With finals come lots of stress and anxiety. It's easy to get bogged down and convince yourself that the world is coming to an end. Your teachers don't seem to understand that you are taking other classes, and your friends all seem to have it easier than you do. That's why it's important not to let yourself get overwhelmed and begin to believe you can't do this. You can conquer your finals and with my three tips, you can start breathing easy and studying up. So after you read this, start cracking those books:
1. Talk to your teachers beforehand. Now don't go asking them how to raise your grade or what extra credit you can do now. Doing that will only make them aggravated with you. What you can do is ask them about the final. What kind of questions will there be? Is it multiple choice? Fill in the blank? Essay? This is good information to know because it can help you prepare. You don't study the same way for a multiple choice final as you would with one that is all essay questions. You can also ask your professors how many questions will be on the test. Knowing this can help ease your stress about your final, if only a little, because you'll know what to expect when you sit down for the test.
2. Find out what kind of studier you are. Figure out the best way you study. Is that making flashcards? Is that with a study group? Or maybe it's by having others quiz you? It's important to figure out which way you learn best because it can help you from wasting time. You don't want to waste too much time writing out hundreds of flashcards if you study best by just reading over your notes. One tip for those with reading comprehension problems, a good way to help yourself remember more is to mark up the important stuff. Most teachers will tell you to do the reading before class, but if you're not going with reading comprehension, then read the chapter after class and underline the things you remember from the lecture. Then you can type it up and you have a more manageable chapter summary to work with. Doing this is what saved my life in my geology class.
3. Don't study all the way up to the test. Ten minutes before your final puts your notes away and don't look at them anymore. Get on Instagram. Check your email but do not study. Give your brain the chance to relax and your mind the chance to clam down. Taking just those ten minutes can help your anxiety go down before a test if you take your mind off of it. If you do this, it's less likely you'll start having major anxiety during your test. If that happens, you're more likely to forget things you actually know! Something that's good to remind yourself during those ten minutes, while you're not studying, is that there is nothing else that you can do to prepare. Remind yourself that you do know the information.
