Tips to Stay Sane During Finals Week

Yeah, finals are coming up next week. We all know what that means. The beginning of the semester feels like it happened eons ago, and you can’t remember how to spell basic words. Instead of feeling stressed out trying to remember facts from your seven different classes, try these helpful tips:

Study Advice:

Stop studying the night before – At some point you need to tell yourself “It’s past 1 in the morning, I’ve crammed all I can into my head”. Space out your studying this week. Sleep is important.

Take breaks – People can generally study between 20 minutes to an hour before they start to “crash” or get distracted, so try to absorb knowledge in 30 chunks and take 10 minutes in between to grab a snack or take a lap around the library.

Use all your senses – The more senses you use when studying, the more likely the information will stick in your head. Try reading them out loud, rewriting them by hand, or even singing them. One thing that helps a lot is re-teaching them. Call your parents or siblings, sit down with your roommate, and “teach” them about what you learned this semester.

Test-Taking Tips:

Clear your head – take a few moments before going to your final to close your eyes and breathe, especially if you’re anxious. You don’t have to purge every thought, just take a second to calm your thoughts down.

Get in there with an “I don’t care attitude” – it sounds counterintuitive, but going into a test without worrying over whether it will make or break your grade in class will help you calm de-stress a little.

Self-Care: 

Sleep – If you ignored my advice about not studying the night before—why? Sleep is important!

Eat something – Eating is also important. You’re not you when you’re hungry (Snickers Logo). Hydrating falls under this one, too.

Clean up – Especially important if you’re traveling to go back home for winter break. Take a five-minute break to make your bed, put away some clothes. Decluttering the space around you can help declutter your thoughts.

After Finals?

This is de-stress time. Take some time to celebrate or commiserate with your friends and/or family about how you did, but don’t obsess over it. Let yourself relax. No matter how you did, you just got done with your finals! Good job.