by: Tiffany Smock
As the fall semester winds down, our stress level goes up. With finals, projects and papers there is no such thing as free time for a college student this time of the year. Many of us are ready to be done with classes and anxiously await the day of our last final to head home. However, from my personal experience sometimes my motivation decreases as the semester comes to a close. I get so burned out from my busy schedule that I'm ready for break to begin as well. This type of thinking can lead to problems, and as I experienced my freshman year, lower performance on final exams.
So how do you keep your motivation level high and your sanity during the stressful time that is finals? An article from cityofcollegedreams.org gives 10 easy tips for students to follow, but I'm only going to touch on 5.
1. Embrace the anxiety: It's important for you to acknowledge the fact that you are stressed, don't try to ignore it.
2. Sleep: Now I know being a college student this is a foreign word to us, but it is perhaps the most important tip for surviving finals week. Sleep not only keeps you focused, but it also helps with your health and decreases your stress level.
3. Take a Break: You cannot study for 6 hours straight and expect to retain everything. Studying nonstop does you more harm than good by increasing your stress level and overloading your brain. You are more likely to forget things you studied unless you take an occasional break. Do something fun like read a book, or surf the web, or call home. Make sure you do something that you like to enjoy to help you relax and take your mind off of things.
4. Grab a Healthy Snack: Healthy Body = Healthy Mind. If you neglect the health condition of your body, your mind will suffer too. While it's a given that we all will be drinking large amounts of coffee and energy drinks to keep ourselves going in the studying process, it's surprising how eating healthy foods can produce the same results. By choosing a healthier option, such as a piece of fruit or juice, you can give your body the fuel and nutrients it needs to stay healthy and keep you at your best performance.
5. Ignore the Celebrating Students: This is probably the hardest tip of all to follow. We've all had those friends who get finished with finals early and start celebrating and telling everyone how they get to go home. It's easy to get distracted and lose focus when friends are doing this. I know that it's hard, but try to ignore it and keep studying and don't worry, you'll get your time to celebrate too!
Good luck to everyone on their final exams and if you want to read the other 5 tips here is a link to the article.
http://www.cityofcollegedreams.org/blogs/staci-and-barbara/10-tips-maintain-your-sanity-during-finals
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