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Strange exam habits: ‘I teach a class to the people walking by’

Strange exam habits: ‘I teach a class to the people walking by’

6 December 2023

EM TV

Always working on the same desk, a chocolate bar a day or making plants grow in an app: students come up with the oddest ways to maintain concentration in the weeks leading up to their examinations.

Reporter Sanne Engelen knows the best way to get through the exam period: by eating a chocolate bar every day. Master’s student Kamogelo (Accounting), practices for her exam by reciting the course material out loud. “When nobody’s around, I talk to an imaginary audience, but sometimes I open the window and ‘teach’ a class to random passers-by.”

As a PhD candidate in Econometrics, Shintalo no longer has to sit any exams. But he remembers going to the sauna a lot when he was a student in order to relax and get away from the material for a while. “Then I would take a bath, at which point my exam would be the furthest thing from my mind.”

Linen-scented candle

Elia (Communication and Media) prefers to study in his room. “Totally isolated from society and doing nothing but studying.” Sometimes, though, he leaves his cave to go for a walk. “That’s not something I normally do – only when I’m studying for an exam. It helps me concentrate.” During the exam period, IBA student Gracie always lights a candle before she goes to bed. “A linen-scented one, from Primark.”

Kamogelo has one last tip for her fellow students: an app she discovered recently. “You can make plants grow in the app. The more you study, the faster your plants grow.” For those who want to give it a try, the app is called Focus Plant.