It's that time of the year again, fall semester is less than a month from being over and the professors are seriously cramming in as much as they can before finals. Now add five or six classes of work overload and things can get a little crazy and stressful or us college kids. Here's a few things I've learned are helpful after two semesters of taking finals.
1. Study!
Seriously, it should be common sense but a lot of people still choose not to spend any time reviewing before a final. Some people are okay with taking the gamble, but usually the final exam counts for a huge chunk of your final grade, so it's important to spend a lot of extra time on each subject to make sure you're totally okay with the material.
2. Sleep.
Also something that should be common sense but a lot of students take it for granted. A good nights sleep the night before a final is essential to make sure your mind and body are aligned and ready to tackle the test. Many students will just cram a lot the night before the exam, staying up until 3 or 4 a or even pulling an all nighter in the library. But sleep is essential and will most definitely keep you on your game while taking the exam.
3. De-Stress as much as possible.
Having five or six finals to try to juggle can be overwhelming even to the seasoned veteran. The key to keeping on top of your game is to carve out time in your day to do something that's fun and stress relieving. Go to the gym, shopping, bowling, get ice cream, do anything that will get you off campus and allow you to forget for a little while all the stress you're under. I think this is the most important tip to keep in mind when finals come around.
4. Time Management.
Time management is probably the biggest thing we all have to learn while in college. We need to figure out which classes are more important to us, which ones we need to spend the most time studying for and which ones we don't have to spend so much time on. And some college classes don't have finals, which can carve even more time out of your busy schedule to spend studying on those which demand the most time.
5. Eat.
Eat healthy. Don't lock yourself in a room with ramen and soda and think you can survive on that for days on end. It's still important to keep a good diet and make sure you're eating enough and also not stress eating. A lot of times things at this point in the semester just get to hectic that we forget to eat and that's never god for our bodies.
As long as we can keep these few and simple tips in our heads along the next three weeks of school, we should be able to tackle anything finals week has to throw at us.
