By: SSG Emily Niedermeyer

 

After months of lectures, readings and practice work, finals season is now upon us. A whole week is dedicated to preparing for presentations, writing papers and of course, studying for exams. Finals week is arguably the most busy and stressful week of the semester and it can often be very overwhelming for college students. Completing academic work or studying for tests is never the most enjoyable activity, but it can be easier and more efficient with these simple tips. 

1. Plan Ahead: Lay out a game plan for the week or couple days that you have ahead of you. Knowing your schedule for the next couple of days really helps when planning what you’re going to study and when. It also helps finals week in general seem a lot less intimidating. Instead of spending mental energy stressed about how much you need to complete, plan it out and take it one day at a time. 
2. Distribute Study Tasks: If you have a final exam in five days, devise a plan to figure out what you are going to study each day, in advance. For example, if there are twelve modules in the course, plan to go through three modules every day and save the last day to go through particularly difficult concepts. If you go into study sessions knowing exactly what you need to complete, there’s a much higher chance of you absorbing more information in a more effective manner. 
3. Don’t Procrastinate: It can be so easy to keep pushing tasks to the next day, especially with exams and essays that count for over 25% of your final grade. I know that procrastination is so much more appealing sometimes, but preparing early not only makes the whole process less stressful, but you have a better chance of doing better. Eliminate distracting environments (or people) and get to work!
4. Use Your Resources: First of all, take advantage of office hours and professor assistance. Professors are there to teach and to help you learn. If you don’t understand something or need help figuring out what or how to study, ask! Professors almost always continue to hold their usual office hours during finals week and even expand those hours for students to ask questions. Sometimes, they will even hold a review session. 
   1. Study groups with other students in the class are also extremely helpful. Talking through coursework or figuring out problems can be extremely beneficial because you now have other people to talk it through with. Supportive accountability is also extremely helpful when working with a group. You want to not only help yourself do well, but you want to help others do well too. 
5. Take Care of Yourself! To reiterate, yes finals week is extremely stressful and often mentally draining. Nothing, however, is more important than your mental and physical health. Know when it’s time to take a break, because sometimes that is more helpful to you than taking the extra hour and draining yourself even more. Take naps, eat lots of snacks and socialize with friends. Finals are important of course, but your well being is more important.