To My Finals-Week Self,
It’s me (well you) during that dreaded period of the semester… finals week, also known as a point in time where students usually find themselves overloaded with work as they prepare for tests. What signifies the last week of the semester also causes the largest amount of stress among college students. But don’t worry, since I went through it already I’m here to guide you through the entire process.
Here’s the extra motivation you need to succeed this upcoming finals week:
The first thing to initially keep in mind—everyone’s finals week experience differs drastically depending on your major and the classes you take that semester. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll take sit-down exams; some finals in your class may involve you taking an exam, but others may require writing a paper instead. You may need to work on a group project to present to the class, write up a lab report, or create an end of the semester short film.
Clearly, as you can see, a “final” in college can vary and you can expect to complete many different types of assignments. This serves as a good thing, considering everyone’s style of learning varies as well. Not everyone excels at test taking and it may not seem most suitable for certain majors or careers to require a formal sit-down exam.
Remember, everyone possesses different strengths and weaknesses.
If you don’t have a preferred learning style, benefits still exist for undergoing different types of finals. Even if you consider yourself a decent test-taker, you may find it easier to prepare when only studying for one or two finals compared to multiple finals at once. However, you’ll most likely need to do other types of assignments in place of the exams.
Luckily for you, this semester you only had one sit-down exam for a final, unlike in previous semesters when you took more exams. Your core classes generally did that more compared to your classes for your major. I won’t spoil anything in terms of your grade outcome, but I will tell you what you got done. For finals this semester, besides the one exam, you were assigned a PowerPoint to present to the class, a final essay on the book you were reading, a final news article on campus life that you needed to write (similar to what you do with College Magazine) and a final video project/ short film. Heads up on the last one, you put a lot of hard work into your video project and it came out amazing… everyone loved the way it turned out in the end.
As your post-finals week future self… here’s some advice to keep in mind as finals season approaches:
College students often times find themselves very busy during finals week. With a lot of work to get done all at once, you anticipate that going in. We all know this. So, my first piece of guidance for you— know how much of each type of assignment you need to do for each class. When it comes to finals week you need to know exactly what you need to complete. This entails knowing how many of each type of assignment you can expect when the end of the semester arrives. This will help you plan out your studying while helping you prepare what materials or equipment you will need (you may need to purchase them ahead of time).
My second piece of advice, write down the due dates of your finals. Whether uploading the essay to Canvas or Blackboard, or writing down the day of your final exam, you need to know when each one takes place or must be submitted by. Another thing about finals: you may find overlaps. Unfortunately, classes don’t always coordinate with each other. You may have two or three sit-down finals on the same day, or two papers due on the same day. Writing down the dates helps you plan out your time so you never miss anything by accident. You can either purchase a planner, write out the due dates digitally on your phone or laptop calendar, or set up an alert. Imagine putting in all that hard work studying or essay drafting just to end up getting a failing grade for no good reason other than you missing the deadline because you mixed up your due dates. *Talk about tragic.*
Major warning: Don’t let this happen to you.
Thirdly, don’t wait until the last minute. Procrastinating may sometimes seem inevitable, but cramming information the night before won’t help anybody. Coming from your future-self, take it from me when I say it’ll only make matters worse and more stressful for yourself. In college, an advantage includes receiving a syllabus for each course, so, make use of them. It’ll help you tremendously. Obviously, things change throughout the semester, but even just a general idea of what lies ahead helps. Giving yourself a heads up for what needs to get done allows for more study time (which will help with memorization), more time for group collaborations, more time to write that paper and more time to shoot or edit your footage. If you need to make flashcards for an upcoming exam, I recommend the website Quizlet. You can sign up and make an account for free.
My final piece of advice for you (pun not intended)— remember to take care of yourself. Final’s week proves itself to be a rough time for students, filled with stress. However, you still need to prioritize your health. Make sure you get plenty of rest and eat properly, especially the day of the final. You don’t want to put in all that hard work just to feel tired or hungry the morning of. If you know your final exam schedule, make a study plan (and study guide) early. It’ll avoid a lot of these problems. You can achieve the unthinkable by allowing yourself personal free time to hang out with friends, even in the midst of finals week.
Trust me, it may seem hard now, but remember the reason for all this madness.
Finals week…. Definitely a stressful time, but you’re doing this to further your education, graduate college and receive your diploma come commencement day. In the long run, all your hard work will pay off if you just stay focused on the end goal. Remember, each final checked off the list means one final closer to winter break—which means a well-needed, deserved month off from school.
Good luck and remember to believe in yourself.
