The end of the semester is finally upon us. Ever since I came back to campus after Thanksgiving break, I have been counting down the days until I can go back home for Winter break. Unfortunately, before we can all go and have another much-needed break from school, we must get through the one thing every college student dread: FINALS!
           Finals are the inevitable torture that we all are subjected to as college students. Whether you only have two finals or five, these exams are super stressful. It always feels like everything is riding on this one exam and it has the power to either severely help your GPA or annihilate it. If you are feeling stressed out or don’t know where to start preparing for finals, keep reading! Hopefully these tips that seem to always get me through finals week can help you as well!
The first thing I always do during dead week (the week before finals) is plan. I find that it is always more efficient to plan out your studying down to the hour, so you are making the most of your time. I like to jot down in my planner what exam I will study for each day of the week. I find that this always helps so I don’t procrastinate. If you hold yourself to your plan, you will find that going into finals week will be a little less stressful. It’s always important to be organized!
           Another thing that I love to do is make study guides for each of my exams. I have been doing this since high school! I tend to learn best when I write, so making a study guide with everything I need to know makes sure I don’t forget anything that’s important. Another perk to having a study guide is that if you make it correctly, you won’t have to look through pages and pages of notes. The study guide will have everything you need to know in one place. This is usually my first step of studying!
Something else that can be helpful when studying for finals, is reviewing with a study group. There have been countless times that I have not understood something. Since I was studying with a group of people, I was able to ask them and received a correct, helpful explanation. If I had been studying alone, I might not have ever understood and could have gotten that wrong on the exam.
The last thing that I would recommend is take a breath! I know it seems like everything relies on what you get on this exam. Ten years from now when you have your dream job, you’re not going to remember what you made on your calculus final. Remember that upon all the last-minute cramming to take a break and go do something for yourself. As important as it is to study hard, you won’t get anything out of it if you completely exhaust yourself.
Good luck on finals! I know you can do it! Happy Studying!