If you’re like me or most other college students, finals season brings about a specific feeling: stress. Stressing over final exams is likely one of a student’s most common and expected experiences during finals week.
It may seem obvious and like something part of being a student. However, it might be worth considering how to manage stress and prioritize your mental health during this time.
Some of the most common causes of stress during finals season are feeling inadequately prepared for exams and feeling like you don’t have enough time. One way to combat these feelings is to evaluate your organizing methods. Understandably, you may have little time to revamp your organization system completely, but the inefficiencies in planning things out could be worth noting. You might be over- or underdoing things.
I’m guilty of not writing out the due dates of assignments and exam dates and just relying on my memory to help me keep track of what I need to do. Though this has worked many times, I’ve found a difference in my stress levels after switching to writing down what I need to do. Taking the time to write down what I need to accomplish instead of “storing” it in my memory has helped me focus on studying/completing assignments. I don’t feel the burden of my other tasks while focusing on one, and I feel accomplished after checking off each task.
It could also be worth considering scheduling time for studying/completing assignments.
You could also be on the other end of things and be more efficient in organizing. If you find yourself consistently anxious when you look at your schedule/calendar, consider simplifying your methods or spreading out your tasks over a longer span of time and only focusing on things you need to do within a given time, such as a day or span of hours.
Speaking of anxiety, it is worth considering what you could do to take care of your wellbeing during this time. This idea is a cliche yet underrated topic. When speaking of wellness, one might think of things that might seem uncomfortable or odd to them, such as journaling or meditating. However, wellness is much more than going out of your way to do something you’ve never tried before. Being mindful of your wellness also means remembering to drink water, stretch, get enough sleep, and do simple things that you might need to be reminded to do when focusing on schoolwork and possibly neglecting yourself.
Since Calhoun is a community college, many students may have other obligations like family or jobs. Given that fact, people may feel like they do not have enough time to study adequately. There are multiple ways one could go about studying as efficiently as possible:
You could try the Pomodoro technique. This involves studying and taking breaks in timed increments.
Some common forms of this involve studying for 25 minutes, taking a 5-minute break, then having a 25-minute break after around four rounds, and continuing to do that for however long you’d like to study. This study method helps maintain focus on something and then have small breaks in between to avoid mental fatigue. There are multiple YouTube videos/websites that’ll allow you to do this at a variety of different times.
Multiple apps/extensions, such as Flora and Forest, motivate you to avoid distracting apps such as social media and games. The app implements the Pomodoro method and involves planting virtual trees, and the more you stay on task, the more your plant grows. If you break your period of productivity, your virtual tree dies. There is also an option to put an amount of money in, and if you kill your plant before the given amount of time is over, you will be charged that amount.
One should also consider the type of material that they’re studying. If studying a subject that requires rote memorization, such as biology, sociology, or history, focusing on spaced repetition programs such as Quizlet or physical repetition might be more efficient. This method may be more beneficial than passive learning forms, such as reading textbooks or watching videos.
For more conceptual subjects, such as math, physics, and chemistry, it might be more beneficial to do plenty of practice problems. These subjects require the application of formulas/concepts to solve problems, and getting practice in these things is often the most efficient way to grasp the concepts sufficiently.
Finals week can be a very stressful time, but being mindful of your habits can help you both academically and mentally.