All Nighters & Engineering Students
Engineering students are known pulling all nighters. It’s almost as if working through the night without sleep to study for exams is a rite of passage.
In the long run though, this does students more harm than good. Trust me, I know because I’ve done it myself! I still remember those nights…those long, never-ending nights!
All nighters wreak havoc on the mind and body and the results show up in the grades. I know it doesn’t seem like this would be the case, but it is.
Sure, you stay up and study several more hours than you would have but, those study hours are not nearly as productive as those when you are well rested.
After all, how can you really focus on Fluid Mechanics when you’re trying your best to just stay awake? You won’t retain the information, your comprehension skills will be lowered and you’ll just be in a bad mood.
As if the wasted study hours weren’t enough, then there’s the fact that you’ll be exhausted during the exam.
If you’ve been up all night, there’s no way you’re going to have the mental clarity you’d normally have after a decent night’s sleep. And no, drinking an energy drink during the exam is not going to make up for it!
Even with that boost, you still won’t really remember what you covered while studying and your ability to analyze difficult problems just won’t be there. To make it worse, the caffeine will probably make you jittery too.
Jittery and confused – definitely not an ideal test taking situation.
Since, there really is nothing good about all nighters let’s see how we can avoid them…
Use A Calendar
You have the course syllabus so use it to your advantage.
Write down all the test dates for the semester on a calendar. Make that calendar and the test dates easy to see.
Out of sight out of mind, right? So keep this calendar where you’ll be forced to look at it.
This will allow you to see exactly what you have coming up in the semester. This will help you manage your time.
Manage Your Time
You’ve got the calendar, use it to schedule study time for each subject. Now I know test dates and assignment due dates will sometimes vary from the syllabus.
In general though, you should know at least a week ahead of time when you’ll have an exam. The day you find out about an exam, you need to schedule your study time.
I had the terrible habit of studying just two days before all my major exams. This always resulted in unneeded stress and a lack of sleep.
Had I started sooner I would’ve been much better off. I’d recommend using an entire week to study. Even if you can’t devote much time to one particular course for the entire week, just do something every day to prepare for your test.
It could be something as simple as just looking back over a few pages of notes or working a couple of example problems from class. Anything helps!
Self Discipline
This one is HUGE… You’ve got the schedule set for studying but you have to actually follow the schedule! Just saying you’re going to study for two hours on Wednesday isn’t useful unless you actually do it.
This means no texting, no scrolling through Instagram, no conversations. You’ve got to use self discipline to make sure you avoid this. Distractions can waste so much of our time. A few minutes here and there really do add up over time.
I personally have a ‘slight’ addiction to Twitter. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted just reading tweets. It’s hard to just put the phone down but if I can do it, you can too!
Study Groups
Lots of people like study groups. I always hated them. Why?
Because most of the time, actual studying never got done at the study session. It would be a waste of time and then I’d end up having to give up on sleep the night before the exam to make up for the lost time.
So, don’t go to study groups that won’t benefit you. If there are people in the study group that you know aren’t going to be focused, you’re better off going it alone.
Yes, your friends may think you’re being antisocial but that’s ok. You have to do what’s best for you and not worry about what they think!
I mean, are they going to foot the bill for retaking this class if you bomb the exam? I don’t think so…
What to Study?
If you have any doubts about what’s covered on the test, ask the professor. And ask early!
The worst thing to do is to study and then find out at the last minute that you studied the wrong material. This will lead to an all nighter for sure!
Always make sure you know the topics on the exam before you get started.
In Summary
Poor time management and a lack of self discipline are the main reasons students get trapped into skipping sleep the night before exams.
If you use these steps you will be able to fix these issues and maintain a healthy balance between sleep and studying.
You will learn more, retain more info, and have better performance on the test if you avoid the last minute, all nighter, cramming sessions.
Try these steps out and see for yourself!
