to a particular topic or key facts about a particular colour or “era” may help you remember them in the future!
If you’re struggling to remember a particular process- maybe in physics or chemistry- try associating particular phrases or mnemonics with your favourite shades of red and pink for valentine’s day! You could go a step further and create your own mnemonics that are valentines day or love themed- so it is easier to remember and categorise these subject topics in your mind when exam day comes.
Audit Your Techniques
February is halfway through the term- while you may have made some changes to your revision style starting from your ‘January 2023 Academic Comeback’, take some time to think about what worked well for you so far and what hasn’t yet.
Also take some time to think about what big deadlines you have coming up soon before the Easter break- this will help you focus on the techniques you found work best for you, and help you put together a revision timetable or ‘time-block’.
Relaxing VS Revising
starting with auditing and evaluating what techniques work with you and what you’d like to try out, as well as the tasks you need to get done this week, putting together a revision timetable and time-blocking in your calendar will help you smash all your February goals.
Planning your week can be as simple as writing down all the tasks you need to get done – importantly both study goals and personal. For example, “Revise for chapter 6 maths test, Review 3 Biology flashcard sets, watch 1 documentary for History, go to dinner, see my friends, spend time at the gym, go to church on Sunday” or whatever goals are relevant for your week.
Plus, don’t forget to schedule some extra self-care cosy time on Valentine’s day- you deserve the day off!
Appreciate Yourself
Whether you have someone to share valentines day or not, spending some time sitting with a facemask, rom-com on, and diet coke and snacks in hand is so important to your mental well-being- how can you perform your best in your exams if you aren’t taking time for yourself too. It doesn’t have to be a big occasion- maybe just spend a few minutes re-doing that nail polish that chipped from last week’s intense revision sessions, or try and bake a new recipe that you can bring to your friends to try when school opens after the break!
There are some other ideas if you’re still thinking about revising even if you’re trying to relax- have a galentines revision Facetime where you can revise together and discuss topics that are troubling you, take a ‘hot girl walk’ with a podcast on that explains a topic you’ve learnt in class or is something that interests you, or de-clutter your room and desk space for back to school.
That wraps up goodnightgracia’s top 5 February study hacks, we wish you the best week and valentine’s day! Drop your best valentines’ day study ideas below- if you have a partner feel free to check out all our posts about love and navigating your love life while studying, and if you don’t there’s still plenty of GoodnightGracia posts about everything else that might interest you such as studying and wellbeing from a UK student perspective!
Thank you for reading, lots of love as always.