Mass panic has spread across college campuses all over the nation. Everywhere you look, students are frantically typing away at their laptops, chugging energy drinks and falling asleep in random places. Finals have arrived.

This is true at Kettering University more so than anywhere else. Whereas most students have 16 weeks to master a subject, Kettering students have only 10 to absorb the same material before we begin our three month academic hibernation on work term.

So, how do Kettering students do it? How do we deal with all of the stress and three solid days of exams? While I don’t speak for all Kettering students, I do have some methods by which I try to cope with the pressure of finals.

The most important thing to do during these next few weeks is to maintain your health. Trying to learn two months worth of information in two days is made much more difficult when you’re sneezing, coughing and hopped up on Benadryl.

Make sure you’re eating and staying hydrated. Your body is a temple, and finals week is going to mess with its infrastructure. If you don’t have the time to cook for yourself, at least make sure your diet is balanced.

Avoid fast food at all costs. Not only can it make you sluggish, but doesn’t contain the essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids needed to keep your body functioning properly. It’s not worth the calories, and certainly not your health.

Emergen-C and Zicam your friends. They can prevent a cold and, if taken with the onset of symptoms, they can shorten it. Similar natural remedies include Echinacea, vitamin D, nasal rinses and hot showers.

If your body isn’t already telling you, sleep is important. You won’t be able to function physically or mentally if you’re in the library until 2 a.m. every night. My motto: If you don’t know it by midnight, you’re not going to know it at 4 a.m. Call it a night, get some rest, and try again tomorrow.

It’s important to not mentally overexert yourself. Studying for 5 straight hours sounds like a good plan until hour 3, when you start losing focus, getting frustrated and wandering onto social media. Schedule study breaks. If I plan to study for four hours, I plan 15 minute study breaks for every hour of studying. This could mean one hour of studying, then breaking for 15 minutes to get more coffee, or studying for two hours, taking an hour lunch, and starting back up again. Any way you want to slice it, these breaks will help you to clear your mind and re-focus on the task at hand.

It’s also important to avoid isolating yourself during finals. There have been many a time when I’ve wanted to lock myself in my room, spread my notes out “A Beautiful Mind”-style and send myself into a manic, stress-fueled meditative state of studying. But keeping to myself for so long during a period of high anxiety is not healthy.

Try to stay social, but productive. Study in groups, or go out to lunch with friends. Just recently, some friends and I went out for dinner after our lab got out early. We all agreed to avoid the subject of school, had a wonderful time and got to spend an hour decompressing from the previous week.

All in all, finals are horrible. No one is looking forward to being stressed and having multiple presentations, tests and projects due all at once. But if you take care of yourself and do what you need to do, you can make it out alive. And if you have an opportunity to do something nice for someone at this time of year, please do. As we forge ahead towards those Christmas lights at the end of the tunnel, we could all use a little support.