As my third and final year at university comes to an end, it almost feels I have no work left to do. However, even with all my essays and dissertation handed in, revision is on the menu for what no one seems to enjoy, exams. With one already confidently (ok, maybe I’m lying to myself here) dispatched, there is still a second exam to tackle before I can enjoy the summer that lies ahead.
Exams are mainly hated because of the daunting amount of revision that needs to be done beforehand. Although how much you do essentially defines how well you do, students, including myself, are constantly trying to find shortcuts as well as various ways to procrastinate. The most ordinary of tasks seem so much more appealing, with fetching a drink preferred to a dose of cultural geographies. Even random suggestions enter your head, rearranging your sock drawer suddenly becomes an attractive proposition, whereas under normal circumstances this would be considered even more tedious, and more to the point, very strange.
During exam period procrastination is seen by students as the best thing since sliced bread, and even mundane television shows reap the benefits of teenagers resorting to staring blankly at the box rather than gazing at pages of notes. Revision marks the start of exam season, and so as you get more and more fidgety during the daytime, an “anything on tv will do” attitude is adopted by many people. Even adverts seem to be watched more closely, a desperate attempt to excuse yourself from looking at notes during the interval.
It is not just third years at university like myself that seem to have a concentration issue. Young people of different ages all have their own ways of avoiding revision at any level, and even though it is laughable now to think I struggled to sit through a GCSE Bitesize video, it still seemed a painful exercise. A painful exercise that somewhat seems very familiar in the present day, although with entirely different content.
I think the fact that the Bitesize programmes always had a clock in the corner made them drag on for what appeared an unnecessary amount of time. Couple this with an unhealthy dose of patronising presenters and you have a marriage made in heaven to make a student cry out for something else to do. Thankfully there are no such videos for my final exams, but then again maybe an over-friendly presenter could be a welcome relief to facing the daunting challenge of revision alone.
You’re all most likely thinking that I should be used to revision by now, and quite rightly too. Through my gluttony for procrastination I may have painted a bad picture of myself as a poor student, but I think most, if not all students, would put revision at the bottom of their favourite things to do. Saying that, my conscience always seems to shine through and has made sure I haven’t really ever had a disastrous exam, as my brain has been forced to absorb enough information. So I guess my common sense is the real hero in the battle against procrastination, and that revision does somehow become appealing when you think of the simple equation; better grades equals better job.
Revision will always be a difficult task to endure for any student, and while it has to be done, I am confident that the art of procrastination will never die. Anyway, I better go, the cutlery needs counting.
This article can also be found at About My Area Portsmouth
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