Tis the season…well not the holiday season fully yet, but finals season. There are times when I miss finals season from when I was an undergrad because it meant I had structure and things to look forward to. Being a fourth-year PhD student now means that I don’t have that luxury anymore. I’m not taking regular classes, and instead taking research credits. Next semester won’t be that much different except that I’m taking the very last class on my degree plan. However, you may be surprised to find out that December is a favorite month of many grad students.
So you must be wondering, why December? Why not any other month? The reason is finals. We (as in thesis-based students like me, and I’ll be mostly referring to this when speaking of grad school here with an emphasis on STEM) have a lot of deadlines on top of classes if we’re taking any. This can get stressful as classes, which feel more structured, are mixed with unstructured research (as that is something we establish ourselves). This can be daunting as we’re human: we like routine. When finals are over, the stress of classes are over and the main stress that’s left are research deadlines until you can go on Winter Break. However, you may be clueless, like I was, and not know how to take advantage of it effectively. If you’re planning on becoming a graduate student, you might be daunted by this time when it finally comes. After going through this for three years, I think I have a handle on it. So here are some suggestions for you if you’re approaching this time and have no idea how to make the best use of it.
1. Get Some Writing Done
A big point of going to grad school is getting research done and publications out so that you build notoriety and your place in your field. To get this done you need to write journal articles and have other publications published. The issue is that these papers take a really long time to write; like unless you’re a machine, it will take at least a couple months. Doing this on top of classes can be a lot (I know it was definitely a lot for me with my last one taking a while). However, this time is a great time to get a head start on your next paper or large exam like your preliminary defense or your actual defense.
2. Start a Long Experiment
With a break on the horizon, that usually means you’re away from your lab or workspace for a long time. For me, I always get anxiety when I’m away from my lab because that means I’m not getting any wet work (wet meaning chemical) done. However, I have the ability to start long-term experiments given the nature of my work, which times out well with breaks. If you can do this like me, I would use this time before break to get this done and still get data despite being away from lab.
3. Start a Lit Review
I dread doing lit review for my research at times because it can lead to frustrating rabbit holes. However, this is a necessary thing; you frequently need to know the state of your field and what has been done. Also, some department’s qualifying exams call on you to know about this state, so you might as well get a head start on this. Personally, I like looking at new and old review papers and then looking at what articles they cited and who cited them. If you do a little each day, you’ll end up with a large library of sources you can call on later.
While this might not help a lot of people apart from grad students, hopefully this gives insight on what grad students are doing after finals are over and undergraduates leave to go home. We still have to work, and these are some things you can do. Plus if you want to go to grad school, this can help you prepare as well.