It’s the final push to a summer of freedom, so don’t let anything hold you back from finishing the semester with all of your priorities in order. Follow our tips for ending the semester strong and you’ll be able to coast through the grueling final weeks of spring.
1. Stay Organized
Investing in a planner is one of the best decisions you can make as an overwhelmed student. All the chaos of assignments, due dates, intramural practice and social events can be organized within the neat, beautifully separated lines. Other tools that will help in organizing the piles of notes you’ve been taking all semester are an expandable folder, binders with dividers and colored tabs to help you separate different topics. When it comes to prioritizing assignments, the easiest way to break it all down is to divide them into three different categories:
- Big Picture:Know when your big exams and papers are – put them into a calendar or planner right away and start planning a study schedule.
- Weekly:Use a weekly planner to write down what is due in your classes each week – this will help you prioritize when it comes to creating a study schedule for the week.
- Daily:Use something eye catching like neon Post It notes or an online calendar to create a to-do list every day with small goals you want to accomplish – visually checking off little tasks like online reading assignments and quizzes helps to give you a greater sense of accomplishment.
2. Find the Perfect Study Spot
Everyone knows that the libraries turn into the equivalent of malls before Christmas during the last week before exams, so find somewhere unique and not well known to get in some quality study time.
Hough Hall
This new business school facility has all the essentials of a perfect study spot (bathrooms, snack machines, comfy chairs) and unlike the nearby Library West, there’s always an open seat to snag.
North Lawn
The Plaza of the Americas and Turlington can get noisy with all the protestors and information booths, but the sprawling North Lawn by the Reitz Union is never congested. Find a shady spot underneath a tree or at one of the concrete picnic tables to soak up some sun while getting stuff done.
3. Ask for Help
Pride and shyness aside, professors and TAs offer office hours for a reason. Figure out when they’ll be available to meet with you and take advantage of the one-on-one advice and assistance from the best source you can get – the people who are in charge of your grade. Difficult concepts can throw anyone off their game. By making an effort to understand the material, the professor will be more likely to work with you on getting a better grade and possibly serving as a reference down the road (can’t hurt to think ahead). Reaching out for help can be the difference between a so-so grade and a grade you’ll be bragging about to people taking the class next semester.
4. Productively Procrastinate
That 10-page paper isn’t going to write itself, but if you’re not up for spending time working on it, then at least put yourself ahead, not behind. Time is hard to come by as the days wind down to the start of summer, so have some things in mind that you can work on when you get burnt out from papers, equations and group projects. Update your resume, submit applications for summer jobs, write cover letters for internships — anything that will benefit you down the road (and keep you off of Facebook).