Students fall behind during exam season for many reasons. Family responsibilities, emotional stress, mental or physical health issues, financial pressure or simple exhaustion can make studying difficult. Sometimes it’s procrastination and not because of laziness, but because the pressure feels overwhelming.
Understand why you’re starting late ⌛️
Before focusing on solutions, it helps to pause and look at the reason.
You might be starting late because something unexpected happened in your family, because your mental health made concentration difficult, because your body needed rest more urgently than productivity, or because you felt overwhelmed and avoided studying altogether. Procrastination and exam anxiety can also play a role, especially when pressure builds up over time.
If this applies to you, you might find this helpful: https://blogs.uni-siegen.de/fit-in-siegen/2025/05/04/slr-blog-exam-anxiety-student-survival-tips/
Option 1: How to still get through the exam
If you decide to take the exam, the goal needs to change.
This is no longer about doing particularly well. It’s about passing. Passing under pressure is an achievement in itself.
Focus on core topics, key concepts, definitions and structures that are likely to appear in the exam. Let go of details that take a lot of time but bring few points. Studying selectively is not a weakness .
Study strategically, not perfectly
When time is short, studying longer doesn’t automatically help. How you study matters more.
Passive methods like rereading notes or highlighting texts often feel productive but lead to little progress. Active studying is more effective: explaining topics out loud, answering practice questions, or trying to recall information from memory. Uncertainty during this process is normal. Confidence usually follows learning, not the other way around.
Doing something imperfectly is better than doing nothing perfectly.
Option 2: When deregistering is the better choice
Sometimes, pushing through is not the healthiest option.
Deregistering from an exam can make sense if studying would seriously worsen your mental or physical health, if you realistically cannot cover even the basics in time, or if exam pressure triggers severe anxiety or panic. External circumstances can also make concentration impossible, no matter how much effort you put in.
Stepping back in these situations is not failure.
If you do deregister, it can help to reflect on what you need for the next attempt and to seek support from advisors, counseling services or fellow students. One postponed exam does not derail your academic or personal future.
Starting late is not a personality flaw. It is often the result of real-life challenges within a high-pressure academic system. Whether you decide to push through or step back, what matters is making the decision consciously , not out of shame, but out of care for yourself. 😉
Good Luck🍀
Your SLR Host Emma 😊
