For a smarter lifestyle

Youths need to get adequate sleep, eat appropriately and study smartly. They must set their priorities straight and assign the required time for each task, comments Noshin Noorjahan
Just two more days to a week of back-to-back final exams. Panic, worry, stress--- all come rushing to your mind. The sudden urge to score a high GPA comes to life and you shut the world around you to peek through the untouched, dusty pile of books. You are determined like never before- to complete the entire semester's syllabus in one day.
You sink yourself into the cluster of the curved letters that make your notes and run through pages after pages that seem to never end. You practically eat with your books, sleep with your books and, in the worst case scenario, visit the loo with your books.
The details are too vivid and relatable for most students but very few are aware of how terribly this way of studying goes wrong.
Last minute studying overloads your brain. No matter how much you are taking in, your brain will only store what it can and discard the rest. At the end of an hour, only 10 minutes of actual work is done; the blank in the 'fill in the blanks' section remains vacant because you do not remember even a quarter of what you have studied; a week after your exam, you fail to recollect even the vague concept of your text. Cramming the brain does not earn you proper knowledge or make you pass the exam with good grades. So is it not wise to try the alternatives?

Remember the first day of your semester when your teacher, after briefing the course to you, advises you to look through every study material at home after learning it in class? Remember you were not paying heed to it? We need to learn from your mistakes and start following this piece of advice very seriously. Feeding the brain with little information at regular intervals allows it to soak in the details. You can remember what you have learned throughout the semester and even beyond. Not only do quizzes and finals get easier, your knowledge is enriched as well.
It is not always easy to pay undivided attention in a class but when you do, you realise that you have understood the subject better than ever. A thorough understanding of a chapter helps you to learn it faster, the benefits are-- you do not have to sit for hours on the night before your exams, you do not try to pick the logic behind a word and you do not need to give up your precious sleep hours.
It is helpful to engage in group studies with your friends. However, make sure you do not make it a discussion on the last episode of 'Game of Thrones'. Group studies help you to advance with your progress and also, clear the bits of confusion. This way, the hasty turning of pages and multiple google searches are spared the night before exams.
Yes ,we are in 2015. We do not prepare ourselves with just a safe GPA anymore, we work extra hours to gain working experience and we participate in social causes in an attempt to better the society and yes, that takes much of our time. You are allowed that reason but you also need to keep a balance between your extra activities and your academics.  Students should not commit to a task that takes your time off studying.  Students should be wise enough to calculate their time and schedule that accommodates all their activities. Indeed, versatility is important but it is of a lesser value when learners do not have a good academic record to support it.
And lastly, procrastination can be termed as the mother of all evils. When you are occupied for hours, with multiple sources of work, you crave for it to end; you long for that hour in the night when you can sit back, relax and enjoy the rhythm of your playlist. You prefer to treat yourself instead of preparing for the exam next week. In fact, you treat yourself longer than you should because, you have just finished a pile of work, you deserve some rest! None can blame you to seek some rest after a hectic load of work but indeed you are to be pointed at due to the misuse of time, for not being well prepared for your test. So try this- accept the fact that be it today or few days later, your syllabus will not be shortened. Therefore, split your exam preparation in days rather than in hours; allow your body and your brain to have a well-balanced set of occupation and relaxation. After all, if your body were to be a machine, will you want it to overheat?
Youths need to get adequate sleep, eat appropriately and study smartly. They must set their priorities straight and assign the required time for each task. Wise words come our way more often than we know but it is time that we obey them more often than we actually do. If not now, when? After all, little harm is done to the person who wishes to help and more is done to the one who refuses the hand.   
The writer is a second year Pharmacy student at North South University, noshinnoorjahan@gmail.com