It’s that merry time of the year again! The weather is getting colder, the sky gloomier, and finals are upon us! I feel like spring semester finals are less dreary than the fall finals because there’s just more hope in the air. The weather gets warmer instead of colder and there’s the summer just waiting around the corner. Sure, we have winter break and Christmas and New Year’s to look forward to (also Season 4 of Sherlock WOHOO), but I find myself always trudging to get through this last week or so. I know that I can’t be the only one. So this article is dedicated to all the students in need of a lift of spirits as finals draw steadily nearer.

First I find it helps to not panic (says one of the most panick-y people out there). Yes, these exams are big, but no exam is unmanageable if you properly prepare. Just study smart and constantly ask yourself questions that’ll help you gauge where you stand in terms of your knowledge. You’ve tackled plenty of difficult exams before, this is just another. You’ve got this.

Next, sometimes creating a relaxing environment can put you in a studying mood. The library is great and all, but sometimes I just want to sit in my room with a nice-smelling candle and some hot chocolate or tea as I work through difficult material. It sounds trivial, but creating the proper environment can work wonders for productivity.

I also find motivation in feeling like I have actually learned something difficult. It keeps me going. When I work for 20 minutes on an organic chem problem, refusing to look at the answer because I know I can figure it out and then I get that answer right, I’m ecstatic and I want to master more difficult problems. I don’t know about this one though, it might just be my crazy ways of studying and my brain desperately trying to reward itself for actually doing something.

There’s also a very tiny part of me that finds joy in gathering those stacks of paper together and putting them in order to study. There’s a little pride in looking over material and being able to say “Hey, that kinda looks familiar” which indubitably helps motivate me to look at it.

The sense of “hey I’ve almost survived another semester but there’s just this exam between me and total freedom” also helps push me to getting the exam just over and done with so I can go back to carelessly laying on the couch all day. Nah, I’m kidding. This year I’ve actually put together a list of things I want to do over winter break so I avoid the couch-sitting. The list made me really excited and imagining myself being out and about and doing things that don’t involve chemical mechanisms or thinking about evolution or the design of a psychological study or how a comic makes an audience laugh with dark humor, or (ESPECIALLY) how to vowel an Arabic sentence thrills me.

All in all, I don’t know how useful this article was in getting you motivated for finals season. But if all else failed, I hope the gifs were amusing.

Happy Finals, friends!