It’s the end of the first week of November and if you’re reading this, it means that you survived the first IBCoM exam week of the year. First years, you managed to take what were probably your first real, grownup exams ever, well done. Second years, you hopefully rocked your final IBCoM statistics course and your first seminar. And third years, well, we are all over the place, so I hope you all survived what you had to survive.
Everybody knows that exams and final papers can be pretty stressful, which is also the reason why we decided to cut our team of bloggers some slack and to let me, copy editor of the IBCoMagazine, write this blogpost. I already had my exams last week and I didn’t really know what to do afterwards, so I figured that I needed to write about what comes after exams. What to do when you can finally relieve stress?
Even though it seems to be an easy question, it requires an answer that is way more complex than you would have thought. This makes sense, because something that one person enjoys to do, isn’t appealing at all to another. This is why we came up with three types of people and their best way to relieve stress as quickly as possible.
The party animal
Are you a person who is always in for a party and goes out approximately two or three times per week? Then you’re probably also that person that gets a wakeup call about a week before exams and that starts their 12 hour cram sessions in Polak for five days in a row. Very recognizable, hm? However, the party animal still studies hard and often ends up with pretty good grades. But what to do when exams are finally over? As the name already suggests, going out with friends is probably your best way to relieve all the tension that has been in your bodies for the past few weeks. And the party doesn’t start around 11 pm, no it starts around 12.30 with after exam drinks.
The stay-at-home student
Are you a person who parties sometimes, but prefers to just hang out with friends at someone’s place? And do you start hyping up your group of friend to go to Polak and have collective study sessions, because those work best? Then you’re definitely a great friend that encourages everyone to study, but also to relax once in a while. Your best way to relieve stress is to ‘chill’ at your friends place or to organize a movie night at your place with movie marathons, lots of popcorn, chocolate and drinks and either your best friends or your boyfriend/girlfriend.
The lone survivor
Unlike the stay-at-home student and the party animal, you are perfectly happy to be alone once in a while. This is not only something you prefer, it’s something you really need from time to time. You probably also prefer to study alone, as you find that more effective than being around your chatty friends who want to get coffee six times per day. Your best way to relieve stress after exams is to plan a night for yourself, so you can do whatever you like and you don’t have to communicate with others. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t a social person, it just means that taking care of yourself is the best way for you to relax. You might also go to the after exam drinks with the party animal and the stay-at-home student and all of his friends, but when you get home, things get super relaxed: you turn your phone off and if you’re one of the lucky few who has a bathtub in their house, you take a long, hot bath with a face mask and freshly painted nails (however, this might be a very girly thing, I don’t know what guys do when they plan a night for themselves).
All these ways to relieve stress are good ideas for when you get home from a long week of exams and studying. However, like I said before, what works for you, might not work for you friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, sibling, etc. Therefore, you have to find out what works best when you’re really stressed out and just do whatever you like, because you earned it!