Morning exam test taking strategy... wake up super early?

[lightng]

So I have an exam at 9am on Monday and part of me wants to try to review last bits of information in the 4-5 hours leading up to it.

Is there any detriment to my alertness/performance/memory if I go to bed very early the prior day (say 7-8pm) but then wake up at around 3-4am and study until the exam?

It would be helpful if anyone has experience - but I definitely don't plan on doing an all nighter. Had 1 bad experience in undergrad and yeah, never again.

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[wanderingorion]

I used to do that in college (and the morning of the MCAT). It's useful if it doesn't make you anxious, and there's a point when you hit diminishing returns. As long as you get enough sleep the night before, I think it's a good idea.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I've done this, and sometimes it's helpful, but if it's drastically different than your usual sleep schedule it probably won't work. If your normal bedtime is a lot later, you might have trouble falling asleep too much earlier, and then you'll be unlikely to feel particularly rested when that 3am alarm rings. I find that if I don't time it right, I just end up losing that last review time from the night before, and then snoozing my alarm until i would normally be getting up anyway.

 

[7331poas]

Meh, i like to get my anki reviews done before the test. other than that nothing special

 

[jhamaican]

No. You retain information at night when you sleep.

Just wake up 1-2 hours early. Eat a large breakfast. Exercise to get the blood flowing through to the brain, then kill your test.

I strongly recommend against studying the morning of.

 

[lightng]

For what it's worth my usual sleep schedule is that I'm in bed by 10:45pm and wake up at 6am.

I'm thinking shifting 3~ hrs earlier given my circumstances won't be harmful based on what you guys are saying

 

[ndafife]

Are you even going to be able to fall asleep at 7-8? How long is your exam? Are you going to be burned out going into it after 5 hours of studying?

Best way to be fresh going in, is to be on the same schedule you always are.

 

[lightng]

I can usually KO pretty quick if I take melatonin.

But you do raise a good point about being burned out. For some reason I just feel like studying the same 3-4 hrs the night before won't be as accessible within my short term memory than if I pushed those hours closer to my test.

Its a 3 hr exam

 

[Disciple of Sattar]

I have done this when needed and it has worked very well for me. I just take some doxylamine (AKA Unisom, OTC antihistamine) to knock myself out so that I can wake up at 3-4 AM while still having slept for 8 hours. I'm a little drowsy the next day but our exams aren't really a time crunch so it hasn't had any detrimental effect.

 

[Lawpy]

No. You retain information at night when you sleep.

Just wake up 1-2 hours early. Eat a large breakfast. Exercise to get the blood flowing through to the brain, then kill your test.

I strongly recommend against studying the morning of.

Yeah that's a good strategy to follow 👍

 

[Deecee2DO]

Do not study the morning of. Keep in mind you will already be sitting taking a test using your brain for several hours so why use your brain more than you have to before the exam and tire your brain out. Wake up eat a little proteins and some complex carbs and walk on the treadmill for 15 mins. Ive tried pre-test treadmill and it has improved my exam performance I am more alert and I am able to think more clearly

 

[Ho0v-man]

I routinely do this. As long as the exam is over by noon it’s no big deal. If it’s like an 8-4pm exam then I’d only wake up like 2hrs before it max.

 

[MSTP18]

This type of strategy never worked for me. I’d much rather stay up a little later to get extra studying in.

I think doing stuff in the morning is more likely to stress you out about the things you don’t know and hurt your exam performance than it is to raise your score by learning something you couldn’t have gotten to the day before.

 

[SouthernGent]

Spend the week before getting up a little earlier than normal to get use to it, only an hour or two max. Don't worry about studying, instead work on getting your brain "warmed up" whether it be coffee, some practice qs, sudoku, yoga, etc. Just get the gears turning so you don't take the test in a fog and get dinged for it.

 

[jurisburger]

Basically you won't know if this works for you until you've tried it as you can tell by the strong opinions on both sides. Good luck!