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Ten
tips to avoid stress during finals
By
Krystle Ralston
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing writer
Like it or not, here it is: finals week.
College students everywhere lock themselves
in their rooms with an espresso machine
and aromatherapy candles. They either go
blind from the light on their computer screen
or develop carpel tunnel syndrome from making
flashcards on Post-It notes. It’s
all work and no play, but, at the risk of
sounding like my mother, work can be fun
— sort of.
• Sleep. If it feels
like someone’s punched you between
the eyes multiple times, give in to temptation
and go to bed. Staying up until 11 p.m.
or midnight to study is one thing, but studying
straight through until an hour before your
test is just stupid. You’re no good
to anyone if you can’t remember what
name you’re supposed to write at the
top of your Scantron. The brain is much
more useful when it has time to process
all the information you’re feeding
it by the second. If you don’t believe
me, and you end up falling asleep halfway
through your biology exam and start doing
your freight train snore, don’t say
I didn’t warn you.
• Work out. When
the words start to blur together and you
can’t tell if you’re reading
about the government of Brazil or a recipe
for chocolate chip cookies, it’s time
for a breather. Just a friendly jog can
release the endorphins needed to help the
mind focus better and think more clearly,
which may come in handy during finals week.
Pilates and yoga, which are both awesome,
can be done in the comfort of your home
if you’re afraid people will laugh
at your unique jogging style.
• Music. A good friend
has recently brought me into the world of
classical music that I paid little or no
attention to for the past 20 years. It’s
not just for old and stuffy people anymore.
Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Beethoven are some
of the few individuals who have the ability
to chill me out when I’m ready to
break. The beautiful melodies allow me to
gather my thoughts and not become distracted
by the sound of metal crashing and piercing
screams, which can describe some of my other
music collections. Trade in your Nirvana
and System of a Down for just one week and
I promise you won’t regret it. You
may even expand your horizons and start
listening to it after finals, because I’d
never thought I would say it, but classical
music kind of rocks.
• Location. Pick
a place to absorb an entire semester’s
worth of information that doesn’t
include your roommate playing Grand Theft
Auto or your younger sister’s tea
party with 10 girls under the age of five.
Small and secluded areas aren’t reserved
just for psychos and freaks, so find a place
underneath a tree or an old room in your
house where your mom hides all the baby
pictures to show your boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Pace. I don’t
care how good it feels or how much time
you think you have. It’s almost never
enough. Don’t be a moron and wait
until the night before to jam four month’s
worth of information into your poor and
helpless little brain. Most professors are
cool enough to give you a study guide that
tells you exactly what to focus on. Type
out your notes ahead of time so when you
finally do find the energy to start studying,
all the things you need are already waiting
for you. Next time, remember to set aside
an hour a day at least a week and a half
before your tests to begin to cram.
• Time for you. So
many students overlook this one because
they are so blinded by probabilities and
history timelines. There is room in every
student’s life for nothing-time. Whatever
qualifies for your quirky personality: knitting
your baby brother new socks, watching the
daytime soap opera you mock but secretly
adore or writing the comic book that’s
your backup plan for fame in case pre-med
doesn’t work out. Doing the things
you love never fails to lift one’s
spirits, and students can definitely use
a little help with that during this particular
week.
• Be Healthy. OK,
not to sound like mom, but eat your fruits
and vegetables. The girl who eats a bowl
of fruit right before a test will definitely
have more energy and motivation to think
than the girl who eats a chocolate Pop-Tart.
And don’t be a dork and skip breakfast
altogether. That’s even worse than
the Pop-Tart, and you will be sitting in
class filling in your little bubbles while
your stomach sounds like a science experiment
from the lonely emptiness it’s feeling.
• Group study. As
well as I study on my own, sometimes the
help of some fellow geniuses can do the
trick even better. Especially when I can’t
read my own handwriting (it happens more
often than it probably should) and one of
my friends’ writing resembles that
of a normal person. Group study allows for
discussion and exchanges of ideas you never
even considered, not to mention that if
you all study the wrong chapter, you can
be miserable together once you get your
tests back and realize it.
• Organize. Call
me a nerd, but if I’m attempting to
analyze Shakespeare or Beowulf, I will focus
more clearly if the past three weeks of
laundry are not hiding my desk from me.
Take this opportunity to clean out your
desk of old test papers and essays, which
can be helpful when studying for exams.
Cleaning can be very therapeutic, and doing
something physically productive can help
motivate a person to be productive mentally.
Side note: if it looks important, do not
throw it away. Every time finals come around
I see at least one poor soul digging through
the trash for the one piece of paper he/she
that has with all the test questions on
it.
• Plan upcoming freedom.
It’s OK to look towards the light
at the end of the dark tunnel that is final
exams. I’m turning 21 this summer
and I have plans mapped outleft and right.
Thinking about how you want to celebrate
your freedom might help you realize that
working that much harder will bring you
that much closer to the summer fun you crave.
There you are, 10 surefire ways to make
that pesky concept called studying just
a little easier. They won’t make finals
completely painless, but it sure beats the
Prozac and Red Bull you use to stay up for
48 hours straight. Be safe and work hard,
because the’sooner you can do that,
the sooner you can play hard.
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