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How to Prepare for Finals (Before It’s Too Late)

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Sophie Taibl Student Contributor, Washington University in St. Louis
Elizabeth Baxter Student Contributor, Washington University in St. Louis
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wash U chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Midterm season may be winding down, but finals will be here before you know it. Literally, I tell myself every year that this time will be the time I FINALLY begin my preparation early. Unfortunately, this day has yet to come. Lucky for you, I’ve made a list of tips and advice that I hope to one day follow!

1. Download a website-blocking app

Apps such as Self Control allow you to input a list of websites that will be blocked for a certain amount of time. The length of time is decided by you, but note that it cannot be undone after you set it! Because of this, I suggest setting blocks of  around 2 hours instead of 2 days, just in case you need to reach someone via Facebook.

2. Prioritizing

When you have a ton of work, it can be so overwhelming that you don’t even know where to start. To-do lists are great (and highly recommended), but staring at a long list of unfinished tasks can be even more stress inducing. To combat this, I like to prioritize on my to-do lists, rating the task from 3-1, with 3 being the most important. As a result, I’m more organized in the order of what I am studying.

3. Time Limits

Have you ever gotten carried away in your studying? You study one chapter of material in depth, becoming a virtual expert on the subject, but then running out of time to study the other sections? This is a nasty cycle that I often fall victim to, so I started adding time limits to my tasks. Basically, I set an alarm for around 1 hour to make sure I do not lose track of time.

 

By Sophie Taibl

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Wash U class of 2021; Majoring in Psychological and Brain Sciences with minors in Art History and Communication Design.