Books I Read During Exams—and How They Help or Distract Me

When you're a student—especially preparing for government exams—your day revolves around studying polity notes, economics, history, newspapers, and mock tests, all of which requires 100% focus and attention.

Hobbies play a big role in shaping your personality during such phases; they even act as your only source of entertainment and a break from the 'daily routine.'

I prefer reading books because they make me feel like a different person.

Studying 8-10 hours daily with short breaks is exhausting, not just physically but mentally too. How you spend those brief breaks can make or break your exam targets.

As a full-time student, here are my tips and tricks for selecting what to read (and what to skip) during exam time.

There are two ways to choose

1) Something short and easy to read

 ( Poems ✅ Book of short-stories✅ Closely chaptered ones✅ Emotional ones❌ Mysteries❌❌ )

2) Books with themes  coinciding with the subject

(Historical ❌ political✅ /❌ Books on literary realism ✅  Ethical❌)

1) Short and easy reads

• Poems – Start your day with a short poem that takes less time, gives your mind a critical boost, and is definitely a guilt-free exercise.

• Short stories – Short stories can be great bedtime reads when you have a strict sleeping schedule to maintain a healthy sleep cycle. Quick to read, impactful, and especially helpful if you’ve had screens up all day due to online lectures.

When I read guilt-free

• Closely chaptered ones - Now that is a steal deal. Set a target—2–3 chapters a day, not more than 15 pages—and you are all good (I use these during my Pomodoro breaks).

• Emotional ones - Do Not Read Anything Emotional! Nothing that makes you overwhelmed, and makes your brain dwell on endings or characters. You don’t want your study time going down the drain because your protagonist is having a hard time.

• Mystery- Now some may think mysteries help you think and analyse during exams, but time is a constraint. You don't want to read something that makes you want to read just a page more than decided or run a clue game inside your head. I read—The Murder of Roger Ackroyd—and that 20 minutes break turned into 4 hours of turning pages till I got a call. Guilt struck me and productivity was 'ZERO'.

2) Books with themes coinciding with the subject

• Historical- I personally don’t prefer these during exams as I don’t want to get stuck in one timeline. I keep thinking whether this is actually helping my exam preparation, and often it just confuses me more.

• Political- A no at times when I am tight on schedule, as you want to understand political terms, differentiate between standpoints, and learn the theories behind them—which is a lot when I need to revise those articles.

Let me get my head out of textbooks!

• Books on literary realism- This is my favourite genre. I can real this anytime but, I make sure I do not spend more than 30-40 mins a day on it. This 19th-century literary movement is based on real-life situations—no fantasy, just character-driven everyday life—and it works as an escape for me.

• Ethical- You would think why no to them, because they do the opposite of helping, You get confuse with overload of ethics, and that is something you won't keep into your heart during exams.

This is all i could tell from my experience, every student is different though so, try different reads yourself to know what suits you better.

#BlogchatterA2Z2026

This post is a part of BlogchatterA2Z Challenge 2026.