What kind of study do you need the night before your exam?

So my exams are over now ('bout frickin' time already), I'm, well, as confident as can be expected, really, given that I tend to underestimate myself more than anything else. I'm pretty sure I passed physics, though, which is the only one I really had to worry about. And italian speaking, but I already know I passed that. Which was TERRIFYING, by the way. But anyway. I know that most people in Australia, anyway, have already done their exams (I know TEE is all over, yay for all my twelvie friends). But one thing that we've all been talking about for, like, two months now: How the hell DO you actually study for exams?

Obviously, there's about as many methods as there are people doing exams; so I'm going to narrow it down a bit more, to what you should do the night before the exam. Or my advice, anyway, because I'm completely willing to give my opinion even on subjects where I have little to no authority.

First, though: What kind of study do you actually need?

a) You're sitting at your desk the night (or morning!) before your exam, and you haven't actually started studying yet. You have a social life to maintain, dammit!
           i) You have studied a bit, but it's a subject that you kinda suck at
          and you were mostly on facebook when you were studying anyway.

b) You've revised the year, but not in any real depth, and you're ok at the subject, but have no real interest in it. You just need to do well/ pass/ convince your parents that you tried.

c) You, you dedicated person, have not only studied, you're good at the subject but you're freaking out anyway because, hey, exams are stressful.

Method A: You're completely screwed.
The sooner you accept that fact, the easier this will be. Unless you're a genius (in which case, see below) there's just no way you're going to be able to revise and memorise an entire year's worth of material in the, what, eight, twelve hours before your exam? And yeah, you are going to need to sleep tonight. Pulling an all nighter just isn't worth it. However, a pass is not out of the question.
So instead, you need to be clever. Guaranteed, your exam will not actually test everything you're meant to know. You need to prioritise. Chances are, your teacher has been dropping hints like mad for the past, y'know, week... month... year... but there's also a strong chance you weren't listening, or that you missed it. Embrace that fact. If you're going to go on facebook or msn or whatever, and you just might- unless you've taken the precaution of unplugging your computer (you are a stronger person than I am) - ask if anyone else knows what'll be in it. Someone will probably have a fairly good idea.
If not, though, you're going to need to focus on broad concepts. Don't try to read a whole lit book overnight, because it's not going to happen and won't help you (and you don't really need to), and don't try to teach yourself the intricacies of Newtonian physics when applied to the moon (although I really don't know what that's doing in your syllabus.) Instead, focus on the general stuff. For example, the physics exam I just did. I didn't really know, exactly, the answers to a fair few of the questions, but I knew the theories that they were referring to, and I knew, generally, what the four topics - heat, electricity, motion and nuclear- were about, and I kinda chucked an answer together based on that. Likewise, with lit, if you haven't read the book, try googling it. There's quite a few sites out there that provide everything you might need to an exam, although only with certain books. You'll need quotes- try to get some that are multi-purpose. Write stuff down. Preferably in a semi-organised fashion.

Method B: You should be fine
Ok, we'll just assume that you've got the broad outlines down, probably some depth in at least a few areas. You just need a bit more certainty, and you need that little bit of extra knowledge in order to guarantee a nice score.Focus in particular on the areas you aren't that great at. If you're worried that you might forget how to do a certain type of problem, a certain order of events, whatever, try writing it down. With the problems, you'll need to actually do them- there should be some in your book. With the other stuff, do a mind map, or a timeline, or whatever floats your boat. I recommend coloured pens, but then, I always recommend coloured pens, so, y'know.

Method C: You'll be fine, seriously.
There's no real reason for you to be worrying, at this point, but you will anyway and we all know it. Revise the areas you have problems with, you know what those are. And then, if you have time, and you will, because you've been doing this for like weeks now, revise those small, extra things that are the ones that will make sure you get the top marks. You know. That quote from, like, Wordsworth that you can drop into the conclusion of your english essay. That small, quiet political shenanigan that just may have influenced the course of World War Two. Etcetera. You're going to pass, and you're going to pass well- at this point it's just a question of how well.

Method D: Eternal hatred from all.
Screw you. You haven't studied, you haven't done any work all year, but you're going to get the top mark anyway, and you know it. It's the night before your exam and you're playing video games or something. The rest of us hate you. (not really.)

Well, that's one way to get an extension...

It's like having this internal, kinda vague calender. As soon as it starts getting towards a) the end of term, b) exams or c) both, my behavior/emotions go completely crazy and I bounce back and forwards between "eh, it'll be fine" and "oh my god oh my god oh my god I'm going to fail at life and it's going to be incredibly, INSANELY awful and oh my god...". Yeah, right now, I'm heading towards c) and most of this past week has been in the "oh my god" stage, meaning... I've been just a bit erratic at school.

However, I did get an extension for one of my essays (worth, like, 25% of my mark for that subject) the other day, not because I asked for it, but because the teacher was like "whoa, ok, she REALLY needs to chill out" and also I think he just wanted me to go away. Basically, he was going around the class, checking up on how everyone was going, because he's nice like that, and.... I started crying. Every. Single. Time. he spoke to me.

That went down well.

Poor guy, he's clearly clueless when it comes to teenage girls crying, and I suppose I can't really blame him, since he probably didn't want to y'know, hug me, since that could end up with him getting fired, because my school's a little crazy like that (although, oddly, they did keep on the teacher who assaulted a student*...) Anyway, his response the first time was "ok, deep breaths, calm down... I'll talk to you later."
Second time? "Ok, ok, don't panic... tell you what, have an extension, you've been awesome this year, just... have an extension. Please stop crying."

And so I kind of mumbled something about not wanting an extension and then wandered off. That class was, um, embarrassing, but thankfully most of my year is a bit on the crazy side right now, and I'm not the only person going into hysterics in class, so that's all cool.

Anyway, the reason that I didn't just come straight out and ask him for an extension, or just say yes thankyou when he offered it, is pretty simple and really dumb. I don't like taking extensions. I've had one other one this year, and that was because of a whole lot of stuff going on outside of school that was stressing me out more than enough, and I so didn't need that assignment freaking me out as well. Thankfully, I had an understanding teacher.

The main reason i don't like taking extensions is I feel really, really guilt about it. Like, oh, I could have worked harder if I'd tried, I could have done it on time, or else everyone else has problems too, they still managed it... etcetera. However, every so often, my common sense does kick in, and I just take the damn extension already. This week was one of those times.


*ok, so I don't know the EXACT story, since she's a few years below me and I heard it from someone who heard it from someone and so on, but basically she was wearing like some weird thing in her hair, and for some reason decided that it would be a really, really awesome idea to superglue it on. When she told the teacher she couldn't take it off, he pulled it, and she like lost hair and skin and whatnot. And, to be honest, all I have to say is... "SUPERGLUE? You REALLY thought that that would be a good idea? Come on..."

Huh. I am a nerd.

So today a friend and I realised that we have just over 20 (school) days until our end of year exams. The reaction we probably should have had? "Shit! Study! Study! Study freakishly hard so we can make up for the past year of not doing anything!"

My actual reaction? "Hey, that's kind of cool."

Not because I'm looking forward to exams, as such, because I'm not. But you see, exams mean the end of the year. Exams mean, like, two and a half months off or something like that. Exams mean a holiday where there is actually no homework at all that I have to do. Exams... exams are kind of awesome in that sense.
Besides, the ones last semester... I mean, they sucked, but they weren't really that bad.

I said this to my friend, and at first he looked at me like I was crazy, but then he caught on and we started talking about what we'd do to relax during exam week (and over the holidays) and... calculating how many hours of certain subjects we still had to sit through. Because that's not nerdy at all. (besides, we were in a subject we hate and suck at, so it was really just our way of putting off work while looking like we were busy. Instead of, y'know... studying for exams/ that test we have next week.)

And even besides that, when you're on exam weeks, you don't have to actually go to school unless you're going to exams. Now, let's calculate that. I have six (well, and a bit) exams. I have 10 days off school. No matter how that works out, I'm still going to have time to do whatever the hell I want (which will, of course, be sitting at home and studying...)

Yeah... exams are going to be awesome.

Did I just say that?