It is a well-known fact that a full night’s rest and good nutrition helps you learn, remember, and conceptualize what you learn in school. Still, the unhealthy habits of college students, especially on finals week, is just as infamous. I am no exception either. I know exactly how stressful finals week can be with having to relearn information, working through practice problems, memorizing equations, terms, and concepts and repeat for 2-4 other classes. But through the 4 finals weeks I’ve been through, I’ve learned a few different ways to keep myself from becoming overwhelmed by the workload and maintain healthy habits throughout finals week.
Stay organized
For each class I make a list of things I will need to know or practice. I like to start this 1-2 weeks before finals week, so that I can focus on studying during finals week. I’ll usually update the list right before finals week, so that it stays accurate and represents the information I learned in my classes after I originally made the list. Then, as I’m studying for my finals during finals week, I have an outline to follow and it ensures that I don’t forget anything.
Prioritize
Unfortunately, with multiple exams, occasionally on the same day even, you have to prioritize your studying for them. Having a good grasp on which classes you need to study the most for will help you excel in them.
Starting Early
I personally have a bad habit of starting to study for my finals only when the final week of classes ends. This method left me cramming and pulling all-nighters before my finals. The lack of sleep and the lack of preparation often caused me to do significantly worse than I could have. Now, I try to start brushing up on the content we learned the first half of the quarter two weeks before finals week starts. This gives me a better base of knowledge to build off of, and the content tends to be easier, so it is not as difficult to manage along with my regular workload.
Food
Getting proper nutrition is also very important during finals week. When you want to take a quick break in the midst of studying, instead of going on TIktok, try doing basic preparation for your meals. If you need to chop vegetables, do that. If the meal you want to make requires rice, put that on the stove or in your rice cooker so that it cooks while you study. Same thing applies to boiling pasta or marinating meat. It helps split up the cooking load, so you don’t have to do all the preparation and cooking at the same time.
You could also try buying groceries where the fruits and vegetables are already cut, eliminating a fair amount of meal preparation time for you. This can also make the process of making something nutritious and filling less intimidating.
Alternatively, if you really only have time to make ramen or reheat frozen food, spare 2 extra minutes to fry an egg to eat with it.
Efficient Studying
A lot of methods of “studying” can be somewhat inefficient. They take up a lot of your time, and whatever you study doesn’t end up sticking in your brain. There are plenty of different ways to study efficiently, and ultimately, the best method depends on the type of class it is. Active recall is a learning technique that involves actively retrieving information from memory rather than passively reviewing it. This is renowned for being one of the better studying methods. For more conceptual classes, teaching the content to someone (or something, like a stuffed animal) can help you find gaps in your knowledge and improve your retention of the material. Trying out some of these methods for other exams before your finals would be advisable, so that you are more familiar with the methods beforehand.
I hope some of these tips will help you in some way to save time and have a less overwhelming finals week. Good luck!