At the time of writing this article, it’s about time for students of all majors to take their finals and wrap up the fall semester, which means one thing: it’s crunch time. A time when students who have been breezing through the semester are suddenly found in library study rooms, eyes bugging from overconsumption of coffee, bags under their eyes heavy enough to drag their face toward the books they’re leaning over. And that is by no means limited to the students who have been coasting: even the most disciplined students may find themselves overcome by stress as they try to cram, memorizing things that they may already know just to make sure they don’t tank their grades last minute.
Generally, college students today are experiencing much more stress than their predecessors, and the goal of this article isn’t to break down all of the myriad reasons why: we’ll save that for the sociology majors. This article aims to prepare you instead to handle crunch time in a way that isn’t detrimental to your mental or physical health, or at least less detrimental. So without further ado, let’s get into it: here are some tips to help you make it through finals week without making your crippling depression even worse.
Ease Up on the Coffee
Yes, yes, coffee can be a helpful tool to make it through late-night study sessions when you’re trying to memorize an entire textbook of material in a few hours. It can also raise your anxiety levels and make it impossible for you to get the sleep you need, helping you push yourself to an unhealthy place. Coffee in moderation isn’t a bad thing, but having a triple-shot espresso at three in the morning just so you can memorize one more chapter before crashing is not a good idea, as the resulting sleep deprivation will cancel out the minimal benefit your rapid-fire studying will do anyways.
As a side note, while it’s impossible to avoid rapid-fire studying altogether (as this is crunch week), a more successful strategy for most students is spacing out your studying as much as possible. We tend to learn more over long periods than when we try to learn lots of information quickly, so take advantage of the time you have to repeatedly study the same information over a week instead of a night.
Take Advantage of the Tools You Have
Whether you’re trying to study for a final or working on a massive final project for the semester, a variety of tools and application product interfaces (APIs) can help you out. Digital tools like Quizlet (a cornerstone for most college students, especially those who have had professors that have been around for a long time) make it possible for you to create and share your digital flashcards, where weather APIs like the one at Visual Crossing make it possible for you to accumulate real-time weather data for projects, as well as plan outdoor study sessions by keeping track of current weather data. If you’re having trouble with a particular project or learning via traditional methods of studying, ask other students around you how they’re getting their work done: they may be using a tool you aren’t aware of yet.
Steer clear of essay writing services, however, or any service that offers to do your work for you instead of helping you do your work yourself. What those services don’t tell you is that if you get caught using them, you’ll likely be blacklisted by the academic community: best not to risk it.
Taking Time For Yourself is Key
Make sure you take fifteen-minute breaks every hour while studying, as that gives your brain the minimum amount of time to relax and reset, though you don’t have to take small breaks. Most would recommend taking some time off, hanging out with friends, playing your favorite video games, or doing another hobby you enjoy between cramming sessions. While your stress might lead you to believe taking breaks is counterintuitive, taking breaks allows your mind to relax and absorb the information you’ve fed it: as mentioned above, repeating information over long periods or after short breaks is more likely to make it stick.
Any way you slice it, finals week is bound to be difficult and stressful: the real goal, then, is for students to make sure they get through it without tearing their mental or physical health to shreds. Follow the tips above and find what works for you: once the dust settles and the semester is behind you, you may find that the ordeal has been a lot less stressful this time around.
