It’s that time of the year, after the fun of Mayfest, when the darty’s have begun to die down and everyone is starting to pack up their things… yup you guessed it, finals are right around the corner. It’s time for everyone to retreat into their dorms, probably sunburnt and little hungover, and start tackling the loads of work and study material that you’ve been putting off all semester, so here’s some studying do’s and dont’s to help you survive the last few weeks of Spring 2017L
Do go somewhere you know you can actually focus and really get into study mode. There’s tons of places around campus to get work done, the struggle is actually getting yourself to leave the comfort of your dorm and go get started somewhere else. It’s much easier to study in a brightly lit, air conditioned place, you can spread out on a big table so you can see all your study materials. If you need quiet to focus, try Carnegie library or the upper levels of Bird library to find the perfect spot. If you want to study next to some friends or have a little background noise try Panasci Lounge in Schine, or the Starbucks on West Campus. Tip: Try Noble Room under Hendricks Chapel is a great place to go, usually very quiet with comfy couches, you can grab an Austin Powers from People’s Place and jump into study mode! Don’t stay somewhere you know you will get distracted, i.e. your dorm room. With your friends popping in and out, and so many distractions and much more fun things to do in your room, it’s to even get started, much less stay focused. And more importantly you may be enticed to study after you take that quick nap in your bed, or watch that on episode of 13 Reasons Why, which might turn into six episodes, and before you know it you’ve finished the season, but failed your final. Along those lines… Do take a 20 minute power nap. Studies have shown the most effective naps are only 20 minutes, which is the time before you hit REM, which is deep sleep, and will be pretty hard to wake up from. This won’t replace a full night’s sleep, but it might help you get in another couple hours studying. Don’t take that three hour nap. We’re all guilty of this, but this time try to avoid it. Chances are you’ll wake up feeling more groggy and discombobulated than you did before and now you have even less time to get done what you needed to do and you’re going to have to jump start your tired brain.
Do find a study buddy, someone who can help you stay on track and help you with the notes from that one class that you just had to miss because of that stomach bug thing that was going around, right? It’s also a lot easier to manage course material when you can divide up the work. Don’t keep social open while you’re studying. Whether its IG, Snap and Twitter on your phone, or Facebook and Tumblr tabs on your laptop, just close out of it. Let’s be real, it’s just a distraction, everyone is taking finals so nothing is happening, there’s only so many times you can refresh the ‘gram. Bonus Tip! Do psyche yourself up for the test, even if you feel like you didn’t have enough time, or prepared well enough for the test, stay positive! Tell yourself that you are smart, and that you know what you’re doing, it’s just one test and on anything you don’t know take an educated guess and move on to what you do know.
Don’t harp on one bad exam and don’t stick around to compare answers with people after the test, it’s just going to make you feel insecure when really those people probably didn’t know the right answer either.
However you choose to study, HC ‘Cuse wishes you the best of luck with finals!