For many college undergraduates, it is now the time of year that we all dread–finals week. Energy is at an all time low, as teachers can not resist adding more papers or exams right before finals. Even right now, I find it hard to right this article because of exhaustion. This makes it even harder to be in the right mindset for finals. However, I will attempt to be your very own declassified school survival guide (ah, the nostalgia of that show) and give you some tips on how to make it through this hard time.
1.) Sleep. As college students, we know how precious sleep is and how little of it that we actually get. Sleep seems almost impossible with all the assignments we may have during the week, or even in one day. However, during this stressful time, sleep can be even more important. As popular as allnighters are during this time, they can lead to even faster burnout. At a certain point staying up til the early morning can be more detrimental to the results of your final paper or exam as your brain is too tired to concentrate or absorb any more information. Eventually, your body may shut down, causing you to actually sleep through your exam or miss the deadline for your paper. Therefore, is better to find time to rest and regain your energy.
2.) Eat. Another way to refuel and gain energy is to eat. It is hard to focus on studying when your empty stomach is at the forefront of your mind. Not eating could lead to feeling faint, having nausea or developing a headache. I speak from experience. It is always best to start your day off right by eating a good breakfast. Throughout the day, in-between meals, you should also try to eat some small snacks for small boosts of energy to keep you going through your study session.
3.) Take Study Breaks. When studying for a long time, it feels like the words on the pages become a blur or a jumble of alphabet soup. It is hard to get any more studying done when you are not actually taking in any information. Taking study breaks will help stop your brain from overloading and will make you feel a lot better. These breaks can be as short as 15 or 30 minutes which is enough time for watching a couple of youtube videos, watching an episode of something on Netflix, or taking a quick walk outside for fresh air.
These are some of the tips that have worked for me in the past and I hope that they may be helpful to others during this final season. Good luck with finals, everyone!