Every year it feels the same. The teachers suddenly start talking faster, the books start looking bigger and never-ending, and your brain starts saying, “Not again.” Some kids pretend they’re ready, some are quiet but scared, some don’t give it a second thought, and some don’t even want to open a single page until the very last minute. Some are haters; these kids don’t like studying or anything connected to schoolwork.

I get it because, at one point in my life, I also felt like studies were this huge burden sitting on my tiny, tired shoulders. I even used to make the lamest excuses just to skip school. But within days, my parents noticed that my stomach ache always appeared at exactly 7:00 am and magically disappeared around 8:30 am. So that trick didn’t last long. I ran out of excuses and then came a moment when I had no escape left. I had to study and I had to sit in exams, even for the subjects I hated the most.

In those days, I would look at the smart kids in my class who loved studying and wonder… how? Why? What kind of willpower did they have? How could they sit there with their clean notes and coloured markers, smiling blissfully like everything in life was perfect?

But then I’d see a big lot of kids like me and feel relieved that I wasn’t alone. If you’re one of those who looks at a book and immediately wants to sleep, eat, scream, run away, scroll your phone or do basically anything except study… then yeah, this survival guide is for you. It’s actually more for the kids who totally hate studying, let alone sitting for exams on stuff they don’t even care about. This one’s for you.

Exams are such weird things. Whether you are someone who panics or someone silent, something inside you just changes. That light, relaxed feeling you have during regular school days just goes away, and everything feels heavy and serious, even though you don’t want to feel serious. The air feels ‘examish’.

Your parents start walking around with those suspicious eyes like they’re watching a criminal. Teachers smile like everything is normal, but you can see the........

© Dawn Young Magazine