If a college semester is compared to a movie, finals week is the climax; everything has led to this moment. The hard work, hours of studying and preparation is about to pay off — only if you follow these tips.
Create a game plan
The Princeton Review offers a guide on how to study for finals, and their first tip is to create a game plan for finals. This means creating a thoughtful, effortful plan for how and when you are going to study for your exams. They say it’s important to schedule specific times to study and set reminders to hold yourself accountable.
Creating a plan can extend to other areas, too. Setting times to take breaks, sleep, eat or anything self-care related is equally as important as consuming the information. A car can’t travel without gas, and you can’t study effectively unless you take care of yourself.
Tie up loose ends
This tip means submitting all assignments so you can solely focus on studying for finals. Since finals is arguably the most important time of the semester, it’s important that your brain isn’t split between tasks. This can help minimize stress, as well.
Tying up loose ends also has another meaning, including getting clarification or other study tips from your teachers.
“I think I find a lot of usefulness in going and asking the professor what they recommend [for help],” said chemistry tutor Aiden McCormick, a junior biology major from Grass Valley, California. “I think getting an idea of what’s [going to] be on your finals is really important.”
This is just as important as studying itself, as your professor is your No. 1 source of information about the class and its content.
Sleep
A critical aspect of self-care is ensuring you are getting enough sleep. Sleep deserves its own category because of how important it is.
Sleep deprivation can lead to a decrease in immune system function, memory and an increase in stress, none of which are ideal for a busy finals week lineup.
Adults need seven hours of sleep, but college students typically get less than that during finals, which averages out at 6.36 hours per night. To combat this decrease in sleep time, this same article recommends avoiding caffeine and alcohol and following a regular sleep schedule, which can be done by setting specific times for you to go to sleep and wake up. This can easily be incorporated into the aforementioned game plan.
Study tips
Robin Lawless, a senior psychology major from Grass Valley who works at the Writing Center on campus, spoke on using active recall as an effective study tool.
“I quiz myself,” Lawless said. “I make up questions, [and] you can even have ChatGPT make questions for you. That way, you’re just actively learning.”
McCormick said another good way to use active recall is by teaching the information to someone else, and this forces you to explain the content in a simple manner that’s easy to understand, and if you can explain it, you can understand it.
Another helpful tip is to annotate your notes, according to Kevin Sanchez-Colocho, an academic adviser for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He says listening to music or chewing gum can also help get you in the mood to study.
Stay positive
Despite the stress, focusing on the long winter break and the upcoming Christmas season can help motivate you to push through finals. Knowing that this is the final step before you can pursue new classes and ideas the following semester can help you press on to the end.
Sanchez-Colocho also spoke about keeping a positive attitude about the exams themselves, which is a final piece of advice before tackling finals week head-on.
“I like to just go in there, and if I know I prepared as best as I could, I’m OK with the result,” he said. “It’s up to you what you want to put out.”
