Freshman Blog: Surviving Finals

It’s finals time of your first semester freshman year. You’ve been to every (or almost every) class and done all of the work. N­ow comes the time to study and prepare for finals. I know this may seem daunting to all of us freshmen (or freshwomen) who have never experienced a college final before, but with some of these tips, you’ll be sure to ace your finals!
 

• Form a study group. I’m sure you’ve found at least one or two people you feel comfortable with or know at least semi-well enough to be able to join together with in a study group. I personally like to study with one or two other people, that way we can fill in the gaps in each other’s knowledge and have more fun studying. Plus, you can have other people around to ask if you come up with any questions.
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  Make sure you take some small breaks and reward yourself. No one wants to be that girl who spends all of her time holed up during reading days, ignoring her friends for the sake of studying. Trust me, you will get a lot more accomplished if you take small breaks to reward yourself. You will feel like you’ve learned more and much less stressed out. Everyone needs some time to let things sink in, and you can easily find some time to hang with your friends just to stop your brain from frying after all your studying. Some of my friends on my hall and I have planned a Secret Santa gift exchange during the last day of reading days so that we all have a little break from studying to just hang with our friends.
•  Study with food. Food can sometimes be a great brain booster: it gives you some vital energy that you need for studying, and no one wants to study on an empty stomach!
•  Don’t leave all your studying until the last minute. Seriously, nothing good will be accomplished if you just cram the night before. Your brain will feel like a pile of mush after all the studying, and you’ll just wind up feeling even more stressed. If you pace yourself with your studying, you can easily get more accomplished and feel better going into your final.
•  Get a good night’s sleep before each of your finals. It doesn’t matter if you have a 9 AM final or a 7 PM final, sleep is always important. You need to be able to think clearly and not oversleep. Plus, sometimes when you sleep you end up remembering things better the next morning.
•  If you have any questions on any of the material for the final, don’t be afraid to email the professor for help. However, don’t write your professor at 11 PM the night before your 9 AM exam expecting him or her to answer your question before exam time. Chances are your professor is in bed and won’t be able to answer your question.
• Relax. You can do this. No need to worry. So go study hard and ace those finals!