Welcome to finals week! Finals are upon us and everyone’s kinda freaking out about studying, getting through the week, and not ending the semester like this:
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Here are a few tips on how to end the semester strong:
1. Create a study plan.
Realizing that you have a ton of topics or subjects to get through can be intimidating because you may not know where to start. However, taking the time to plan before you start studying will make you feel better about actually getting into the studying zone, and make studying as a whole a lot more effective.
2. Have a positive mindset when diving into studying.
If you go into studying with a negative mindset, you’re probably not going to retain as much information as you can! It’s easy to say to yourself: “I don’t understand any of this,” “this is boring,” or “I’m not motivated.” Instead ,try to engage yourself by remembering that the studying will get easier once you just get started! Tell yourself that you’ll understand the material more if you focus on the main ideas first and look at details later.
3. Get enough sleep before your finals.
The worst thing you can do before a final is pull an all-nighter or get only a few hours of sleep; even if you don’t know all the material, it’s better to get enough sleep because getting a measly four hours of sleep will make it more likely for you to a) sleep through your final (yikes!) and b) make silly mistakes on your exam!
4. Reward yourself when you get through what you wanted to whether that’s studying effectively or getting through exams!
Just because it’s finals week does not mean you can’t have any fun! You’ve been working hard all semester, so it’s totally fine and highly recommended that you take a break to reward yourself! Go get that ice cream, watch that movie you’ve been dying to watch, or go make a snowman outside! You can use a reward as a positive reinforcer for you to get a lot of studying done.
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4. Remember that grades are not everything in the world – but your health is.
Don’t let finals or grades take over your life and make you feel like less of a person if you don’t reach the goal you set for yourself; do your best, but don’t beat yourself up if you feel you didn’t do well! You are good enough and you made it through the semester! Congratulations and have a wonderful winter break – you’re almost there :)