Just now I printed off every past paper that is relevant to me to get that task out of the way and to have them all available in a ringbinder. Glancing through, the fear begins to set in. The questions look insurmountable. How can I be ready in the mere seven weeks or so I have?

Here are some things that I know.

1. I can achieve what I want and need to with these exams. I have no idea if I’ll get a first overall or whatever—but I can say that I can get a first in philosophy, which is what I need.
2. The way I can achieve this is by consistently doing hard study. By ‘hard’ I mean doing things that aren’t easy, that is, avoiding easy stuff like copying out notes too much or whatever.
3. Fear will get in the way. Ultimately that is what all resistance to revision is. Fear that it will be wasted effort. Courage is precisely the acceptance of that fear, while refusing to act upon it.
4. Keeping to good running, meditation and sleep schedules will help a little with number 3.
5. Getting ‘easy’ activities like web browsing, gaming etc. out of the way to be replaced with recreation such as reading and socialising will make non-work 10x more effective and so help with 3.

Sticking to a belief about these things is the hard part. But they really are true. I will keep reading them, and try to convince myself of their truth.