 Rydw i nhw'n meddwl i chi i ddim yn ei gael, mae'r amser clyweddau yn gyfarwyr, drwsgol, a'r gyrd-a-fild ac ymddur yn ei gael a'u gilydd o'r yrhyw yma, mae'r gysylltu o'r cyd-ddechrau i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu. Mae'n gweithio gyda'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu, Cyn yna'i fynd i'n deall, dyna'n atgrifau hwn eich hwn i gael i fynd i ddod ymlaen nhw g heddiw ond yn mynd i'r ffordd. Felly, fel yw'r wneud hynny'n ddiolchidio ar yr argyn인 ac yr ychydig yn ôl yn eladol iawn, ac rhai byddai, mae'n ffordd agen nhw'n wneud yn fwy yn gweithio. Felly, cyfle peth bryd. Iddyn nhw'n gwybod'u ffwg arwyr yn gwybod yw ysgol, Usually your university, depending on the university that you go to, they will either give you the date, ours doesn't, but our university does give us the week of the exam, so they'll be week beginning of the 8th of April for example, which is our next exam, and they'll sort of give you the date and time sort of nearer the time. So yes, so know your exam date and know how many weeks you've got to revise or if it's an assignment, how many weeks you've got to submit that assignment, because I think just having that date in your head, you can organise your time better I think. Tip number two. Do not over revise. I've done this last year during my second year. I found myself over revising. I was on it every single day, so obsessed with revision, and it got to a point, I think it was about two weeks before my exam, I got to a point I physically couldn't revise anymore. It was stressing me out so much, I physically couldn't look at it. I was like, do you know what, I can't do this anymore, so I literally, for the last two weeks before the exam, I did not revise, and so that's really important, you need to sort of manage it in small sections. You can't just overload yourself with all of the information all at once, because that's not going to help your anxiety level at all, didn't help mine, so just make sure that you revise sensibly if that makes sense. Tip number three. Smart, so give yourself smart goals. If I do this, I think, okay, what do I need to learn, and there'll be so much that you need to learn, you need to break it down, and say one day you think, okay, I really want to understand how the respiratory system works. How does that work? So maybe make some flashcards, make some bullet points, watch some YouTube videos, do some diagrams, whatever's going to help you remember, take that on board, do it, and then once you've completed a section or a flashcard or something, a little small goal that you're going to achieve, and it can be anything, it doesn't have to be respiratory, but you can choose your own goals because you know how you work, but once you've achieved that goal, give yourself a reward, reward yourself. I know, I love motivation and I love rewards. I always think, do you know what, a cup of tea, and a biscuit, or chocolate, or a yogurt, a new top, that's for when I pass the exam, is the big one. I get a new item of clothing to reward myself, or something like that, or something silly, I don't know, but this is the last exam, so I need to think of something. I need to give myself a reward now for this, but something small, I will sit and I'll think, really, I'm actually quite hungry now, because revision makes me really hungry and I think, okay, let's do this section and my reward is going to make a really good sandwich, or a really good salad, or some pasta, have a cup of tea, things like that, just something that's going to motivate you to do the work and get it done, and that's just what I do, it might not work for everybody, but I think just putting, sort of give yourself a timeframe, give yourself a goal, and give yourself a reward, and it will really motivate you. I actually, oh gosh, I wonder if I can find it, if I can find it, I'll post it here, but I saw this really good post, I think it was on Facebook or Twitter, I need to go and find it for you, but I found this really good thing on Twitter, and it was like a revision, someone's revision book with all of their notes in, and there was like a chocolate bar between each section, so once they'd done a section, they'd get the chocolate bar, and I saw that was amazing, I actually haven't done that yet, I've just reminded myself of it, so maybe that's going to be my next motivation, but I'm going to post it here because I thought it was a brilliant idea, if you don't eat chocolate, if you're dairy intolerant, not allergies, whatever, maybe it's not the best thing for you. Tip number four, so once you've planned your time, you've managed your time, you've got your goal, and you've got your reward and motivation to keep you going. So my next tip to you is use every single lobe of the brain. This is a tip that I was given at the very start in first year by an amazing lecturer, and he was so right, it's really, really, I'm not joking, if you don't take any of this advice on board, use all of the lobes of the brain, and what I mean by this is you have to write things out, you have to speak things out, so find someone, if you've got kids, this is brilliant. One of my friends said that she actually teaches her little one when she's revising, and that really helped to remember it all because she's teaching it to somebody else, which is my plan for these vlogs, hopefully, to help me remember. So if you've got a family member, if you've got a dog, cat, animal, teddy bear, something that you want to teach, anything just to speak to and teach, do it, and then so you want to write it out, speak it out, you want to visualise it, so watch YouTube videos, you want to draw diagrams, look at diagrams, draw the diagrams, know the diagrams, use colour as well, colour's really, really effective. I saw, I can't remember where I read it now, but I read somewhere about the use of colour over black ink really helps the memory, so make sure you're using colours, although if you don't basically learn like that, don't do it, it's all about finding how you remember things and how you revise. This is completely individual and personal to each and every person. What I do, these tips, what I do might not work for you, so it is about finding your own sort of balance. Different techniques, a mixture, don't just stick to one, it's going to really help you in the exam. The sort of theory behind it that we were told, when you're sitting in an exam and your mind goes blank and you're thinking, oh, I know this, but I can't think of it, it does happen, it has happened to me. But you're sat there, you can't remember, the theory is if you've learnt a variety of different ways using the different lobes, one lobe blank, it hasn't got a clue, the other lobes are going to back it up, it's like teamwork, come on brain, they're all supporting each other, rooting each other on, they're all backing each other up, like nurses should be, you know, one person doesn't know something, the other one's going to chip in and tell you. Yeah, so that's probably one of the biggest tips of all, I think out of all of it is make sure you're using different techniques, different ways to help your revise, and that's really, really going to help you remember during the exam. And my last tip, tip number five. So this tip was given to me in year one again, at the end of year one by an amazing lecturer. She said to all of the class, don't write your revision in long sentences because you're not going to remember long sentences, it's like writing an assignment and remembering word for word your assignment, you're not going to do it. So key points is what you want to do, you want a bullet point, key points, so that's just going to jog your memory and then you can fill in the blanks if that makes sense. And I found that really, really helpful, I've always done bullet points, I've always done like flowcharts sort of style writing when I do my flashcards, it's all bullet points pretty much, diagrams, it's really minimal, just the key elements so that it just jogs my memory and I know it. So yeah, so as long as you've got the key points on the bullet points, you're going to be all right. Tip number one. So if you're feeling really anxious, really stressed, make sure you take some time out. We often forget, I know nursing can be actually really isolating without you even realising it and sometimes you can feel alone and that's going to add to your stress and anxiety. So it's really important to grab your friends, grab your boyfriends, girlfriends, all of your friends, family members, your best friends, anybody you want, somebody, just grab all of them and go out, enjoy yourself, relax, completely switch off, don't talk about exams, don't talk about revision, don't talk about assignments, don't talk about workload and know it's really, really hard to do that but you need a night where you are a day or a lunchtime where you just switch off and you literally just completely free your mind, enjoy that moment with your friends and have a laugh and you're going to feel so much better for it. Tip number two. So if you're feeling really stressed, really anxious, now this might not work for everybody and I know not everybody agrees with this so please don't shoot me for this but I find it really, really beneficial to actually just take 20 minutes out of my day and do some meditation and it doesn't have to be hard, you don't have to overthink it or anything like that and to do this I literally just search YouTube for guided meditation sometimes, just meditation music, Reiki healing music, things like that and it's about finding what you're sort of going to relax to, nature sounds, sound of thunderstorms, whatever you're going to really relax to and just get focused and recharge yourself, it's going to be the best thing for you and sometimes you can't focus so sometimes if you've never done meditation before the first time you do it you're going to not be focused you're going to be in and out and be like I can't do this, why is everyone raving about meditation I can't even focus, I can't switch off and it still happens now, even though I've done it sometimes there'll be some days where you physically can't switch off and that's okay, the more you do it the more you practise doing it the better you're going to be at switching off and allowing to just literally be calm and be blank for literally 20 minutes just re-energise, recharge and then you do feel, I feel amazing afterwards I'm like I feel so calm, I feel so calm what was I stressing about? Tip number three, so if you aren't a meditator find something that you do enjoy doing find something that you find really therapeutic some people do knitting, crochet the colouring books that you can get for mental health and stress and anxiety do those, writing if you like blogging or writing poems, if you're singing, dancing whatever you do the gym to do stress it releases endorphins and things whatever you find helps you to unwind do more of it make sure you take the time out to really unwind and then get back onto it because it is tough and it can be tough and you need that time to relax and recharge tip number four this might sound like a strange one to some people but make sure you are keeping well hydrated and eating really well because if you're stressed and anxiety your immune system and everything is already running down it's running low and that's just the body's response to stress and anxiety so you need to make sure you're eating really well don't eat a load of junk food which is the easiest thing to do, I know I love pizza, I love Chinese, I love curry I love ordering takeaway I love not washing up so it's really easy to do and just the added stress of the junk food isn't going to help it's not going to help your levels at all and it's probably going to contribute towards feeling more stressed and anxiety and a bit of depression as well maybe so just make sure you're eating well make sure you're cooking healthy eating salads, eating your vegetables not frying foods not eating too many chips and fatty foods so it is about really balancing it I think and keep well hydrated because I know I've done this so many times when I've been stressed or anxious you forget to drink and it sounds really silly but I forget to drink because I'm so focused on everything but myself you forget these things so I literally now have to force myself into the kitchen get some water, get some cup of tea get some squash, get some fresh orange juice anything like that just to keep hydrated and I've started to count how many I have in a day now I think I've got it to about 2 cups of teas and 4 pints of water roughly on an average but anyway if you're really dehydrated your mood is going to go solo I've felt this and I've thought why am I feeling solo feeling really irritable and horrible like I'm not myself and I'll always notice because my lips go really dry as well and I'll get a headache there the two main signs for me personally that I haven't drank enough my lips will be really sensitive I'll get a banging headache and I'll think what have I drank today first thing I do what have I drank today I haven't drank enough and that really does affect my mood completely so make sure you are keeping well hydrated and you are eating well and it sounds so silly but promise you it really does help and my last and final tip tip number 5 is if you are really struggling you can't focus, nothing's working you can't take your mind off it you're really anxious, really getting down about it because we have all been there it does happen where nothing will work literally nothing, doesn't matter how much you drink doesn't matter how new trishes you are doesn't matter how many times you go to the gym you cannot switch off and you are really stressed about exams and assignments and everything so my top top tip for everything above everything else if you find yourself really really struggling please get help speak to someone at the university speak to your friends, speak to your family go to your GP see if there's any counselling sessions if there's any therapeutic sessions you can go to if there's anything that he or she can suggest it's really going to help you it's a really horrible feeling stressed about an exam and you'll feel like a failure you'll get that sort of people keep talking about this imposter syndrome and you will start to feel like that you'll feel like, do you know what, I'm not a nurse I'm really doubting myself and I can't do this but everyone else is telling you you can do this, you're really good at exams and you're like, I feel like an imposter because I'm really not and I'm really struggling and it does happen, it happens so much but do you know what you need to recognise it that you're struggling and get help for it don't be too proud don't be too scared, too shy don't think anyone's going to judge you for asking for help because I think that's the bravest most best thing anyone can ever do is admit they're struggling and get the help I think it's an amazing and I'm not just saying this, I honestly think it's one of the most amazing things and people that can openly do that people do it on Twitter all the time or Facebook and they'll put a stage saying I'm really struggling, I'm really not okay guys I have really serious problems sometimes and they inspire me so much that they've opened up and they've got the help I think it's amazing so big shout out to all of those people who seek help speak up when they're struggling because you're amazing but just please, if you don't take anything away from any of these tips make sure you get help go to your university, speak to your personal tutor most unis now have a mental health well-being place that you can go to or a counsellor that you can go to because universities are recognising that it is stressful for us students and they need to put something in place to help us so just make sure you really make use of the services and all the nursing students now you're paying for the course, make use of those free services that they provide don't dismiss it, don't think it's a silly idea or people are going to judge you because they're not, go and get the help and it'll be like a weight that's just been lifted from your shoulders if you do that, I promise so thank you so much for watching thanks for tuning in as always and I hope that I've given you some sort of help or advice or anything on managing those stressful times and giving you some tips to help your revise I hope it helps and let me know if you're struggling or anything and just comment, inbox me my inbox is always open for anyone that's struggling let me know because we're all in this together and we should all be helping each other out and you're thinking, she hasn't said this but I find this really really helpful put it in the comments, please put it in the comments for somebody else to see and take on board because we've all got our own ways of doing things and it's really important that we all help each other out it's teamwork so put your comment below it could really help someone it might help me, so put your comments below and let's help each other out