Find your spot.
These three weeks are undeniably the hell weeks of the semester. If you are going to have your face buried in books for hours, you should plant yourself in a study environment that works best for you. If you like quiet, Perkins or your room may be the best bet, but if you prefer a little white noise consider Alpine Atrium, the Refectory or Von der Heyden.
Be comfortable.
There’s nothing worse than trying to study in tight jeans or an itchy sweater. Sure, you may look cute in those skinny jeans, but nothing gets a guy’s attention like some hot spandex.
Set yourself up.
Plop yourself down in a place where you have your necessary resources. If you need a printer, make sure you aren’t a 5-minute walk away from one. If you plan on staying there all day, make sure you are close to food or bring plenty of snacks because there is nothing more useless than studying when you are hungry. If you need coffee, consider setting up near a cafe.
Make a schedule.
Seeing all your remaining work on a calendar may be torture, but it’s going to happen anyways so you might as well be prepared. Once you have your calendar laid out, start to schedule your day with breaks, meals and windows of study time with specific chapters. That way you can ensure you are on track with everything you need to be doing and don’t end up having to pull too many all nighters before your exam.
Take breaks.
Find a TV show you can use as an escape. Funny and mindless shows are always the best, like Gossip Girl or Desperate Housewives. You may claim to have “too much work” to watch TV, but I guarantee that if you take a 20-45 minute break, you will be a lot more effective than if you force yourself to keep your nose in that textbook all day.
Set small goals.
Setting small goals is the key to getting things done. When you have a lot of work, it is really easy to become overwhelmed and break down. In order to avoid the meltdown, set very small goals and put a carrot at the end of each one like a 15-minute break, for example. You will be surprisingly more efficient when studying.
Have some fun.
During exams, you definitely have to accept that your definition of “fun” needs to drastically change. Being completely swamped with work will most likely force you to ride your desk instead of the Shooters bull, but nevertheless I guarantee you can still find small things to make you happy. Get your nails done, get some dinner at Whole Foods with friends, go to Parker and Otis, make the trek to a real Starbucks, or watch a Christmas movie.
Sleep.
Sleep is not overrated. Sure you may think you are invincible and can pull numerous all-nighters fueled by coffee, Red Bull or your ADHD medicine, but you are wrong. The less sleep you get, the less alert and efficient you will be.
Image source: http://www.tprojects.org/public/images/5228173_7558daaf2e.jpg
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Duke chapter.