Get out of the library and revise in the pub

Revision is hard guys. But if you choose it carefully, where and when you revise can make things just a little bit easier.

As exams draw closer, the library has become more and more frustratingly busy with rightfully panicking third years and annoying, eager freshers who refuse to shut up and stop taking “library selfies”.

But where else can you go? If you revise at home you’ll do no work. That’s where all your things are – your distracting, shiny things that you’d much rather be playing with rather than revising.

So many shiny distractions. And that bloody Facebook machine.

You could go to the park for a relaxing revision session, but we live in Britain so there’s a good chance it will rain. And if you’re lucky enough to go outside on the sunny day you’ll find that there are wasps everywhere and no WiFi.

Plus, there’s never enough chairs

Somewhere relaxing and with WiFi? Well there’s only one real candidate. Head to the pub. But how does revising in your local match up with the library?

Busyness

The library is full. We all know it’s full and yet we still traipse hopelessly around every room looking for a free computer. If you brought your laptop you could sit find a table to sit at, squeezed between two panicking third years already half way through their third can of Monster. And even that’s not a certainty.

And then you get these sleeping douches

At opening time, however, the pub will be likely empty, save for the standdard token pub drunk and the kitchen staff. Of course, there are no computers to be fought over but there is plenty of space for you to plonk down your laptop and get on with working. No people to disturb you, no stressed students, just comfy chairs and space. And when it gets full in the evening that’s the sign you’ve done enough work.

1-0 to the pub.

Of course, the are some distractions in pubs too – coasters, for instance

Accessibility

Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week during exam period, the library is the most obvious port of call. Not only that, they have internet – albeit not the fastest. The main selling point for the library is the wealth of books and information immediately available and the lack of effort needed to get them.

Because as much as we try to avoid them, books are important to degrees

Okay, so admittedly the pub really falters on this point. Most are only open 12pm-11pm, and even then you wont be working that whole time. Most have WiFi, but I can’t vouch that it won’t be slower than the library’s piss-poor Cloud bollocks. Google Books will help to counter the lack of a library in the pub, and the library website database feature will mean you will probably be fine, but it’s a make-do at best.

1-1 – All to play for.

 Refreshment

You’re going to be revising for hours, you need to keep refreshed and take breaks occasionally. The library has its inevitable dull cafe and it has served us well. It may be a tad expensive but the quality is alright and it’s located conveniently close. Its the library itself is the issue. The quiet-zone Nazis will do everything in their power to stop you from eating or drinking and you’ll only get more stressed when they inevitably come over and smugly ask you to move your sandwich from the desk to your bag because it’s scaring the books or something.

The pub is a pub. Pub food, pub booze, and pub prices. A sandwich and a cup of tea is good, but it’s not as good as a chip butty and pint. There is no argument here. Choose a good, traditional pub, perhaps one with a fire and a wide selection of ales. You’ll need a little muscle relaxant anyway, and alcohol in moderation has been proven to help brain function and stave off dementia. And no one wants a spot of that during an exam.

2-1 – The pub scores a late winner.

There you have it, the pub is by far the greatest place to revise, and better than the library. And that’s science.