It’s now less than a month until finals. If you’re stressed out and you know it, clap your hands ^claps hands^. We’re all stressed out and super busy with classes, extracurricular activities, friends, and family, but finals are rapidly approaching and we need to prepare. It may seem impossible, but you can help yourself out later by starting to study for finals now.
First of all, you’re already studying for finals. All of the coursework you’re doing now and have been doing all semester have been reinforcing the material that you will need to know for your final exam. If you do well on the assignment, then you know that you understood the material, and if you don’t do as well as you would like, you know that you have to review the material again.
However, if you think that you need more study time but need to motivate yourself to actually do the studying, think of studying now as an investment. Think about it, is cramming at the last minute actually valuable study time? Stressfully reviewing your notes two hours before the test does not actually help you retain information, it will just raise your blood pressure.
The good news is that if you start earlier, you don’t have to dedicate as much time at once to studying. If you have to study for four hours to feel prepared for the test, studying one hour a week for four weeks is much more manageable than trying to get all four hours of studying done on the day before the test.
When you do study, you have to really focus on studying. Half an hour of focused revision is way more effective than two hours of watching TV, talking on the phone, scrolling through Twitter, and polishing your nails with a textbook open in front of you.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by end of semester stress, but you’ll have to make studying a priority. At this point in the semester, many students are so stressed out that they decide to avoid responsibility entirely and turn to Netflix instead. And while re-watching Gilmore Girls to prepare for the revival seems like a priority, studying is a higher priority. Unfortunately, Logan Huntzberger is not real, so giving up on the entire institution of collegiate education and becoming his trophy wife is not a viable life choice. I know, I’m heartbroken too (hashtag team Logan).
The easiest way to reprioritize is to reschedule. If you schedule study time in your planner along with all of your other assignments, you’ll be more likely to follow through and actually study. For that matter, you should start to treat studying like an assignment. It may not be graded, but it will help raise your grade on your finals, and therefore your grade in the class.
Squeeze studying in whenever you can, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Review your notes while you’re waiting for a class to start, while you’re waiting in line, any time you have a few extra minutes. Just don’t do anything dangerous like studying while waiting at red lights.
Hopefully these study tips are helpful and motivate you to start on your studying for finals now. The most important thing is to take studying seriously and commit enough time to comprehend the material. However, if you start studying now, there’s no need to allow studying to take over your life. Spreading out your studying over the next few weeks will help you learn everything you need to do well on your exams without stressing you out too much or making you crazy like last-minute cramming can. Good luck on all of your finals everyone!