Sleep is incredibly important. Studies have shown that if you are not getting between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night you are greatly impacting your health in the long term and performance in the short term. With this in mind, pulling all-nighters is a terrible idea. You should turn up to your exam at your best, fully energized and with all your knowledge safely wrapped up in your head. This is of course not always possible. The current education system sadly lends itself to short term memorizing without long term knowledge gains. This often leads to the need to cram huge amounts of (often useless) information into our heads at the final hour to have any chance of passing an exam. If you are in this situation, read on for some tips:
Plan in advance
The exam is in two weeks and you know you will be pulling an all-nighter. Do the future you a favor and write out everything you need to learn in detail. It is proven that you learn more by writing than just by reading. So write it all down weeks in advance and then read it many times the night before. This way you are recovering the information from within your memory and adding it to your short term memory too.
Have some energy
Staying up all night is tiring and simply having the will to stay up alone will not work. You need a plan. Whether it is copious amounts of coffee or asking your friend to slap you across the face every 15 minutes, you need some tactic to stay energized. The best plan is probably to get a good nap early in the day and wake up for your all-nighter fully refreshed.
Plan for failure
Sleep is tempting. Ensure you have set numerous alarms throughout the night to wake you up in case you nod off. I have had so many friends who decided to pull an all-nighter, only to miss the exam.
People have been cramming the night before exams for years, you can do it too. You will succeed. Be confident, enjoy some sugar, and allow yourself the next day to sleep in late and recoup some of those lost hours. Best of luck!
