This is the first of what will become two or even three lengthy thought-splurges about Oxford finals and, specifically, Oxford firsts. Because it turns out - I'm going to graduate with one, and at no point, no point AT ALL, did I ever think that was on the cards. Low marks from mock exams early in Trinity term (which on reflection was probably my tutors being pernickety just to drive me to aim even higher) popped into my head at all hours, and in fact I bent an awful lot of ears about how I was “definitely going to get a 2.2.” So I thought I’d write the kind of blog post I would have wanted to read before and during Finals year - a little practical advice, a lot of reassurance. Disclaimers: this is not the only (or necessarily even best) way to get a First. These are practical tips that worked for me, and reassurances that I would like to have read on a blog in the summer before final year. A First is also NOT the only result worth celebrating. Getting to final year is worth celebrating, getting through exams is worth celebrating. Tip 1: You can’t start too early, but...
If you’re going into final year in October, then now is a pretty good time to start getting ahead. Don’t work yourself into the ground, PLEASE, or you’ll have nothing in the tank for the start of the year. But, you could make a bit of a revision plan (break out the coloured fineliners!), buy folders to fill with notes, figure out - if you’re doing a language - which novels you want to read / have read / said you read but actually didn’t / never want to see again. An hour a day really isn’t much - but in that time you could read a short story or two for your literature paper, or make a decent dent in your dissertation or extended essay. Doing Descartes? Lucky you - the Meditations are short and you can probably read two of the total six in an hour. In an hour you could probably learn twenty new words for your language, and do remember: it doesn't matter where you get your vocab from. I read Alice in Wonderland in German, endless articles in Der Spiegel, and German translations of English chick-lit. Look up and write down every word you don’t know! The particular beauty of German is that if you know one word, you can probably puzzle out twenty more. For example, in an exam I was confronted with a 'Lehmbrocken' in a pond. I knew 'Lehm' meant 'clay' but 'clay-something' could be anything, really: a toad (the common clay-dweller? Surely exists?) or a plant, or an insect. But - I'd had the good fortune to look up the word 'Felsbrocken', meaning 'piece of rock', a few weeks earlier, and managed to hodge-podge my way to a right answer. Tip 2: Eat properly - but now is probably not the time to stress about your macros. Healthy body, healthy blah blah blah. It's probably a good idea to try and eat some things with a reasonable nutritional value, but if a pack of dark chocolate digestives (guilty) is what gets you through that difficult chapter, that past paper, that post-exam slump, then a pack of chocolate digestives it is. For me, big breakfasts were the way to go: a toasted bagel topped with peanut butter and a banana cut up into neat little rounds, and a glass of orange juice - the one with the extra bits because, I don’t know, fibre, or something. Another useful thing to do during this long summer? MEAL PLANNING. I had a ridiculously organised four-week schedule pinned up on the communal fridge, planned meticulously to make sure I was getting my five-a-day, with a ready-to-go shopping list attached to each week and notes about which stuff I could make double quantities of and then freeze. I KNOW. Tragic. People would walk in and snort at it and give me a look that said “you’re the kind of brown-bread jeans-ironing goody-goody who always sorts her recycling properly and flosses every day, aren’t you?” - but I’ll tell you what: it’s cheaper and less wasteful than wandering around Tesco just sweeping whatever looks nice into your basket (‘Maybe I’ll fancy quiche this week, who knows, I’ve not fancied quiche in living memory but WHAT IF?’). Plus, stirring a home-cooked risotto or spag bol or curry can be a nice rest, or even a bit of extra revision time: stick on a relevant podcast or recorded lecture, or even - nerdy as it sounds - record your own. Nobody ever needs to hear it, but just repeating your revision notes out loud and listening to them again will cement them in your head nicely. Tip 3: Get a little bit obsessed with OXAM. Know your past papers really well. How many questions you need to answer, what the question is ACTUALLY ASKING, what themes seem to crop up over and over. Same goes for examiners' reports: comb through them for the common pitfalls (examiners also have quite a sense of humour so reading through these interminable documents is surprisingly amusing.) Practise answering past questions, whether it's with or without notes, timed or not, full essays or just bullet-point lists of material you'd include. Pester your tutors (nicely) to mark mock exams for you, and if they don’t have time, ask if they can direct you to someone else in the department who might. By exam season I had run out of actual past questions to practise and was inventing my own - this sounds ridiculously try-hard, I know, but on a couple of occasions, questions pretty close to the ones I'd invented came up on the real thing. Tip 4: Do it all YOUR WAY. Don’t get sucked into competitive panicking or competitive sleeplessness. You’re a finalist but you don’t have to become The Finalist. No need to become a night owl if you’re not already, or move into the library. Don’t think that because you’re not shuffling around crying into an energy drink, with dark shadows under your eyes and a black cloud over your head, that you’re not doing it properly. I went to the library maybe three times in Trinity Term - all my books were accessible online, my room was airy and pretty and comfortable, and I liked having access to snacks, and the freedom to have a little wander around my room or even blow my nose without risking irritated glances from others. Tip 5: Actually, you know, DO WORK. At one time or another, we've all sat at our desks for five hours and only done about ten minutes' work. It happens. But as far as possible, really hold yourself accountable. There are apps to keep you on track (there's something with a tomato, I think? Or that one where you grow a virtual forest?) but my absolute favourite tip: use the stopwatch on your phone. Leave it running while you’re beavering away, and lock your phone - it’ll make you think twice if you unlock it to “check emails” (read: see what funny Oxfess your friend tagged you in) and by the end of the working day you’ll have an indisputable trophy of how long you’ve worked. If you can see in black and white that you’ve worked six or seven solid hours that day (and that is PLENTY) then you’ll feel much more deserving of an evening break. Tip 6: Speaking of, TAKE BREAKS. Possibly my single biggest tip. An hour of relaxing will do far more good than yet another hour of substandard revision. You probably don’t need to - and can’t! - work for more than eight hours a day, at most - and certainly not solidly. When the words start to get fuzzy, have a rest; this will, granted, happen pretty quickly if you're doing Philosophy. Another important point about breaks: take them even if you don't feel you strictly deserve them. Let bad days GO, because they will happen. You’ll sit in the corner of a cafe quietly dissolving into tears at a bad mock exam result and nibbling forlornly at a consolation brownie. You’ll accidentally watch forty-seven episodes of Modern Family and not do any work. That’s life. Just let it go and don’t try to cram a day’s worth of work into the hour before bed. Do ONE THING that needs doing - even that bulging bag of laundry - and call it a day. I've got another five or so tips but let's face it: if you're a finalist reading this, your capacity for long pieces of writing is pretty full at this point. I'll post more next week!
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(Header Photo: Radcliffe Camera, Oxford - Isabel Parkinson 2016)
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