As the end of the year is rapidly approaching, so are finals. Everyone experiences a rush of emotion when they hear "finals", whether it be excitement for the end of the year, nervousness, or fear for your grades; we've all been through it. The concept of finals has never really made sense to me, I mean we've already tested on the material, right? But, whether we're in favor of finals or not, we don't really have a choice if we'd like to take them. So, here are a couple of tips to aide you during this dreaded week!

1. KEEP ALL YOUR NOTES!

Keeping all your notes is crucial to acing your finals. Your notes will aide you in remembering important information that may have slipped from your mind. Your notes will also help you in making a ‘cheat sheet’ or notecard for your final by giving you the formulas you need. Keep your review guides as well! Review guides will help you with examples and practice. I keep my review guides to help me remember how to start/finish a problem, since they’re mainly practice material.

2. COLOR CODE!

Color coding is honestly my savior. I color code literally everything. For my review guide/finals packets I go through them at first and attempt to finish everything within them and then check my answers with a key. Things I feel as if I’ve mastered and got right without any aide from notes are usually marked with green. Then, things I got right but had to look at notes for help are commonly marked yellow. Finally, the things I got utterly wrong I mark with red. This is extremely helpful in determining what you need for your notecard/cheat sheet! Definitely put everything that you’ve marked red on your notecard/cheat sheet, but yellow and green things can vary depending on the type of person you are. I’m a paper hoarder and I like having something to fall back on so I typically put down every formula and tricks that may help me on my notecard, better safe than sorry!

3. PLAN IT OUT!

My life revolves around planners! I write everything down. My desk is completely covered in post-it notes and small reminders to do stuff. But I found that planning out what you need to get done helps you in the long run. First off, you don’t feel like a totally unorganized mess (is that just me?) and secondly, it helps you remember everything you have to do, which inevitably motivates you to get started and hopefully avoid procrastination. But make sure that when you write something down you actually complete the task too; meaning whatever you write down has to be reasonable. This will really save you the last minute finals anxiety!

4. MAKE NOTECARDS OF SOME SORT!

Making notecards saves my life. It may be time consuming but I promise it’s worth it! I’m more of a pen and paper person when it comes to notes, so I (obviously) color code my notecards for subjects and/or for things I deem necessary. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of writing out the cards, then use a website of docs to help you! I recommend Quizlet.com; I use it throughout the year for vocabulary related stuff. Either way, typing or writing things out will make them stick in your head!

5. CLEAN!

I’ve realized throughout the years that this is so very important. Cleaning out things makes you feel more productive and happy, and therefore puts you in a better mood. I usually clean my workspace and my backpack the week or so before finals because I like working in a nice, clean and open area. But it depends on the person as well, many people prefer to clean their closet or folder or something of that sort, either way, cleaning for even five minutes will make you feel more productive!