Despite the stress that comes with finals week, it still is possible to ace your tests while you’re relaxed. In fact, your grades would probably be better (and you would be better off) if you didn’t pull an all nighter the night before your exam. Being excessively stressed out, overworked, or tired is harmful to your wellbeing as well as compromises you ability to do good work. Keeping all this in mind, here’s a few tips to help you get through finals week:
1. Study in advance
Studying for your finals is obviously the most crucial aspect of succeeding during finals, but what many people don’t do is prepare well in advance. In thinking about this, the reading days really shouldn’t be your crunch time when you begin to prepare for your exams, but in fact should be time to revise what you’ve already studied.
2. Take breaks
Take frequent breaks and recognize that allowing yourself to go out and have fun isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, taking the time to go out and relax or to schedule a break is essential to give your mind some rest to keep you attentive and focused. However, choose short and frequent breaks throughout your day rather than one really long break to break the monotony of studying and exhausting yourself. So make sure to take a few breaks, you deserve it.
3. De-stress
For me de-stressing involves listening to music and taking long showers, but that doesn’t have to be the same for you and could look completely different. You could find relaxation in sports, art, mediation, or in a massage. Do whatever works for you and make sure that your work isn’t constantly on your mind.
4. Plan it out
Making a schedule or a timetable for the work you need to accomplish is important. It doesn’t matter if you don’t follow every word of it, but having an idea of the pace you need to go to is pivotal in finishing all you need to do during the finals period.
5. Get enough sleep
All nighters are never the answer, whether it’s the night before the exam, or the week before. Try to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep every night, because being sleepy while or after studying can affect your memory retention greatly.
6. Take notes
Whether you prefer to use notes or flashcards (find whatever works for you) make sure to take notes when you’re studying. Not only are they handy during revision, but just the act of writing down what’s important can help you remember it better.
7. Meet with your professor or TA
If you can, make sure to meet with a professor or TA to ask questions and get extra help. The more questions you ask, the more you understand the material and the clearer the concepts get, and so they are further solidified in your mind.
8. Study Groups
You probably shouldn’t rely solely on studying in a group, but studying with classmates can be an important form of revision. Other students in your class can ask you questions, and you can explain things to them which gives you practice answering the questions, and vice versa, which can be extremely helpful.
So if you want to boost or maintain your GPA, follow these suggestions, and get started!
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