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How to Get Through Finals Week

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois chapter.

December brings many happy events such as winter break, Christmas and New Years Eve. But before any of us can experience the joys December has to offer we have to get through one thing – finals.  Just the word “finals” alone makes many college students cringe.  There are a few things you can do to make finals go as smoothly as possible.

1. Stop procrastinating and start studying.  There are several other things we all would rather do than study, but sitting down and hitting the books will pay off.  Try and start studying at least a week or two before your final.  Try and go over your notes every night for an hour or two.  This prevents you from cramming and you will not only remember the material better, but you will be a lot less stressed out while learning the material.

2. Form a study group.  Sometimes it is a lot easier and a lot more fun to learn the material with other people.  You also retain a lot more information by teaching the material to other students.  If you get together with some friends to study you can compare notes and go over lectures; one of you may have written something down that someone else in the group did not catch in class.

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3. Make a study guide.  This will force you to go over all the material again and it is a good review guide.  You can use you lecture note and the book to make one. 

4. Get a good night sleep before your final.  Do not stay up cramming all night because it does more harm than good.  If you do not know the material by midnight you won’t know it much better by two or three in the morning.  You want to wake up with a clear head so you can really think about the questions on the test.

Finals are stressful no matter what, but these are some things you can still do to help you through them. 
 

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Emily Cleary is a 22-year-old news-editorial journalism major hoping to work in the fashion industry, whether that be in editorial, marketing, PR or event planning is TBD. With internships at Teen Vogue and StyleChicago.com, it's clear that she is a fashion fanatic. When she's not studying (she's the former VP of her sorority, Delta Delta Delta), writing for various publications or attending meetings for clubs like Business Careers in Entertainment Club, Society of Professional Journalists, The Business of Fashion Club, or for her role as the Assistant Editor of the Arts & Entertainment section of her school's magazine, she's doing something else; you will never find her sitting still. She loves: running (you know those crazy cross-country runners...), attending concerts and music festivals, shopping (of course), hanging out with friends, visiting her family at home, traveling (she studied abroad in London when she was able to travel all over Europe), taking pictures, tweeting, reading stacks and stacks of magazines and newspapers while drinking a Starbuck's caramel light frappacino, blogs and the occasional blogging, eating anything chocolate and conjuring up her next big project. Living just 20 minutes outside of Chicago, she's excited to live there after graduation, but would love to spend some time in New York, LA, London or Paris (she speaks French)!