When is the best time to read an article about surviving finals? While procrastinating your work during finals week of course! This week, teachers have been given the chance to figure out if we’ve been paying attention the whole semester or not, so we need to be prepared for the sucker-punches of test questions and essay topics they’re about to throw at us. Regardless of if you’re actually prepared or not material-wise, here are some things that are important to remember during hell week that seems to take us by surprise every semester.
The most important thing to do is prioritize your work accordingly. If you know yourself well enough that you know you’re going to procrastinate on an assignment, plan ahead. Make sure you give yourself the leeway to procrastinate at least a little bit, because it makes it less stressful for you in the long run. Schedule your study sessions and have an agenda of what you’re going to accomplish during each session so you don’t feel behind on your work.
Don’t forget to eat and drink. Food is fuel, and without it you can’t pump much blood to your brain to keep you going. Everyone says to eat healthy during finals week, but honestly eating anything during finals week will help. Thinking about eating right while you’re stressing about finals could just add weight to your shoulders, so don’t worry about it. As long as you’re keeping yourself full and hydrated, you’re doing fine.
Be around people who are in the same mental space as you. Sometimes, just being around your friends can keep you from studying or being productive, so it’s important to be around people that are just as focused on school work as you. That way you have people to interact with, but you also have people that you can just sit and study in silence with. Everyone is productive at their own pace, and just because a friend can retain more information quicker than you doesn’t mean you automatically can too.
Take breaks. Don’t binge your work. A lot of college students think pulling all-nighters right before exams is the best way to get things done, and that might be true for some people. But it’s best to stay away from binge-studying because you probably won’t retain as much information as you think you can the night before. Stepping away from your work and taking a break is really important, because sometimes you just need to refresh your eyes and do something mind-numbing for a while.
So now that you have read through this whole article instead of studying, let’s put your brain to good use and apply these tips. But first, don’t forget to put your phone away. Trust me, no one is going to be texting you, because everyone else is studying for finals just like you should be.