Finals are coming! All these weeks of studying, and what do you get? Exams that make you wish you could take the SATs/ACTs every year through college instead. Lack of sleep, food and fun make finals the least-enjoyable part of the semester, and arguably your entire college career. But, (sigh), they’re necessary. The stress and pressure that comes with them, however, is not.
Use these fun stress-busting activities, suggested by HC Team members and college girls around the country, to help get through finals with awesome grades and a clear head.
Animal therapy
There is nothing like a wagging tail, wet nose and puppy breath to make you forget your troubles and give in to those big eyes. Or, if you aren’t a dog person, kittens are equally cute and just as happy.
Some schools, such as Bowdoin College, have programs during finals that bring in therapy animals to help melt away some tension.
If your school doesn’t offer anything like this, find a local animal rescue, pet store or stable that allows the public to interact with the animals. You can also find a friend, neighbor, professor or TA’s pet to play with (suggest taking them on a walk – you’ll both win). Take an hour or two and let a cute face melt your heart and your worries.
Stay fit. Defeat stress.
As Elle Woods once said, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.” While hopefully finals aren’t giving you a murderous outlook on life, it couldn’t help to get a little exercise and boost your endorphin levels.
“Something that my friends and I do is play midnight Frisbee on our school’s quad. It’s a lot of fun and no matter how old we get, it keeps our mind off of studying stress,” said Ngozi Ekeledo, a junior at Northwestern University and HC contributing writer. If you’d rather get out of the cold, hit the gym instead—a half hour on the treadmill will give you the energy boost you need to hit the books later on.
Also try:
- Going for a bike ride or run
- Getting your heart pumping with a game of Wii, DDR or Rockband
- Having an impromptu dance party with your friends, roommates or hallway! Check out this list of great classic dance songs to get you moving!
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Laughter: The best medicine (for finals-induced anxiety)
During finals, the library may be packed with dead-silent, studying students – but collegiettes™ know that cramming or pulling an all-nighter without a much-deserved break will only end in distress and lack of sleep. What better way to break the textbook tedium than with some side-splitting humor?
“I watch a funny show or movie – ‘The Office’ is by far the best choice,” said Wendy Huber, a junior at Colorado State University. “Laughter helps when you want to burn down the library.”
Some of my favorite websites for hilarity: Sleep Talkin’ Man, Dear Blank Please Blank, The Oatmeal, or College Humor.
Relax!
Taking a respite from the writing, the reading, and the memorizing that final exams push on us can be extremely helpful not only for your own mental health, but for your grades as well.
“At Brandeis, they sometimes have free massages in the campus center come finals time,” said Chrissy Callahan, Brandeis ’10 and HC beauty blogger. “Also, I make sure to take breaks and always work with music playing so I have something to keep me motivated!”
So get a relaxing massage (even if it’s just from a friend); listen to music; grab your favorite hot drink (and gossip with the cute guy at the counter); take a bath or a quick nap…then get back to work.
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Get goofy with your friends
Try having a snow-filled adventure: go sledding, make a snowman or snow angels or have a snowball fight!
Go out for a few hours with the girls. Watch a good movie, get some hot chocolate (or your favorite drink!) and have some fun for a while (you deserve it).
Food for thought (or for a break from thinking)
Great food can be more than just the fuel you need to get through your tests – it can be a way to unwind between study sessions.
“My sorority does ‘finals food.’ Each night of finals at 9 p.m. we have a delivery to our house,” said HC Contributing Writer Amanda Klohmann, a senior at the University of Missouri. “It really is something we all look forward to and it gives us a quick break to get our noses out of the books and have a social time.”
Try taking a dinner break and use cooking and eating as a way to relax (instead of just shoveling food to get back to work faster). This will help you focus and give you the energy you need to power through your test-prep (and make your taste-buds happy)
HC Contributing Writer Alyssa Grossman, a senior at Syracuse University, said, “Syracuse has late nights at the dining halls during finals week. They have a different food each day, like appetizers/finger food, subs, or pizza so students can meet up and get some fuel for late nights of studying.” If you’re up late studying, find friends who are too and take a break to grab a snack at a local restaurant or on-campus dining center.
Bottom line: don’t let finals stress you out. Studying and exams are common culprits of anxiety in students, but if you’re armed with some quick tension-reducing activities to weave into your schedule, you’ll have healthy outlets to keep stress at bay. While finals may determine your semester grades, they don’t deserve to eliminate your fun entirely.
Sources:
Josalyn Warfield, Colorado State 2012
Wendy Huber, Colorado State 2012
Alyssa Grossman, Syracuse 2011
Amanda Klohmann, Missouri 2011
Carlene Helble, James Madison 2011
Chrissy Callahan, Brandeis 2010
Ngozi Ekeledo, Northwestern 2012