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How To Mentally Prepare Yourself For Finals

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Maryland chapter.

Do you typically spend a few days studying for finals, and then when it’s finally time to take the exam psych yourself out? Do you have so much on your plate that all you can think about is how much you haven’t worked or how much you haven’t gotten done yet? If any of these descriptions fit you then it is a very good possibility that you are stressed out.

It turns out 1 in 10 college students are stressed often, and 1 in 4 students experience daily stress. So what can you do to get yourself to relax before finals? Keep reading to find out!

In order to figure out what you can do to relax, it is important to determine where the source of your stress is coming from. According to thecollegehelper.com, some of the reasons students are stressed in college include the pressure to get good grades, a large load of schoolwork, wanting to be socially accepted, roommate problems, homesickness, and more. Not only can being stressed out all the time be physically draining, but it can also take an emotional toll on your body as having an increased level of stress often can lead to anxiety or depression.

Finals week can be the most stressful time of the school year and with all of the group projects, study sessions, essays, and more, it can lead to students being hyped up on coffee and even go nights without sleep. With that said, there are plenty of ways to balance your time so that you can prepare for finals and relax as well. For starters, it is important to get a good night of sleep, eat a well-balanced diet and exercise, but there are more fun and creative ways to unwind too.

Some things you can do to release some built up stress include getting your nails done, yoga, meditate, watch a movie, listen to music, get some ice cream, talk to one of your friends, cook a meal, and more. The list of ways to relax is endless but whatever method you decide to use, just make sure that it truly works for you. You may be reading this and think, “Yeah right I’m never going to have time to relax”, but in actuality if you don’t take breaks while studying you can actually be worse off in the long run. Although it is important to relax during finals, you should also adequately prepare yourself for your exams as well.

All in all, whether you have one exam or five, you should always balance your time with studying and unwinding from a stressful day too. We all have to endure finals week together, but if you know that you’re not alone and that there are various ways to relax, then you too will survive through the end of the semester.