January continues to crawl by: it’s dark by 4pm, always raining and somehow feels like it lasts forever. Add mock exams into the mix for Y11s and Y13s, and there isn’t much in its favour. As a result, everyone develops their own way of surviving the typical January blues.
So, here are my top 5 types of students managing January:
1 – The Mock Crammer
This is the classic trope of leaving all revision to the last minute, which results in just a few days to cover a lot of content. This student begins revising just before the exam, accompanied by their catchphrases “I work better under pressure” and “it’s somewhere in my head”. During the mock season, they’ll always be spotted with caffeine trying to combat their late-night cramming sessions.
2 – The “New Year, New Me”
January is their month. As the new term and year kick off, there is always someone who starts the year off with a brand new routine and personality, which often includes the unnecessary purchase of some new planner or notebook. Whether their resolutions are academic or they are the reason why the PureGym is packed at 16:30 on a weekday, they always begin the year with a newfound motivation and everything impressively organised. However, we all know how long this will last…
3 – The One Who’s Always Sick
There’s always one- and then suddenly it’s the whole class. The winter common cold is practically unavoidable for all, however, some students never seem to recover. They claim to have been ill since December and are permanently seen with tissues to aid their constant sniffle.
4 – The Complainer
If you can’t escape it, you might as well complain about it. This student comments in everything: how it gets dark too early, how cold it is, how horrible mock exams are and how January is ridiculously long (the list is endless). They begin counting down the days until February half-term barely a week into the new term. While their complaints are entirely valid, they are also impossible to escape.
5 – The Traitors Superfan
There’s no denying that some of us are completely hooked by the Traitors. However, some students have made it their entire coping mechanism for gloomy January. Every conversation turns into a Traitors debrief, debating who should be murdered next. It’s the only TV they’ve watched all month- and quite possibly the only thing getting them through January.
