College Study Tips - Sleep Before Studying

After two years of studying at St. John's University, where I'm in the 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy program, I think I'm qualified to tell you a thing or two about all-nighters.

First of all, do everything in your power to avoid them because they are counter-productive. Your brain needs sleep to function normally. Plus, it's very destructive to your help when you don't sleep.

My most memorable all-nighter-of which I've only had a few-would be when I was studying for my second Biochemistry exam earlier this year. I had a Biology exam on Monday, the Biochemistry exam the day after, and a Public Health exam the day after that. Since I had never had such a tight exam situation in my life prior to this, I wasn't smart in how I handled it. I've always been one to study for exams really close to the exam date unless it were a more challenging subject like Chemistry. In that case, I would study steadily throughout and do a big review session a day or two before the exam. But I had sorely miscalculated.

I put Biochemistry way in front of everything else because it was suppose to be my most difficult class plus the fact that it was worth the most amount of credits. The professor warned that there are absolutely no curves. (Well, he kind of lied, but that's a whole other story.) So the Friday before my string of exams was the first time I even looked at my Biology notes. A big part of my misguided decision to sideline such an important class lied in the fact that my Biology professor the semester before was so nice and easy; out first exam was open-book and notes, second was take home, and the final was open-book and notes as well. But this semester, I had a professor whose easiness ratings at RateMyProfessor were almost all 1's. So what was I thinking? I don't know either.

Since I only made a 75 on the first test, you could imagine how hard I was studying on Sunday, the day before the exam. I studied well into the AM hours. And being so tired from that, my Biochemistry exam was the very next day and I still had to review everything.

I decided on not sleeping at all to study for it. A very good friend of mine said she was doing the same thing, so we agreed to call each other every hour or so to make sure the other person wouldn't fall asleep. As an experienced all-nighter, she so nice to even make me a list of all-nighter tips.

Even with all this fun and help, it was hell. I became so tired despite drinking coffee (and I don't ever drink coffee) and a Rockstar energy drink (because I see two fourth year pharmacy drinking it in the study lounge-and they have it much harder than I do). I wanted to go to sleep so badly, but I couldn't. I gave myself no choice. I was miserable, dragging on to my Biochemistry textbook like there was no tomorrow.

After finally taking the exam, I was completely sapped. And the Public Health exam was the next day, which I had to start studying from scratch. In spite of whatever I was shoving down my throat, nothing was working. I was reading the PowerPoint but I may as well have been staring into space because nothing was registering. My brain had effectively said, "Sorry dude, I'm shutting down." So I decided to set my alarm for around six hours later, fearing that I might not wake up in time to continue studying. But it turned out to be the best decision I made those few days. The sleep helped immensely. I felt refreshed and breezed through my information.

So lesson learned: If you only have one night to study for an exam, try your best to squeeze in a few hours. It will make all the difference. Don't be too scared to go to sleep without anything in your head-it's not worth it. You will just feel like crap in the morning. For the all-nighter I did for my Organic Chemistry exam, I was dozing off during the exam! How dangerous is that? So be the wiser: get your sleep.