Of course, since I take one class fewer than most people, my exam week crunch is considerably less crunchy than everyone else's. Today I gave an oral presentation in my Arabic class which I thought I did decently in, and I am working on a study guide for my Chem final. Exam week and the week right before is stressful for a number of reasons. Money is starting to wear thin, work is starting to pile up, travel plans need to materialize as soon as possible and most importantly, impending exams force you to regret all your late nights hanging out instead of studying.
I have tried a somewhat new approach to exam week. This may not be new for anyone else, but for me, it's something completely different. I'm going to try to go through exam week without being stressed and letting the anxiety get to me. I am worried about some of my final assignments, but I'm coming to realize that worrying about them will neither help me get them done nor help me do well on them.
I'm going to give some advice about finals week and keeping calm. I am way to much of a head case to follow all this advice, but I figure there will be people out there who can use these tips.
1. Do one thing at a time
You have three papers due on the same day? And then a quiz the next day, and a test and your parents want you to call them about flights home? The only thing you can do is take a deep breath and tackle one assignment at a time. Three papers? Do one full paper, and then the second and then the third. Don't try to spread yourself across three papers because in the worst case scenario you have three mediocre half-done papers. If you do them one at a time, in the worst case scenario you have one or two complete and competent papers. After the first assignments, do the rest in the order that they are due. Tasks that don't take that long should be done first so you can really focus on the bigger and more important ones. And always take care of your travel plans first so you don't have the continued stress of them weighing on your mind.
2. Get Sleep
It doesn't matter when you go to bed at night if you're a night person as long as you're sure you can have at least 6-8 hours of sleep. Ideally you can get 8 hours of sleep a night, but if you really can't anything more than 6 can sustain you for a while. If it's not exam week yet, getting four hours of sleep a night is going to leave you running on empty before you are done with the sprint.
3. Don't Engage in Pre-exam panic
I've seen this type of thing before in high school. I've noticed that people, especially girls, tend to turn into nervous wrecks right before exams. They scream, they yell, they complain about how they're going to fail and they dramatically express anxiety as much as they can. This might work as a motivator and adrenaline source for some people but I see this anxiety as mostly harmful. Before every major test in my life, my dad has given me this piece of advice, "Have Fun". I frequently scoff at this - flashback to Calculus AP - but the words hold some merit. Ignoring the people who want to bring others down with their freak-outs will help you in the long run. Engaging is any form of panic before an exam will make you doubt yourself. Confidence is important in social situations and the same applies to exams.
4. Start Early
Now, this is the tip that will most likely go way over everyone's head but is something I'm surprisingly good at. Start studying for your exams early. Day-before-the-test studying will make you more frantic and induce panic. Thinking about the long-term is important for your life, and if you can't thing about the long term for exams, how will you be prepared for the future?
5. Take Time Off
Take breaks. Go out for coffee, play a board game, do something fun, preferably nothing that will leave you with a hangover. Studying for exams is bad enough without having a throbbing headache or worrying that you will throw up your food. If you live in a beautiful area, about twenty minutes just walking around outside will help clear your head. Today, one of my "breaks" was taking care of my errands related to laundry and mail. If you can pull this off, I advise taking breaks like this, but also make sure to do something that you actually enjoy.
I don't have time to edit this, so I'll just post it. Good luck with exams and pushing forth 'til the end of the semester!
I have tried a somewhat new approach to exam week. This may not be new for anyone else, but for me, it's something completely different. I'm going to try to go through exam week without being stressed and letting the anxiety get to me. I am worried about some of my final assignments, but I'm coming to realize that worrying about them will neither help me get them done nor help me do well on them.
I'm going to give some advice about finals week and keeping calm. I am way to much of a head case to follow all this advice, but I figure there will be people out there who can use these tips.
1. Do one thing at a time
You have three papers due on the same day? And then a quiz the next day, and a test and your parents want you to call them about flights home? The only thing you can do is take a deep breath and tackle one assignment at a time. Three papers? Do one full paper, and then the second and then the third. Don't try to spread yourself across three papers because in the worst case scenario you have three mediocre half-done papers. If you do them one at a time, in the worst case scenario you have one or two complete and competent papers. After the first assignments, do the rest in the order that they are due. Tasks that don't take that long should be done first so you can really focus on the bigger and more important ones. And always take care of your travel plans first so you don't have the continued stress of them weighing on your mind.
2. Get Sleep
It doesn't matter when you go to bed at night if you're a night person as long as you're sure you can have at least 6-8 hours of sleep. Ideally you can get 8 hours of sleep a night, but if you really can't anything more than 6 can sustain you for a while. If it's not exam week yet, getting four hours of sleep a night is going to leave you running on empty before you are done with the sprint.
3. Don't Engage in Pre-exam panic
I've seen this type of thing before in high school. I've noticed that people, especially girls, tend to turn into nervous wrecks right before exams. They scream, they yell, they complain about how they're going to fail and they dramatically express anxiety as much as they can. This might work as a motivator and adrenaline source for some people but I see this anxiety as mostly harmful. Before every major test in my life, my dad has given me this piece of advice, "Have Fun". I frequently scoff at this - flashback to Calculus AP - but the words hold some merit. Ignoring the people who want to bring others down with their freak-outs will help you in the long run. Engaging is any form of panic before an exam will make you doubt yourself. Confidence is important in social situations and the same applies to exams.
4. Start Early
Now, this is the tip that will most likely go way over everyone's head but is something I'm surprisingly good at. Start studying for your exams early. Day-before-the-test studying will make you more frantic and induce panic. Thinking about the long-term is important for your life, and if you can't thing about the long term for exams, how will you be prepared for the future?
5. Take Time Off
Take breaks. Go out for coffee, play a board game, do something fun, preferably nothing that will leave you with a hangover. Studying for exams is bad enough without having a throbbing headache or worrying that you will throw up your food. If you live in a beautiful area, about twenty minutes just walking around outside will help clear your head. Today, one of my "breaks" was taking care of my errands related to laundry and mail. If you can pull this off, I advise taking breaks like this, but also make sure to do something that you actually enjoy.
I don't have time to edit this, so I'll just post it. Good luck with exams and pushing forth 'til the end of the semester!
No comments:
Post a Comment