Quill / Moments / Exam motivation quotes for revision, resits and the night before
Exam motivation quotes for revision, resits and the night before
The textbook has been open at the same page since two o'clock. The phone has had most of the afternoon. Under the scrolling there's usually fear: if you work properly and still fail, that says something, so it feels safer to not quite start.
Students who get through this tend to mention very small blocks, sometimes ten minutes, and a stopping time the night before. Some write their worries down before bed. Others talk about one result being one result, and a resit being another go at the paper.
Nothing here promises you'll pass, because nobody can. These lines are for the library at closing time, the third year of a long degree, and the ten blank seconds after you turn the paper over. They're brisk and on your side, and they sound more like a friend in your year than a teacher.
The moments
- Open book, phone in hand, an hour missing
- The night before, sure you've covered nothing
- One more chapter at midnight
- Everyone else's revision timetable looking better than yours
- A failed paper, and deciding whether to carry on
- Results week, checking the date again
- Ten seconds of blank mind in the exam hall
What people say helps
- Starting with a block small enough to feel silly
- Seeing one result as one result
- Treating a resit as another go at the paper
- Writing worries down and stopping at a set time
“You'll be fine” and “it's only an exam” come from people who aren't sitting it, which is why they rarely help the night before.
Quill Originals are written by Quill. Popular sayings are widely repeated lines with no name attached. Lines with a name are checked word for word against public-domain books.
Quill Originals
You've read that line four times. Time for bed.
One page, badly, is more than none.
Result day's coming. Today isn't it.
Go outside. The library isn't going anywhere.
That moment when it clicks is worth noticing. Did you notice?
Word count's low. Everyone's is at this stage.
Second-guessing yourself on question one is a classic.
One more topic at midnight won't beat a night's sleep.
You didn't understand the lecture. Nor did the person nodding.
Fifteen minutes is a block.
There's a last exam on that timetable. Find it and look at it.
Time's up is a relief too.
Don't do the post-mortem on the pavement.
Changing subject is allowed, even after a year.
Nobody ever looks as lost as they feel in a lecture.
Hard is normal.
Walk out slowly. You've been brave in there for hours.
Your cousin's marks are not a topic you have to discuss.
Deciding whether to carry on doesn't need deciding tonight.
Group project, and you're doing all of it. Of course you are.
Behind is a normal place to be in week six.
You got through today.
Popular sayings
Never stop learning.
There are no stupid questions.
Think for yourself.
Learn something new every day.
Little and often.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
From the books
First study; then approve; then love.
Read the passage around this line
… heart, and over your lips as the outlet, lest they betray you in a moment of unwariness. Receive, coldly and dispassionately, every attention, till you have ascertained and duly considered the worth of the aspirant; and let your affections be consequent upon approbation alone. First study; then approve; then love. Let your eyes be blind to all external attractions, your ears deaf to all the fascinations of flattery and light discourse.—These are nothing—and worse than nothing—snares and wiles of the tempter, to lure the thoughtless to their own destruction. Principle is the first thing, …
One must travel, to learn.
Read the passage around this line
… to me that men should kiss each other, but I am aware, now, that they did. There was reason in it, too. The custom was natural and proper; because people must kiss, and a man would not be likely to kiss one of the women of this country of his own free will and accord. One must travel, to learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any significance for me before, take to themselves a meaning.
We must look a long time before we can see.
Read the passage around this line
… but it will seem as if every stone had been turned, and the bark on every tree ripped up. But, after all, it is much easier to discover than to see when the cover is off! It has been well said that “the attitude of inspection is prone.” Wisdom does not inspect, but behold. We must look a long time before we can see. Slow are the beginnings of philosophy. He has something demoniacal in him, who can discern a law or couple two facts. We can imagine a time when,—“Water runs down hill,”—may have been taught in the schools. The true man of science will know nature better by his finer …
Press on where truth begins to dawn.
Men deserve praise for engaging in profitable studies, even though they stop short of producing any results.
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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