The dreaded week is finally upon us. It’s the week that’s separating us from freedom and the week where the college student comes to life: Finals Week. Around this time is where the stressing begins, procrastination is in full effect, and the cross to the finish line seems impossible. However, there’s no avoiding the ridiculous number of exams we’re preparing to take, so why not crush them and prove to ourselves that we’ve got this! That’s why we’re here to give you the ultimate tips and tricks to get you through finals week in one piece.
Optimistic Mindset
Before you even start studying or preparing for your finals, it’s important to adjust your outlook on the situation. Creating a more positive and productive perspective around the week as a whole may help you accomplish these tasks with ease. Entering the week with a defeated mindset means you have already been defeated, and will not help when you need the inspiration to get you through the many hours of studying. Try manifesting the outcomes you wish to occur, be realistic, and don’t give up on the A’s just yet.
Create a Cheat Sheet
Try outlining each topic and adding key information as if you were teaching the material to someone else. This is to ensure that you won’t leave out any information, and also gives you a good overview of the key concepts. If you stumble over a certain chapter or unit, highlight it to make sure that more practice is allocated there. Wherever additional practice is needed, try re-watching lectures and reviewing the notes originally taken on the topic. This is a great time to utilize certain learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) or study habits (small group review) to help better memorize and understand the material.
Podcasts. Podcasts. Podcasts
Try listening to podcasts throughout the week whenever you have free time instead of binge-watching Netflix or scrolling through social media. Typically, podcasts are shorter than an episode of TV, and you’re more likely to sit and continue watching a whole season than listen to several individual episodes. If you don’t have a favorite podcast there are so many out there that are specific to majors, career fields, or even just comedy and celebrity gossip. As a STEM major with a pre-medical concentration, I like listening to MCAT based podcasts, to help remove some of the fear in my future. Whatever content helps you to de-stress, do it.
SLEEP
Getting a good night’s sleep, which for adults is recommended at around 7 to 9 hours, is just as important as any other study tool. Sleep is where humans convert short-term memory to long-term memory. This means the more sleep you get the better chance you have of remembering what you studied. At the end of our sleep, we go into REM or rapid eye movement, which happens to increase brain activity and promote learning.
Listed above are only a few of the things you can do to help get you through the agony of finals week. There are other things like exercising, cooking, or even drinking coffee or tea, that are integral to people’s concentration and success.
You know yourself better than anyone, so implement what you know will generate success. Good luck! You’re going to kill these exams!