Finals week is often filled with anxiety and unwanted pressure to do the best you can. However, with this pressure comes the lack of sleep, poor eating habits, no social life and a slew of other emotionally, mentally and physically degrading and depressing side effects. All of this can be avoided by simply starting to study about weeks ahead, so when finals week comes your all prepared. But not all of us are good at getting things done early. A lot of us, including myself, are, at different degrees, procrastinators. Which means we will wait till the last possible moment in order to get our homework or studying done, but that may not be the wisest way to prepare. Here is a list of five things procrastinators, or anyone else studying, should do to prepare for finals:
1. Don't procrastinate
There are two weeks until the end of the semester, which means there's at least a good week of studying before finals are here. Take the next week and study for the finals you think you need more work on. A recommendation though, only study the material that you struggle with the most. Studying the stuff you already known won't improve your grade.
2. Avoid cramming at the last minute
There's nothing like staying up late the night before a final in order to make sure you have reviewed as much as humanly possible. But take my advice from personal experience, cramming doesn't work. The only thing cramming will bring is lack of sleep, food and exhaustion. All of these will help you fail, or at least do poorly, on the big test. Plus, barely any information is retained by cramming. So save your grade, and sanity, by not being that person.
3. Eat well
An empty stomach makes most people irritable in any situation, so why would you have one during one of the biggest tests of the year? The same goes for junk food. I don't know if it's just me, but junk food normally makes me feel bad inside. If you want my advice, eat something your body will enjoy like fruits and vegetables or a nice home cooked meal. You won't regret it.
4. Get plenty of sleep
Let's face it, being exhausted while going into a final will not help your grade. It will either make you irritable or hard for you to focus on the task at hand. Both of these situations are bad, but by getting plenty of sleep you can ensure yourself that you are awake, perky and ready to go for whatever your teacher decides to throw at you. So forget those late night study sessions and get a good night's rest. However, if you don't then your grade could be affected and not in the good way. If you still resist getting sleep before a final then answer me this, do you still think you can ace that test when the lack of sleep has made your mind blurry? Didn't think so.
5. Have a little fun
Staying at home for hours on end doing absolutely nothing except studying sounds like something out of a horror movie. Instead, go out with friends for a few hours doing whatever you feel like doing, as long as it's not dangerous or illegal of course. The point though is to take your mind off of studying and give it a rest. From my personal experience, this has done wonders for my grades and studying. However, you don't have to go out with friends, you can always go out exercising or to the gym. Whatever you do, give yourself a much needed mental break in order to recuperate. This will also help you study better by having a clear, well rested mind.
