As the semester draws to a close and the dreaded finals week approaches, it is time once more for that classic strange-yet-ultimately-convenient puzzle of a weekend: study days. With four full days to play with during which we are tasked as a student body with nothing but preparing for final exams, the question emerges time and time again of how to most effectively squander take advantage of this most wonderful gift bestowed upon us by the Administration.
Well, dear readers, as spring study days 2013 quickly hurtles our way I encourage you to question no more. For today I present you with the definitive guide to taking on the weekend of reading days: How to Conquer Study Days Like a Champion Today!
Step One:
The first step in this process is the one that should rationally be and yet never actually is the most obvious step of them all. In order to really make the most of study days, crazy as it may be, it helps to actually occasionally study!
I know the very thought of studying during reading days is probably enough to have sent half of you readers running, but if you haven’t been scared away, listen up.
Doing a bit of real studying during study days is a surprisingly great way to offset the lack of productivity and general debauchery that characterizes the rest of the weekend. The freedom from class meetings, extra-curricular practices and events makes it almost unabashedly acceptable to go h.a.m. for four nights in a row. Why not go out every night of study days when you have nowhere you have to be during the normal waking hours of the weekend?
This lack of scheduled responsibilities though also makes the weekend a prime time for accomplishing just enough studying to appease all comers to the study day discussion. If you can manage to stumble out of bed early enough to squeeze in a bit of pre-pregame reading even one day during the weekend, your study days are golden. The “downers” who expect you to study the whole time will be appeased by your honest insistence that “No, Mom, I did study!” and you’ll feel better about yourself for managing to both work hard and party hard in the finals-prep eleventh hour. [pagebreak]
Step Two:
Even more important than the actual studying though is the second step to reading days success: conspicuously discussing how much studying you’re getting done.
If you so much as look at a JSTOR article during study days it is your moral obligation as a college student to brag about your study skills in as many ways as possible. The act of studying is helpful for your mind but the act of talking about studying does so much more. It gets the word out that you are smart, responsible, and the all-around kind of person who cares at least moderately about doing well in school. It gains you influence in your social circles, as it will probably cause at least one of your friends to feel guilty enough about her inactivity to follow your lead and do some studying as well. And most importantly, it gives you a chance to attempt to flex your humor muscle – for even the most average of wordsmiths can craft a half-heartedly amusing tweet about how “well” studying is going or how ironic it is that study days are so named.
Follow these simple tips, readers, and you too, can have the study weekend of a champion. Balance partying with the occasional well-intended bout of actual studying and top it all off with a healthy dose of self-promotion, and success is yours. And remember: you can spend as many hours in the library as you want, but if you don’t get at least one ironic mupload out of it, it didn’t happen.
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