Finals week can often feel like the most taxing seven days of your life. The campus dissolves into hordes of anxious students, all chugging coffee and praying to Testudo that their exam grades will be high enough to keep their GPA afloat.
For many, all of this stress may prove too hard to handle. Here are some tips to consider when trying to tackle finals week.
1. Reward Yourself Often
You never deserve that giant Chik-Fil-A milkshake more than you do after an intense few hours of studying in the library. Little rewards for yourself can help keep you going throughout the week and give you something to look forward to when your future is filled with bleak exams.
2. Remember to Eat
Sometimes it’s easy to forget to eat dinner when all you can think about is statistics or each detail of the Civil War. However, your brain needs food to continue working. Try eating some whole grains for energy, or even just a banana to give yourself some carbohydrates.
3. Remember to Sleep
You may think that pulling an all-nighter before an exam is the only way to ace the test, but studies show that students who get a solid amount of sleep actually do better than those who stayed up all night to study. According to The Huffington Post, “going without sleep can lead to lack of focus and brain fog, stress and irritability.”
4. Stop and Take Breaks
It’s important to take short breaks in between bouts of studying. Stopping to take a short break and collect yourself every hour or even more often than that is a good way to reduce anxiety and study more effectively.
5. Drink Lots of Water
Staying hydrated is an important thing to do everyday, but especially during finals week. Your body will thank you and so will your brain. Hydration will allow you to stay focused and ready to defeat all the multiple-choice questions and essays in your future.