These are the five stages you will go through this exam season

It’s that fearful time of year. Christmas and New Year are over, the country's in political turmoil, and to top it all off the weather's getting even colder. It can only mean one thing – exam season.

Whilst some may not find an issue with this, many people will find themselves in the same situation time and time again. That situation is what I call ‘The Five Stages’.

1. Acknowledgement

This usually comes around the same time as the exam timetables drop. It’s the point where you feel confident enough to take on any exam thrown at you because you just got back an essay that you scraped a pass on and now feel like you’re heading straight for success.

It’s the point where you hear phrases like “Oh it’s fine, it’s ages away yet” or “Don’t worry about it yet we’ve got time to revise”. But, little do you know, it’s also the point where you feel the most positive, the most confident, and the least stressed. It’s all downhill from here; sorry!

2. Awareness

You organise your time, you buy the revision cards, you tidy your desk. But now what? You look at the long list of topics that are covered in the exam and think ‘later’. Only thing is how late is later? Exams are looming and time is running out. Time to hit the books.

3. Rewards Self for Doing the Bare Minimum

Okay, so you finally hit the books, but after 10 minutes you come close to throwing them against the wall – if only the deposit on your room wasn’t so pricey and the textbook wasn’t big enough to cause structural damage. You decide it’s time for a ‘well-earned’ break.

One hour later you’re still sat having a cuppa whilst on your phone complaining about how stressed and exhausted you are from revising.

4. Alarm Bells

The days seem to be going quicker and quicker and you STILL haven’t done so much as listen to an old lecture. You get what can only be described as stress induced motivation and whip out the flashcards.

You realise you never actually wrote anything on said flashcards so eagerly scribble down notes as fast as you possibly can, whilst refusing to admit that you should’ve started doing all of this earlier. Like a few days earlier, or weeks. Maybe months. You tell yourself you’ll be fine, even though deep down you know you’re going to be far from it…

5. Showtime!

A few days before the exam, running off 4 hours sleep, and surviving off coffee. There’s no seats in the library or anywhere else at uni for that matter. You consider pulling an all nighter but then realise that actually takes energy, of which you have none.

You admit your fate and sit the exam. You find it tricky but nothing to stress over and wonder- ‘why did I even bother’? You keep wondering this until you get your exam results, and are told of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. You now realise you didn’t actually bother at all, and it shows.

And that light? It's a little thing called resits.