DePauw students are definitely under a lot of stress right now. We are in the month of April and we are wrapping up our classes, finalizing classes for next year and desperately trying to find summer internships so our parents won’t nag us. We are literally so exhausted that we are just trying to crawl our way to the month of May. On top of all of this, we now have to start thinking about finals! I mean seriously, finals are in two weeks. So it’s time to mentally prepare yourself for a semester’s worth of information in one test, a week of sweatpants and baggy t-shirts and getting headaches from drinking so much coffee. I know all of this sounds super exciting and I know we can’t wait to show our professors all that we have learned! But here are some helpful tips on what you should avoid during finals week!
Stressing
Okay so I know the situation I just described above screams stress so I probably sound pretty silly right now. You are probably wondering, how do you NOT stress out during finals week? Finals are important, no doubt, but staying up an extra 3 hours when you are already sleep deprived is probably not a good idea. There is a lot of information so study hard, do what you can and just know that that is all that you can do. (Seriously, when you get a job at Goldman Sachs or as a physician I don’t think they will care if you got an A or a C in Humans Origins).
Friends
Alright I am not saying cut off your friends completely but I am saying carve out some study time in a study spot away from your friends. You probably get more work done when you are not distracted by your friend showing you her Facebook timeline every 5 minutes. Now if you are group studying then that is a different story but make sure you stay productive. A good method is to find a favorite study space and go there every day by yourself if you can and then take study breaks and meet up with your friends for lunch and dinner.
Netflix and Hulu
I really believe that this is self-explanatory but allow me to explain. Sometimes by having so much free time, because we don’t have classes, we forget that we are actually supposed to use those hours to study. Instead of staying in bed and convincing yourself you will study later, reward yourself in between studying with an episode or two (you will feel a lot better about yourself!)
Not sleeping
I am actually a victim of this one. I want to make sure that I know everything that I can and if I have to stay up and skip sleeping, then straight to the coffee I go! Don’t do this. My mother always says, “You can’t absorb any information if you are tired!” (Surprisingly she is actually right!) I say study until you feel like you can’t study anymore and that’s the point when you know it is time to surrender to your covers!
Locking yourself in the library
This surely is no way to live, not even for a week! If your favorite place to study is in the library, that’s cool! Just make sure you leave the library, you know getting out and getting air is important too. Make sure that you are not just studying during finals week as well, that will literally suck the life out of you and that just doesn’t sound fun, you need to stay sane for finals week most importantly!