Is anyone else getting tired of this semester? It always seems like the last week of the semester is the longest. With exams and cramming in all of the work your teachers so nicely assigned last minute, these last few days becomes crunch time for even the most prepared of students. Luckily, there are ways to beat the stress (if you’re not so far behind that you are still working on October’s work.)
1. Make a plan
It might seem like you have to do everything now or you will never get everything done, but if you write down what you need to do, you can keep yourself on track, and break up your finals work into doable tasks.
2. Be realistic
Don’t expect to be able to get through two novels and write a screenplay in a day, it’s just not going to happen. Instead set daily study or work goals that are actually achievable to get through your final exam work.
3. Be Resilient
Most of us have at least five classes. That’s five teachers who are trying to get in the last few assignments and are giving an exam. Many of us have more than one exam a day. The key is to power through. You have to have the right attitude and feel like you can do it, or you won’t do it.
4. Be disciplined
We waste so much time every day doing things that don’t matter. A 20-minuet break every now and then is healthy, but going to a football game when you have a term paper due the next day that you have not even started on is a dumb idea. Your friends are going through the crunch too, so they will understand if you decide to stay home and study for the final that counts for 30 percent of your grade. Just because they are not studying doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you not to.
5. Sleep
Self-explanatory. No one ever does well on an exam after two hours of sleep. I would be hard pressed to pass a middle school final exam on two hours of sleep. Your brain can only handle so much without sleep, so as much as it might kill you if you have a 9 a.m. exam you absolutely cannot be up past 2 a.m. studying or you won’t be able to get even close to an adequate amount of sleep.
6. Relax
This week and last week have been the weeks of relaxation. We have stress dogs, oxygen bars, massage chairs, everything that we could think of has been set up to help you de-stress. People forget things when they are stressed. I think about it like this: if you have actually been paying attention in class these last three months, you probably know more than you think you do, and if you don’t, stressing isn’t going to put the information in your head. In other words either you know it or you don’t, and worrying about it isn’t going to change anything.
Good luck on passing the exams! May the odds be ever in your favor!