Tips and Tricks to Survive Finals

It's that time of year again... the magical time where students wander around campus with zombie-like sleepiness on their faces, with patches of hair missing from their heads. They have lines across their cheeks from falling asleep on their books, and a double-shot expresso is dangling lazily out of their hand... you know, the other hand that isn't carring twenty pounds worth of text books.

I find that making a daily schedule for myself in times such as these is the only way to stop me from truly going insane. Schedules just work for me, I guess. Maybe you're the type that can't handle every moment of your day planned out. If this is the case, I suggest the to-do list. As long as you're the type to stick ot it. Personally, I can't NOT do something that's on my to-do list. It will drive me crazy.

The trick is to start early. Like now... or even yesterday. The sooner you start, obviously, the less overwhelmed you will feel.

For example, I started studying for my psychology final a full month before the exam. I planned it out so I would read one chapter every day AND do the review questions at the end of it. But, I also allowed myself two days to do general review of notes, vocab terms, ect. I find that's the best way to do it because if you don't review everything you're supposed to know one last time, chances are those chapters you read weeks ago aren't going to be very fresh in your mind...

Some professors will give you back all of your old exams and tell you to "look them over." It has been my experience (however limited finals experience I have) that you shouldn't just "look them over." You should eat, sleep, and breathe these things. Seriously, for my J30 exam my first semester, the exam was largely comprised of questions from the other tests... verbatim. I made copies of them and retook them so many times, I can't even remember. But it paid off.

Maybe you have a lot of writing assignments due. There are three types of people in this situation: those who DON'T work well under last-minute panic, those who work BEST under last-minute panic, and those who THINK they work best under last-minute panic. Here's a tip: if you're not sure if you produce your best work four hours before your deadline, this is not the time to try it. For those of you who aren't procrastinators, the best thing you can possibly do is to set small goals for yourself. Eight page paper due in two weeks? First of all, if you're already working on it, I'd like to shake your hand because you're amazing. Second of all, just write oh... I don't know.. fifty words a day. That's like three sentences. You can handle three sentences at a time, can't you? Then, just as I said with the psychology, leave a couple of days open close to the deadline so you can revise and fix it up a bit (since papers written like this can sometimes be a little choppy).

Whatever you do, don't pile up all your books in one stack and stare at them because then you're setting yourself up for stress. Take it one chapter at a time. Set small goals, and reward yourself for accomplishing them. And, this is most important.... DON'T PANIC!