The week before finals is an obviously stressful time for students. Even the most sane and docile students sometime come to the brink of a psychotic break when they realize they will be tested on a semester of information in 2 hours. Sounds pretty intense, there’s no getting around it.
I consider the majority of students at my school to be considerate, helpful, and overall genuinely nice people. So the weekend before my first finals week came as a shock to me. I was at the final party of the semester; my friends and I were all having a great time, meeting new people, and blowing off some steam before we were slammed with studying. Next thing I knew, all chaos ensued.
I ran to the stairs to see what the cause of the war cry I heard was, only to see a mosh put fight of about 15 boys in the living room below the stairs. Next thing I know, more boys jumped from the second floor staircase to join in on the mosh pit. It was honestly like a scene out of a movie, never before had I seen a fight at my school, people always seem to get along. I later learned the fight was a result of classic male territorial insecurities, but normally it would never escalate to such a brawl. There was only one explanation: Finals Frenzy.
Needless to say, stress gets to everyone. After experiencing my first finals week with relatively low stress and good results, I feel it is my civic duty to share any advice I have to keeping you from the point of psychotic break. I have complied the following DO’s and DONT’s:
1. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL LAST MINUTE
Waiting until the last minute is detrimental! You cannot cram a semester of information in to one day of studying. And even if you decide to spend your whole day studying, there is no way you will be able to retain all the previously misunderstood information
2. DO TAKE STUDY BREAKS
Burning yourself out helps nobody!! Take a break every time you start to feel yourself just mindlessly reading flashcards. My favorite breaks are ones that involve food of course, I liked to take breaks to go to the dining hall, get coffee, or take a drive to the town over and grab a cheap dinner with friends before going back to my notes.
3. DO GO TO REVIEW SESSIONS
Review sessions are your professor’s gift to you!! Wether it’s a TA or your professor running it, they can often hint as to major points that will be on the test, or provide a form of a study guide if they did not provide a physical copy. And it’s a better resource to get your questions answered than Google, because then you know the answer your teacher wants to hear!
4. DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF SLEEP
Sleepless nights will only result in exhaustion, causing you to take in information less efficiently. And as much as I am a major believer in caffeine, it can’t change the natural function of your brains ability to retain information better when well rested.
5. DO GO OVER OLD NOTES AND TESTS
Holy crap this was probably the best thing I did for myself. I rewrote old notes that were difficult for me to understand and it helped me memorize the information so much better. And old tests showed me major concepts I didn’t understand with my TA’s corrections, which helped my understanding of it for the exam.
I hope I can be your Advice Angie for the day and that although winter finals are over, you have a better idea of how to study for your spring finals. Sorry, don’t mean to remind you that those are looming as well…
May the odds be ever in your favor
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