End-of-year examination timetable concern

[Mitzy]

Hi friends, just wanted to share with you my end-of-year exam timetable as I'm already stressing out about it and you'll see why - So, I have 4 exams in 3 days:
Wednesday 26th October: English 
Thursday 27th OCTOBER: Psychology
FRIDAY 28TH OCTOBER: Biology and Further Mathematics Examination 1
MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER: Further Mathematics Examination 2
THURSDAY 3RD NOVEMBER: Health and Human Development Exam

Now as you can see I have 4 exams in 3 days - should I be freaking out about this or should I be excited that my exams will be done in a matter of just 5 days? My exam timetable is definitely not flexible; imagine having come out of that English exam and all you'd want to do is go home and crash not thinking that you have to sit another exam tomorrow or the day after 

Why does VCCA have to be so harsh on us students?    Albeit I like the fact that my exams will be finished earlier than others, I'm still nervous that I may have panic attacks and may not perform at my best despite having done all the study I could have. I need to have a break for a day if not 2 to clear my mind and relax so I'm at my best for the next exam. The only exam I'm not worried about in regards to the timetable is Health as I get a 4-5 day break to go over me  notes, however, for the rest like psych and bio as you may know, are quite 'content-heavy subjects' and with psych, there are heaps of terms you need to have memorized the definitions word-perfect and I don't want to be the one having a clash with the terms covered in psych with bio, ya know what I mean?

So I know I have no authority to have the timetable changed, but what strategies do you think I need to employ to ensure that I still perform at my best and prevent bombing out on the exams despite this hectic timetable?

All comments and advice will be greatly appreciated!        

[Complex]

You should be happy.

The period between exams is not supposed to be time to learn new content, study heavily or make new notes.

You go into your 5 exams, confident for all and finish them all in a small amount of time. Its perfect.

[Mitzy]

Yes, I know, but all that aside... I need to take care of my mental wellbeing too, ya know? 

[Complex]

Yes, I know, but all that aside... I need to take care of my mental wellbeing too, ya know? 

This is the reality.

Wednesday - 9am to 12pm. Rest from 1pm till literally the next day
Thursday - 2 hour exam. Thats 2 hours of a 12 hour day and we should consider you slept for 10 hours the previous night.
Friday - Two exams then weekend.

VCAA is not being harsh on you or your mental well-being. You are benefiting from this arrangement.

You go in prepared for your exams. And you are at an advantage. However, if you go in unprepared, its gonna be chaotic, anxious and probably bad. That's what would hurt your mental well-being.

[K888]

I can't relate to this because my exam timetable is actually pretty generous, however I feel your pain. Try to be glad that your exams finish quickly and you can relax - mine don't finish until the second last day of the exam period! Also, try to find comfort in knowing that there are a lot of other people in your situation

Unfortunately, your timetable is something you can't change in the slightest. And as a result, there's not much point in stressing out about it. I think there's a quote that goes something like "if you can't change it, change the way you think about it".
The thing is, you do all of your exam revision in the weeks/months leading up to the exam period (minus maybe reading over your notes a few times or w/e). Your revision isn't something that you do in the few days leading up to your exams. So, having your exams bunched together doesn't really mean you lose revision time. It just means that you need to be able to sustain a high level of concentration and effort for a few days.
As a result, you need to learn coping mechanisms for dealing with high loads of work/stress. Whether that be meditation, exercise, colouring in, or whatever, so that you can keep your mind clear during the exam period. Do plenty of practice exams, etc. not only to test your knowledge of content, but to also make sure that you're used to sitting down and concentrating for a sustained period of time.

It's easier said than done (and I'm blessed in that I find this easy to do), but once you finish an exam, move on from it. There's no point in worrying, because you can't change your answers. And if something goes wrong, use that as motivation to ace the next exam, and show the assessors all the knowledge you have about that subject And remember, year 12 isn't the be all and end all (such a cliche but it's true).

Hope this has helped a bit

[heids]

Yeah, that'll be stressful for sure - but at least take comfort that it's by no means unusual to get a timetable like that.

I'd advise studying as far in advance so you can minimise the pre-exam cram necessary, if you find this hard.  Looking out for your mental wellbeing is important (and will help your marks), so in the breaks between exams - schedule things that relax you.  Colouring, scented baths, muscle relaxation and mindfulness, watching your favourite movie, going for a walk somewhere pretty - whatever relaxes you personally and lets you unwind.

So most important I think there is trying really, really hard to set up a thorough revision strategy *before* exams so you don't have to freak out bigtime and force yourself to do hours of study between those exams.

[MightyBeh]

Can't give a lot of advice because a lot of my exams are pretty close together too, but here's what I've got:

1. Have all your notes together by the end of term 3
Like complex said, exam time isn't the time to be learning new things. Obviously with English there's probably not a lot you can do in the way of notes (then again, maybe there is. I don't do English). Bio, Psych, Further and HHD are all subjects you can though, so get those together before you start doing practice exams/essays/what-have-you so you have something to reference. Bonus is that putting them together is also a good way to revise. Also you could make some good dosh selling them to less organised people, if you typed them

2. Use multiple revision tactics where you can
You could literally start this today. tbh I'd be surprised if you weren't already doing some of these:

• Flashcards (esp. Mobile, good for bus/downtime) Anki is a good mostly free cross-platform app. You have to pay a pretty hefty price for iOS, but you could also just use AnkiWeb if you're cheap like me
• Audio Recordings - Personally not my thing, but I had a teacher that was nuts about it a while back. Record yourself speaking your notes or whatever, and listen to it.
• Just reading your notes - pretty self explanatory. Not the best way, but obviously better than nothing.
• Practice Exams - Notes or not these are probably the best way to revise for exams. I did about 30 for Further last year but around here that's on the lower end of the distribution. Just remember to be honest when you mark and redo questions you don't do well on to get the most out of it.
  
• Practice Essays - Pretty much the same as above, but with essays. It's pretty tough to mark your own essays so if you could sucker a teacher or a friend or someone else to read it and mark it/give opinions that'd be ideal.
• other stuff too, like teaching to someone else (although around exam time it gets pretty stressful to do this), making 'toilet-door'/shower posters, getting your mum to quiz you, whatever works. Why would you wait until september/october to learn the whole course again when you could just remember it? 10/10 revision.

3. Study Backwards
Don't remember where I read about this one, but the idea is you study for your last exam first and then work on your other stuff so that you have less time to slack off. I think it's interesting but tbh it's not something I'd be comfortable doing because I'd probably just slack anyway.

4. Start Now
You're most likely not done with any of your classes, but with English you can definitely start getting ready now. Swing by LA club and write a practice essay every week or so and you'll be super ready going into the exam. With further, see if you can get some old SACs (or exams, since the Study Design has changed) off your teacher and work through those. Even if you're not finished with the course, they're organised neatly by module so you can just leave out the stuff you don't know and come back to it later. I don't know enough about your other classes to give any advice, but the same principle applies. Just prepare what you know so you can focus on what you don't when you can.

As for being anxious about it, talk to some of your school's staff about it. They literally deal with this stuff every year so they should have some good advice for you. Can't control your circumstances, but you can certainly control your approach to them. Just do the best you can and make sure you talk to someone if you need too.

Edit: Unrelated but lists are showing in preview but not after posting? What sorcery is this.

[Sine]

be prepared for all your exams to the extent that you want to by the time you sit your first exam then you aren't really forced to do anything if you don't want to.

Personally i have 6 exam days in a row(with a weekend): MUEP,Meth1,Meth2,Spec1,weekend,Spec2,Chem and these are typical subjects some people may even have physics tacked on the end of this too so it isn't unusual to have no whole day breaks.

[FurtherStar]

I've got English, Psychology, Biology, FURTHER and Economics which are basically all on the first three days! So.... That's really something to drive home about! 

[natdogg]

Personally i have 6 exam days in a row(with a weekend): MUEP,Meth1,Meth2,Spec1,weekend,Spec2,Chem

How do you know the exam date for MUEP?

[Sine]

The monash uni lecturer said its usually on melbourne cup day, from past years. (So moreso a guess)