With all the pressure that comes with finals week, we all have to find time to have fun with friends before summer break arrives and we go our separate ways and start boring (or if you’re lucky, exciting) summer jobs. While we think it is very important to get your work done and do your best studying for exams, it is also important to have fun. After all, you are at college for the “college experience”, no?
So live a little and stop worrying so much, exams aren’t the end of the world…
Procrastinate. Exam week is prime procrastination time. So, give in, let yourself procrastinate by Facebook-ing or watching a tv episode. While you should be really focused on studying, sometimes that is challenging to do when you’ve been posted in Club Case for hours and you just can’t take it anymore. What we recommend it setting time constraints for your procrastination. For example, if you begin to lose focus around say 9:15, let yourself have 45 minutes procrastinating and then get back to the grind. It actually helps to procrastinate as your brain gets to refresh itself so it can then continue to retain more information. So don’t worry if you take little study breaks to do random things, it can actually help your studying!
Go out. Maybe don’t go out the night before your 9am Orgo exam, but if you have a few days in between exams, go for it! Some of the most fun nights are those during exam week! Particularly the Friday night when every student is finished with exams and the whole school basically empties downtown. It’s your last week at school with your friends, so do something memorable that will kick off your awesome summer!
Eat Study Snacks. Even though people say it is bad to stress eat, which it is if you do it all the time, don’t let it stop you from eating that chocolate bar at 1am. Its not going to hurt you. The lib-caf is the best place to get snacks – those vending machines are stocked! Give in and eat those foods that make you a little bit happier, because we could all use a little cheer when we’re studying away
Wear Pjs or sweats. Colgate students for some reason find it necessary to dress up to go to the library. Who are you trying to impress? Oh wait, the whole school is there, so everybody. During exam week, however, don’t get dressed up. In fact, some people don’t even get dressed. Who cares if you look like a scrub, you’re comfortable!
Sleep in. For those of you lucky ducks with afternoon exams, take that time to sleep. Hopefully you will have already studied enough, so you can just get some extra Zzzz. You’re body will probably be pretty worn out from your studying (er, procrastinating and going out) so give it a rest so it you can perform your best on your exams!
Exam week is only one week of your live and #yolo (yes, we just used that…) so do whatever you want to ensure you finish the year in a decently sane and happy mood!