Your Survival Guide: UConn Spring Finals 2011

Alright Huskies, the weather is finally warming up, the sun is out, its 70 degrees! But instead of spending all your time outside soaking up those rays – no. You are busy making preparations for the sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated week that is known as living hell – or by its formal name, finals week.

So how is a UConn collegiette™ supposed to navigate her way through the gates of hell while maintaining her collect and managing to score A’s? Here’s your survival guide:

BEST PLACE TO STUDY

Whoever can still manage to be productive in the library nowadays deserves serious kudos – Homer Badbitch is always full to the brim. Unless you enjoy strolling around all seven floors of the football-field sized building desperately looking for anything that resembles an electrical outlet, its time to part ways with Homer and find yourself a study nook that doesn’t require you to camp out for days to protect your electrical lifeline. Similarly, escaping across Route 195 to Starbucks never quite pans out like you imagined it would. Hoping to find that quiet armchair in the corner and get some work done? Good luck, the noisy line is always out the door and the last time I found an open seat in there I was using the ladies room.

Try out the Benton’s Beanery Café instead – it’s a well-kept secret that I will surely regret spilling the beans about. Straight up, the Beanery is awesome. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, and seeing as it’s in an art museum, it should be no surprise that the décor is bright and comfortable. The baristas are always serving up inventive drinks, and it’s the only place I have found on campus that offers soy milk in addition to the traditional line-up of skim and creamers. If you need to relieve your study-related frustrations by indulging in a shameful shopping session, you only need to stroll 10 feet to your right, where the Café abuts a museum shop stock full of treasures – jewelry, scarves, clothing, you name it. On the other hand, if puzzling is more your style, take a few minutes to help add some pieces to the Beanery’s community jigsaw puzzle, a sure way to get your noodle energized and back in the game. Starbucks has nothing on the Beanery. 

But lets be real – the reason you are still reading this is because you are foaming at the mouth waiting to hear about those electrical outlets. Well, prepare yourself – the Beanery has entire power strips, yes you heard me correctly, POWER STRIPS, that you can plug into. You and all your friends can jam yourself around one of the café’s tables and each have your very own outlet – you can never again bail out early from study group because your laptop died. And the real reason the Beanery beats out Starbucks as your tried-and-true study spot? Everyone knows that Starbucks’s wireless sucks…..

BEST WAY TO STAY AWAKE

The credit for this life-saver goes to Amanda Croce, a UConn senior, who taught me this handy little trick when I was unsuccessfully trying to rally my energy for a long night out. She learned this from Joleen Nevers of UConn’s Sexperts (more meditation tips from Sexperts here).

When you find yourself drooling into your textbook and have no idea how long your eyes have been rolling into the back of your head, its time for this trick. You’ll know when you need to whip it out; it’s the point where you are no longer sure if you are napping or staring at your desk. First, stand up and stretch a little bit, get your blood flowing. And now for the trick, which is made of four individual steps, each combining fast movement with quick, deep breathing. Here it is:

1. Stand tall with your hands at your sides. Then, inhale deeply and sharply as you very quickly raise your arms so that they are parallel, pointing ahead of you.
2. Immediately inhale sharply again as you shoot your arms out to your sides so that you make a T-shape with your body.
3. Inhale sharply one last time as you dart your arms over your head so that they are parallel and pointing toward the ceiling.
4.  Slowly exhale as you lower your hands back down to your sides.
5. Repeat 3 or 4 times, or until you feel perked up.
    

BEST FINALS FEAST

If you don’t know what Midnight Breakfast is, you either don’t go to UConn or you live in a van down by the river. Held at the Student Union every year, Midnight Breakfast is a chance for you recharge your batteries after a long brutal week of studying. Or maybe your idea of weekend studying was researching the Funnel Theory of Beer at a frat party. So then I guess you could say Midnight Breakfast is a chance for all of you die-hard procrastinators to build your energy for multiple all-nighter cram sessions. Whatever Midnight Breakfast is to you, it’s definitely something you don’t want to miss if you call yourself a Husky. This year, it’s held on Sunday, May 1^st from 10:30pm to 12:30am.

BEST LAST-MINUTE ADVICE

On naps: 

If you are pulling an all-nighter and feel yourself crashing, it’s okay to take a 90 minute power nap. In fact, I always budget enough time to allow myself to take one. Sleeping for no less than 90 minutes is the key though – any shorter and you risk interrupting your sleep cycle before it has completed, which will leave you struggling to shake a mental fog. I set my alarm for 90 minutes after I get to bed, with the intention that I will hit my snooze button twice to allow myself to gradually wake up before cracking my books back open. 

On alarm clocks:

Always, always, ALWAYS set multiple alarms. I found this out the hard way, and I don’t want my fellow HCers to end up doing the same. Spring finals of freshman year I set both my cell phone alarm and my alarm clock to wake me up in time for my Saturday 10am Oceanography final. After staying up until 6 studying, I was excited to get some shut-eye, feeling confident that with two alarms set I would for sure make it to my exam. What happened next still causes me to wonder if the space-time continuum shifted that day – I woke up to my cell phone ringing after noon; Mom wanted to know how my final went. After having a major panic attack that consisted of me screaming at the top of my lungs and chucking my Oceanography textbook into the wall, I double checked my cell phone alarm and alarm clock – they were both set for 9:30am. To this day I still can’t figure out why they didn’t go off – so always be doubley, tripley, quadrupley sure you have more than enough alarm clocks set to wake you up. Electrical anomalies can happen – truth is stranger than fiction.

GOOD LUCK FELLOW COLLEGIETTES!

Finals week isn’t the time to shy away from hard work. Channel your nervous energy into adrenaline and use that mojo to keep yourself motivated and in the game. It takes Herculean effort to make in through finals week but you can sleep when you’re dead; you’re better off pushing through all your studying even if that means cutting back on your shut-eye. With a little perseverance and a lot of under-eye concealer, you’ll be glad you worked so hard when you get back those high, shiny grades. And trust me, even if you sleep for a total of 2 hours next week, you’ll never be too tired to shake your groove thang at Thirsty Dog when it’s all over and done with.