My Favorite Strategies for Finals Week
Finals week is the most stressful time of the semester for students. There are high-stakes final projects, papers, or exams left in multiple courses, and the lack of structure regarding how to prioritize your time makes it that much more challenging to manage. This week is the perfect storm for feeling overwhelmed and stressed about schoolwork.
Because this time of the year is so stressful, I wanted to write this short article to help students determine how to make the most of their finals week and reading days so they can end the semester strong.
1) Use Reading Days to your Advantage
If your university provides reading days, you should use them to your advantage. These days are class-free and exam-free, so you have the entire day to use as you please.
I suggest that you use these days to assess where you stand, allocate time each day to outstanding assignments, and meet with faculty or peers to answer questions you have about the material or work collaboratively.
2) Start Studying and Writing Papers Early
The worst thing you can do during this time is to wait until the day before to start studying or begin an assignment for a course. Faculty expect that their assignments and your review of the content begin earlier than the day before the final exam. Starting early will help you to stay calm, get enough sleep, and take care of your physical as well as mental health during this high-stress time of the semester. I encourage you to begin at least 5 days before the due date, but 7 or 10 is even better if possible.
3) Finish at Least 24 Hours before the Due Date
This preemptive ending of your work applies to both papers and studying for exams. For a paper, use the final 24 hours to edit your work, confirm your formatting, and check your citations. If you have a final exam, ideally, the entire 24 hours before the exam should be all review of content. This means you have already put information into your long-term memory, and this is a day to solidify concepts that are more complex and complete additional practice problems.
4) Get into a Routine
If you have an exam in the morning, you should start waking up early at least one week before the exam date. If the exam starts at 8:00 am, you should be studying at 8:00 am, so your brain gets used to being awake and actively pulling information from that content area at the exact time of the exam. This routine will make your exam easier for you to manage.
Along with this routine, you should get at least 7 hours of sleep every single night (see below for reasons for this amount). Allocate this amount of sleep into your daily routine and schedule for finals week.
I also suggest that you integrate some self-care activities into your week's routine. These could include making a gourmet breakfast, going for a walk, talking to a friend, using a face mask, journaling, listening to music, or completing other activities that make you happy.
5) Make a Plan
Finals week, with its lack of structure, can make it challenging to decide what to do, when to do it, and where to start. The best thing you can do is to spend about 30 minutes to an hour making a plan. Although it might initially feel like a waste of time, it will save you a lot of time overall because every instance you sit down to complete work, you will know exactly what to do.
To do this, start by writing all your due dates on a single calendar. If you have any study group meetings, writing center appointments, or faculty meetings, add those to this calendar as well. Then, separately, make a list of the number of hours each course needs to complete the assignments or study. Make sure to overestimate the time each course will need. Then, use your calendar to start distributing hours amongst the days remaining and keeping the day before anything as a review day. I suggest you write the content you plan to cover each day by dividing the course topics or lecture dates and adding the methods you plan to use to approach your work.
As you make your plan, remember to consider sleep, meals, and any meetings. You should not use 18 hours in a single day to study or write papers; I would say do not exceed 6 to 12 hours of studying or completing assignments each day.
6) Use Strong Strategies to Study
I know I have written about this subject previously, but, especially for cumulative exams, you want to make sure that you utilize strong techniques to approach your content. The three that are the strongest to employ are: 1) teaching a friend, 2) studying over time (i.e., starting to study as early as possible), and 3) completing practice exams or problems without looking at the steps or answers.
These tasks help you retrieve this information from your brain. If you get stuck at a certain point, then it is clear you need to review the topic. All three of these strategies help you store information in your long-term memory.
7) Consider the Return on Investment of Time
Time is the most valuable resource when it comes to studying for exams and completing assignments. This means you must allocate this resource strategically to help you reach your goals. So, as you calculate your overall course grade before your final (see my prior post) take note of the percentage your final exam or paper contributes to your final course grade. If there are two grading options for your course, then calculate it both ways.
Once, while doing this with a student, it was clear they were going to get either a B or B+ in their introductory chemistry course, even if they got a 65 on the final exam. Why was this finding important? Now, this student did not have to spend as much time reviewing chemistry and could spend more time studying for a course where the final exam could change their final course grade by 12 to 16 points in the course.
8) Take Care of your Body
Our brains need adequate sleep and food to function. Taking care of your body will help your memory, help you function at a higher level, and make it easier to focus. Have you ever tried to focus in class or on an exam when your stomach is rumbling from hunger? How about when you are so exhausted that you can barely keep your eyes open? Trust me, your exam will not go well in either of those states of mind. I suggest to all my students that they keep a quick snack with them while they are studying, on campus, or before or after a final, just in case they need it.
Conclusion
With the timing of the year in mind, I want to wish you all a strong end to your semester. By following my advice above, you are almost certain to experience a less stressful finals week. I am sure you have done an amazing job getting to this point of the semester, and it is almost summer vacation.
If you have already finished your work this semester, feel free to share this article with a friend who has not finished the semester yet.
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