Exam period is stressful no matter what stage of your degree you’re in. Everyone from a first-year rookie to a final-year student struggles with the anxiety that comes hand-in-hand with exam period. Now throw full-time work into the mix and you’ve got a stressful concoction.

I used to be a full-time student and a full-time intern, and I can safely say that I was practically surviving off Red Bulls and two-minute noodles at one point. I also found myself googling random symptoms online to try and get a doctors certificate so I could get an extension on my physics exam.

But when push came to shove I had to squeeze in exam prep into my 9-5. Here’s how I managed to pull that off.

Squeeze It Into Your Work Hours

Create flash cards or one-pager revision documents and keep them on you at all times. At various points during your day you’re bound to have random chunks of free time. This could include your walk to the station, waiting for the train or waiting in a lunch line during peak hour. Either way you will often find yourself having bursts of five, 10 or 15 minutes of free time during the day so you might as well get some revision in.

The more you sneak in, the less you’ll have to do when you get home from a long day in the corporate jungle.

Multi-Task Like A Boss

You know that scene in Legally Blonde where Elle Woods is on an elliptical trainer while revising for law school? That is how you multi-task like a boss.

If you pay attention to the rest of your day you’ll notice there are tasks you can complete while doing some exam prep. This could include: working out, eating brekkie, packing lunch for the next day or even making dinner. These day-to-day tasks require minimum concentration so you can afford to focus on your notes.

Another pro tip: listen to a recording of your notes.

Plan A Cram Session

If there’s one thing university taught me during my rookie years, it was how to cram under stressful conditions. So leverage that skill and plan a cram day.

It’s very likely that a few days before the exam your stress levels will peak. This is when annual leave/study leave comes into play. Most workplaces allow you to take time-off throughout the year and sometimes it’s easier to cram that extra revision into the day leading up to the exam. Some of us work better under pressure.

Isn’t that how diamonds are made?

Set A Reading Schedule

If your degree involves large amounts of reading (like a law major) taking some time out on a Sunday evening to create a reading schedule is a great approach. At this point in the semester you’re probably well aware of how much time you require to read a certain amount of pages. So leverage that knowledge and break up your readings throughout the week with dedicated timeslots for all five days. This will give you clarity and help you feel a sense of accomplishment as you tick off those chapters on your to-do list.

Now go forth and conquer!

(Lead image: Legally Blonde/Paramount)