The end of Fall semester is always 10x harder for me to concentrate on school than any other semester, because of Christmas! December starts and all you want to do is celebrate, but all you have time to do is study for your exams and work on group projects. There is nothing more depressing than walking past christmas trees and wreaths on the way to the library for a 3 hour cram session.
All across the country, students are procrastinating and dreading the worst week in school. Finals week brings out the worst in us, and most of us aren't that great with coping with this suddenly overwhelming amount of stress. We eat more, spend more, and sleep WAY less.
Here are a few tips to keep your finals week as stress free as possible:
- PLAN IT OUT! I can tell you right now that I can tell a HUGE difference
between days where I wake up with a plan and days when I try to make my
plan in the morning. Like, it’s the difference between me getting 1 thing
done and getting 39 things done.
- Sleeping is probably the most important thing. This
whole "I'm gonna pull an all nighter then go to the testing center at
6 am when it opens" thing was never fun and never worked. You end of
being so sleep deprived that you fail your exam and hate yourself.
- When you wake up, start working right away. Make the bed
and have breakfast! Take a (quick) shower and get dressed. Then start on
that to-do list that you made last night. Start working before you even
have time to get distracted by anything or before you can even think about
how much you don’t want to do! Set a deadline for yourself and work
like crazy to meet it! I always, always choose to work high-priority to
low priority. Life will happen, so keep in mind that you may not make it
to that 6th thing!
- Hide your social media apps on the second screen on your phone, set aside a 20-mintute time limit for social media, and turn off your alerts/push notifications. I always have good intentions of studying at the library, but when I have my phone I am all of the sudden stalking people on Instagram that I had a class with three years ago. It is always better for me if I just put it away. Out of sight, out of mind.
H I M
I have been graduated for 2 years now and let me tell you... I do not miss finals at all. Hannah brings up a lot of good points and things you can do to make sure you are effective with your time as you take finals. One thing I noticed was that my finals got better the farther along in school I was. What I mean is, as I got into classes that I actually wanted to take, the final projects and tests seemed more bearable because at least I found it interesting. I was also fortunate enough to not have that many tests. Mostly projects or presentations. Needless to say, no one is a fan of finals, but if you do it right then the end of the semester won't be too bad. It might be too late for you to take some of these ideas that Hannah and I share, but you can read this and prepare for the end of next semester.
- One way to ensure an easy end of semester is to make sure you are doing the work as you go. Everyone has dealt with a semester long project, paper or assignment. Do some of it on a weekly basis. By doing that you aren't leaving all of it to the last two weeks when you will already be plenty busy. You will also bring down the stress level by doing it that way too.
- Good sleep pays off. So many people stay up sooo late and lose sleep over homework and finals. I can tell you that the ones when I actually valued my sleep are the ones when I did good. Not only would I feel better but I would produce better work. Setting aside time to sleep is important. So make time for that and it will pay off
- Take breaks. So many kids just try to crank it all out in one sitting. You will go crazy, you will burn out and you will bug a lot of people because you are cranky. So treat yourself to some breaks. Relax and take it in strides. Finals can be what you make them. Be prepared and they won't smack you across the face like everyone says they will.
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