It's here.

Yep. Screeching in it at Mach 1 a few weeks before Christmas, finals have the ability to turn just about anybody into the Grinch.

You want to study; you need to study.

But listening to your neighbor's Holiday Pandora station thumping across your walls isn’t helping.

You’re in too good of a mood to buckle down and concentrate.

So what do you do?

You could roll the dice and play the old ‘how-bad-would-my-grade-be-if-I-just-skipped-finals?’ But another glance at your GPA, and you probably can’t afford a dropped final just about as much as you can’t afford Christmas gifts this season.

You could enjoy the rest of your last days here for the fall semester and cram the night before, figuring at least taking the exam is better than not showing up at all. Word of the wise, it’s not that big of a difference.

I’m going to tell you what you’re going; you’re going to strap your big boy shoes on, buckle down and pass your exams. Because, with these tips, we can all get the Christmas miracle we want this year without going total ape on Whoville; to ace our finals.

Find a quiet place to study. More often than not, this isn’t your dormitory, especially during the afternoon time, when people have officially risen from their coffins of sleep. Sure, you may have quiet neighbors. Sure, the sign outside your door says that quiet hours start earlier this week. But all it takes is a door banging or someone laughing to put a damper on your beast mode. The best bet is to leave the group studying sessions for the dorms, when you have other people to keep your focus away from the outside world and head to secluded areas to study, like the library, student academic centers, private rooms in the MUB or even a Main Street shop during its off hours.

Hide your electronics. This doesn’t mean just sliding it off to the other side of your desk. It needs to be out of sight to be out of mind ;) See what I did there. But I’m serious. When you’re knee deep in a textbook, it’s too tempting to just take a “5 min phone break.” That then turns into a “lemme flip through snapchat quick.” That then turns into a “one Netflix episode break.” And we all know the impossibility of watching just one Netflix episode. Just get rid of it. Give it to a friend to hide in their room, hide it in your microwave, doesn’t matter. If you need your phone or computer for studying, there are great apps like Focus Lock that allow you to lock down your favorite apps and websites, and it won’t let you access them until after a certain time.

Eat brain food, not bust food. Because there are no classes during finals, our whole regiment is out of whack. It’s an unending twilight zone of studying and last minute papers, and sometimes its hard to tell if it’s 5 in the morning or 5 in the evening. Remember to eat meals while you’re in and out of your studying coma, but don’t settle for the fries and chicken nuggets because its finals and you need to “treat yo self.” Foods like carbohydrates, starches and fats are actually known to decrease your memory strength and your brain’s ability to concentrate. So when you head over to the dining hall for lunch, make sure your plate is colorful, and not like 3 different dips for your french fires colorful. Load your plate up with veggies and fruits, and make sure to have a good dose of protein to keep you full. It’s hard studying with a growling stomach. If you do end up with one, snack on the best brain food of all; popcorn.

Take it one at a time. It’s all too easy to look at your 7 inch thick Anatomy textbook and start crying. Placing all of your material for every class out where you can see is only going to completely overwhelm you and make yourself doubt your abilities to get through it all. But you and I both know your more than capable of tackling it. So don’t. Have only the material out for the one class your focussing on at the moment, and keep the other subjects in a drawer, under your bed or even in your fridge. What you can do is keep a pile in sight of the subjects you have mastered and tackled. They’re great motivation for plowing through the rest.

Pretend you’re teaching it to someone else. It gets frustrating when you read through a chapter in your history textbook or flip through some psychology flash cards and not be able to retain any of it. One the best methods is to study as if you’re teaching it to someone else. Tackle it one term, date or concept at a time. Then, turn to your imaginary friend, desk lamp, backpack, chair, anything and explain to them what you just read. Not only does the repetition help, but explaining something out loud further solidifies it in your memory for later. And then when you’ve gotten through a chapter or a stack of notes, go all the way back to the beginning, and try and explain everything without looking back at the text. The things you pause on, you now know you need a little more work on.

Have a spotless work area. If you’re at your desk at your dorm, take everything off. Photos, lamps, bobble heads, agendas, folders, candles, ceramic santa’s; everything. If you’re in a library or other building, keep your backpack, coat and other belongings on your chair or on the floor. There should be nothing on your desk, except for the material you’re studying and a pencil. It sounds crazy, but when your mind starts to drift off, the little distractions around us is all your brain needs to go skipping off into a rainbow world of Orlando Bloom’s and chocolate fountains for a solid 20 minutes.

Take non-electronic breaks. Definitely take 5-10 minute breaks throughout your studying hours, but don’t immediately go reaching for your phone. It’s all to easily to burn even an hour on it without even realizing it. The best kinds of a breaks are the physical ones. Go for a little walk outside or around your dormitory. Or do a few jumping jacks or pushups in your room. This benefits you in a few ways. Remaining seated for prolonged periods of time can slow down the blood flow in your body, thus decreasing the amount being circulated throughout your brain. Getting your heart pumping for a few minutes every so often keeps your metabolism working at a steady rate. You can sit back down to studying feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the disaster in front of you.

Don’t have ear buds in. Save for the few, very rare exceptions to this, most of us do not have multi-tasking minds. Having songs playing in your ears will pull your mind’s attention away from studying. Hide the ear buds, and save the jam sessions for your breaks. Rocking out hard for 5 minutes to Spotify is a great pick-me-up. If you’re one of the rare exceptions that need the background noise, try not to listen to anything with lyrics. Those can easily get tangle up with the your calculus equations and economic’s terms, and get lost in translation. Try Mozart’s or any other orchestra station on Pandora or Youtube. There’re no lyrics and not too many funky rhythms and noises to distract you with.

Start NOW! The biggest reason for difficulty and low grades on final exams is due to how long students leave before that fateful day to study. Even leaving 3-4 days before an exam to study for 10-15 chapters worth is not enough time. Cramming all of that information in during such a short time will leave your brain reeling, and will prevent you from thoroughly studying for your class. So start now! No, I don’t mean start your 5-6 hour studying sessions now. Classes are still in session, and no doubt every professor has you handing in 3 term papers, 4 lab reports, 2 practicals and your kidney during the home stretch. But at night, when the tornado of projects have settled down, crack open your chemistry notes from September and look at them for 45 minutes. That’s it. Do a little each night. Start now, and by the time finals week rolls around, you can open up your notes again, and most of it won’t seem all that new to you. It’ll make studying and remembering all the more easier.

Most importantly: You got this! Self-doubt is the greatest obstacle to jump over come finals time and it digs a nice, deep ditch that you just can’t climb out of. Don’t let the immensity of your notes, textbook, review sheets, flashcards, or lecture slides overwhelm you. You have the capability of acing your exams. All you need to do is put in the proper time and effort, and you WILL succeed.

Just think; two more weeks and you’re home free.

And because it's more fun to read studying memes on Facebook than to actually study, here's your dose for the next two weeks. It should be enough to get you through.