Know what kind of exam you’re sitting

This sounds obvious, but most students skip this step. Before building a study plan, find out the exact exam format. Is it a short answer, an essay or a multiple-choice question? Open or closed book?

At ANU, exam formats vary widely across disciplines and courses. An exam that asks you to construct an argument under time pressure requires a different preparation strategy than a clinical exam, where your skills and performance are tested in a lab or field setting.

Consult your course outline and check Canvas. If you don't know the format, ask your tutor. Let the format guide your strategy and definitely check that rubric!

Space out your revision

Sleeping with a textbook under your pillow or cramming the night before an exam might seem like a tradition, but it rarely works. Use spaced repetition: study in multiple sessions over days and weeks. This technique helps your brain consolidate learning, not just keep information long enough to write it down.

After a lecture, spend 10 minutes reviewing your notes. Return to the material a few days later, then again the next week. Every review makes recall easier, especially for content-heavy subjects like law, science, or economics.

Procrastination is not your bestie

Procrastination feels so good in the moment, but it comes back to bite you twice as hard. When you ignore your task, it doesn’t go away – it just sits there ominously in the background, waiting for you to complete it.

Procrastination during exam season usually comes down to two things: the task feeling too big, or your study environment working against you. Breaking your revision into specific, small tasks (reviewing one topic, completing one past question) makes it easier to start.

Treat your brain like it needs maintenance

Sleep, food, and movement are essentials, not rewards for studying. Cut them during exam season, and you're essentially borrowing from yourself. You get a couple of extra hours now. Later, you pay for it with reduced concentration, worse memory consolidation and the sense that everything is harder than it should be.

Similarly, sleep is especially important for memory. It does a lot of heavy lifting. Your brain processes what you’ve learned while you sleep. But staying up until 3am to smash out a semester’s worth of learning in a night before an exam? That tends to undermine the studying you’ve already done, not add to it.

Breaks work the same way. Research into how students perform during exam season consistently shows that rest isn't the opposite of studying—it's a key part of it. Your brain needs downtime to move information from short-term to long-term memory, which means the two-hour grind session where you push through exhaustion is often less effective than a focused hour followed by a break. Step away from your desk. Eat something. Go outside. Come back.

To make the most of your breaks, Canberra is an especially amazing place to clear your head between sessions. If you need a reason to step outside, check out 6 wellness activities around Canberra for university students. Even a walk around the block does something useful for your headspace.

How many hours a day should you study for exams at uni?

There is really no single right answer. It depends on the subject, how far out from your exam you are and how well you’ve kept up with material during the semester. Consistent, focused sessions of one to two hours tend to be more effective than marathon study days, especially when you build in regular breaks. Starting early enough that you’re not cramming is the most useful thing you can do.

Sort your playlist (or your silence)

Some people prefer studying to their favourite songs, and others like a tuned-out, silent vibe. Whatever floats your boat, neither camp is wrong – but knowing which one you are and actually setting up your environment accordingly is the small thing that adds up.

If you’re in the music camp, try instrumental or lo-fi playlists. They generally work better than anything with lyrics. Songs with many lyrics can compete with reading and writing, while wordless music keeps your focus. To get started, we’ve put together a list of study playlists for university students that may help.

If silence helps you focus, try noise-cancelling headphones, library quiet zones, or early morning sessions before campus gets busy. Find your window and protect it.

Your study environment needs to match your ambition

Whether you're studying at a cluttered desk, in a noisy common room, or from bed with Netflix playing in the background, your environment has a direct impact on how effectively you retain information.

ANU and Canberra have some excellent options beyond your room. We've covered five great places to study in Canberra if you're looking for inspiration. The Chifley Library reading rooms, the Menzies Library and the quiet zones in various colleges all offer the kind of low-distraction environment that makes a difference when you're deep in revision.

If you're setting up at home, our 6 steps to a perfect study space covers the practical stuff like lighting, desk setup and how to reduce distractions rather than just intending to.

Give yourself grace

Exam season is hard. For a lot of students it's the most sustained pressure they've felt in their lives and that's worth acknowledging.

You might be juggling part-time work, managing life away from home for the first time, dealing with things that have nothing to do with uni and still trying to show up prepared for every exam. It's totally okay if some days the studying schedule doesn't go to plan. It's okay if you need to close the laptop and go hang out with your friends.

Giving yourself grace during exam season doesn't mean letting everything slide. It means recognising that you're a person before you're a student, and that being kind to yourself when things feel heavy is not weakness, it's what makes it possible to keep going.

If you're finding that anxiety or stress is getting in the way of more than just studying, please reach out. ANU has free counselling, an on-campus psychology clinic and a Wellbeing and Support Line that is operational 24 hours a day. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone, and that's exactly what they're there for.

Exams are one of those things that get more manageable every time you do them. The techniques become second nature, you figure out what works for you and before long you'll be the one giving advice to someone in their first year. You've got this – go show them what you know!