Finals? Don’t Stress!

For many college students, finals are leering over you. Some of you might have already taken it or are in the middle of them. The most important thing about finals is don’t stress. You probably already have prepared for this or have been preparing. Even if it isn’t last minute studying or an intense study session with your classmates, you have been studying throughout the entire semester and have been absorbing the knowledge from the beginning of the class.

Of course, there might have been times where you weren’t quite been paying attention or were out of class that day. That’s fine. Those are the parts really study for and briefly go over before going into the testing area. However, stressing beforehand can lead to panicking, which definitely leads to test anxiety, which can really mess you up. It occupies a whole lot of brain power and keeps the adrenaline pumping which you don’t need.

Personally, I always have taken my studies and finals pretty seriously. I would study a month in advance, going over my notes and previous assignments sometimes redoing the ones I didn’t do too well on. I would also try to go over my previous tests and redo the questions I missed.

One thing I learned was to always read comments that my professor is left on my test and essays. If your professor took the time to write it down it’s probably a good idea to read it. Those left me a lot of clues as to what they were looking for when they were grading. If you keep on top of those previous assignments and keep your professor’s notes in mind, then you should do pretty well on your test.

What you want to do is go over those topics you missed or that you don’t feel too confident about. If you do this you’re going to be much more relaxed because once you know that you’ve done the studying it’s all a matter of regurgitating it all on paper or typing it depending on what kind of test your professor gives. Just relax.

Before the day of the exam make some time to just meditate, or lay down and breathe your body completely relaxed. After a few minutes, you can continue to relax, mentally go over your notes, or just put yourself on pause.

Make sure that you have all the materials that you will need the night before. Pencils, paper, eraser, extra pencils, etc. but make sure you pack them. That way, you just need do a quick once-over in the morning.

What acing an exam really boils down to is preparation. You do the work in advance and it kind of just all falls into place. You don’t have to worry too much about the next step if you have already prepared the steps before that. I wish you all the best!