De-stress with these helpful study tips
By Alexandria Baker
With finals week rapidly approaching, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Maybe you, like me, have put off most of your long-term projects, and are now scrambling to get everything done. Maybe you haven’t studied at all for an exam that you are sure you’re going to fail. Maybe you just haven’t been to class all quarter, and now you’re trying to make up for lost time.
Whatever the case may be, panicking about what you should have done differently is not going to make your outcome any better. It’s time to take a deep breath, get organized, and find ways to destress while you start checking items off your to-do list.
First things first, get organized.
There are a myriad of ways to organize your classwork. Some people like everything to be digital and integrated across phones, computers and tablets. For myself, I prefer a physical calendar that I can scrawl notes on and check off when I’m done.
A simple technique for this is to write down every single assignment and final you have left to complete for the quarter. The list may appear daunting, but we’ve reached the point in the quarter where the number of items on the list will only shrink — most professors will not add anything extra during dead week.
Once you’ve got your assignments written down, organize them based on their due dates, with the most imminent projects and tests clearly visible. This will help you prioritize your work, and prevent anything from sneaking up on you.
Now that you know what you have to do, do it! This is obviously the hardest part, but the longer you put off completing your work, the more stressed out you will be when you realize you’re running out of time. I would recommend blocking out specific times of day to work on things. Pick a two-hour block of time, say 4 to 6 p.m. In that period, don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Pick one assignment or test, and work as diligently as possible for that period. If you need to, every half-hour or so you can take a five minute break to stretch, drink some water or have a snack, but try to keep it just within those five minutes.
You might be amazed the amount of work you can get done by creating a routine block of time to do homework. If you start this process early in the day, you can even take an hour for dinner, and then come back and continue working. The key here is not to become overwhelmed thinking about everything else you need to do. By focusing on working on one assignment until it’s close to completion, you’ll be able to check things off your to-do list much more methodically.
If the thought of taking on your workload a couple hours at a time is daunting, you can try another technique, called 20/10s. Basically, with a 20/10 you work without a break for 20 minutes, and then take 10 minutes to destress. It will take longer this way, but getting any work done is better than no work.
When you’re sure you can’t read another page or your eyes will fall out, it’s time to call it a night. Getting a good night’s sleep is almost as important to your success as actually completing the work. Sure, you need to study for that exam, but if you fall asleep during the test you won’t be any better off. Our brains also process and store information as long-term memory when we sleep, so cramming all night is no guarantee you’ll actually remember the information on paper.
Finally, remember that as stressed as you are now, it’s just one finals week of the many you will experience in college. If it doesn’t go as well as you want it to, take a deep breath and keep trying your best next quarter.
ABOVE: The stacks in Wilson Library will be much busier come finals week. Photo by Ricky Rath // AS Review.