So since exam season means you always have a lot of subjects on your plate so the question of which one to open first becomes really stressful really quickly. And the funny thing is — and I genuinely used to do this — you end up spending like 20 minutes just deciding what to study and then by the time you actually open a book you are already a little tired and a little frustrated and all that.
In addition, a lot of people have reported that they always end up picking the subject they like the most or the one that feels easiest and then the harder subjects keep getting pushed to the next day and then the next day and then suddenly the exam is tomorrow.
Hello guys! What's up? My name is Prince Upadhyay and welcome to MegaMocks, your go-to place for exam prep tools and study strategies. So let's start with the topic...
Before we get into how to actually fix this I want to make one thing clear. The reason is simple, this is not a motivation problem. I used to think I just needed to be more disciplined about it but that is not what is going on over here. The real problem is that there is no system. When there is no system your brain just defaults to whatever feels comfortable and comfortable is usually not the same as urgent.
When you study the most urgent subject first — and this is the part a lot of students miss — you are using your sharpest focus on the thing that needs it the most. Your brain is at its best in the first session of the day and if you waste that on a subject where you are already confident and the exam is two weeks away then you are kind of doing it backwards you know.
A lot of people think it is only about which exam is closest but actually there are a lot of other things involved. So think about it this way. Say you have two subjects and the first one has an exam in five days but you have covered 80 percent of the syllabus already and you are feeling fairly confident. And the second one has an exam in seven days but your last score was really low and you have 60 percent syllabus still left and honestly you are not feeling confident at all. So since the second subject has so many more problems even though the date is slightly further so it is actually the more urgent one and this is the kind of thing your gut gets wrong every time.
So since most students pick subjects based on what they feel like studying so the hardest and most important subjects keep getting avoided and — actually I have seen this happen with a lot of people including myself — you reach the last week before exams and realise you have been avoiding that one particular subject for two weeks and now there is no time and all that. That is not a discipline problem that is a system problem.
The right way to decide priority is to look at four honest data points for each subject. How close is the exam. What was your last score in it. How much syllabus is still remaining. And how confident are you feeling right now. When you look at all four together the answer becomes really clear and you stop second guessing yourself.
The Subject Priority Decider is what I use every morning before I start studying and this particular tool is really straightforward. You put in each subject and you answer those four quick questions and it gives you a ranked list with a reason for each position. So you can actually see why Maths came first and why Physics went last and all that. And honestly the first time I ran my subjects through it I was surprised because the subject I thought was fine was actually the second most urgent one when you looked at all four factors together.
This particular tool is not a one time thing. You have to use it every day because the priority changes. As days pass and as your exam dates get closer the ranking of your subjects will shift and something that was third yesterday might become first today. So since priorities are dynamic so checking in daily is really important and it only takes about three minutes honestly.
The number one subject on your list should always get the first study session of the day. That is when your focus is the sharpest and that is where the most urgent problem is so it just makes sense. And the subjects lower down on the list should still get time just less of it. Don't ignore them completely because every subject still needs some attention and all that.
If two subjects feel equally urgent then trust the tool's score over your gut. Why? Because your gut usually avoids the harder one and that is kind of the whole reason you needed a system in the first place.
Sometimes you will look at the ranking and it will feel off. And honestly that is really useful too. Why? Because now you can actually see which input is driving the result and you can adjust it. Maybe you underestimated how much syllabus is left or maybe your confidence estimate was not that accurate. The tool gives you a reason for every ranking so you can agree with it or adjust accordingly and that particular transparency is what makes it actually useful.
Better to spend three minutes checking your priority order every morning then to spend the whole day studying the wrong subject and wondering why you still feel unprepared and all that.
Studying the right subject at the right time beats studying hard at the wrong one every single day.
Add your subjects, answer 4 quick questions each, and get your ranked priority order for today.
Open Subject Priority Decider →