Study Tips for Finals Season
Study Tip #1 - Combat Test Anxiety
Get Enough Sleep
Getting 6 hours of less can put you into what’s called a sleep deficit, or lack of sufficient sleep. Having a sleep deficiency can actually make you less sharp mentally, which can negatively affect your performance on tests, even if you spent those missed hours of sleep studying. So it’s very important for you to get all of your studying done so you can get a good night of sleep before your big day.
Study Smarter
Being organized with your studies can help you keep from pulling all-nighters to get all of your studying in and blowing the test because you’re exhausted (see above). How do you study ‘smarter’? Make a list of the most important things you need to learn, in order of importance, and hit the items at the top of the list first. (That way, if you run out of time, you’re mostly covered.) Make a list of all the work you have to do, estimate how much time each item will take, and compare that with the amount of hours you have available; this will tell you if you can carefully read (or just skim), how many times you can afford to revise papers, and other ways to pace yourself so you can get everything done.
Visualize Success
A great way to build your confidence as you fall asleep each night is to visualize yourself taking the tests and doing wonderfully. Detailed visualizations can help you feel like you’re really experiencing something, and visualizing yourself doing well is a way to ‘practice’ success in a way that can actually help you perform better. (Being confident as you take your exams can keep you from choking because of the stress.) Visualizations can also help you to remember facts: you can create detailed scenarios that involve the information you’re trying to remember, and this can help cement the facts in your memory.
Stay Calm
Because stress can impair your memory, it’s important to stay calm before and during tests. While that’s easier said than done, there are several stress relief techniques that can help you calm down quickly whenever you feel overwhelmed. For example, breathing exercises has been shown by research to reduce test anxiety, and can be extremely effective in helping you relax and reverse your stress response in a variety of situations: just take deep breaths, expanding your belly on the inhale, and let the stress come out with your exhales
Study Tip #2 - Safeguard Your Sleep
Avoid Caffeine Binges
One cup of coffee in the morning probably won’t hurt, but powering down caffeine-laden energy drinks can actually make you more tired in the long run because they can affect the quality of sleep you get!
Budget Time Wisely
Be sure you allow yourself enough time to sleep -— schedule in your 8 hours as you would any other important class, appointment, or shift at work.
Don’t Pull All-Nighters
Contrary to what some students may think, staying up all night to study can actually backfire and result in poorer grades!
Study Tip #3 - Maintain Healthy Habits
Eat Right
Your diet can give you the energy you need to keep going, or cause diet-related stress. Be sure you eat a healthy mix of proteins and carbs, and avoid filling on sugar, caffeine and other junk food. You need good fuel right now
Get Enough Sleep
If you’re too tired, you may have trouble learning and remembering what you need to know! Be sure to get quality sleep!
Manage Stress
A little stress keeps things vital and exciting; too much stress can make you feel overwhelmed, and even interfere with the learning process. Be sure to keep your stress level healthy.
Study Tip #4 - Get Organized
Start Studying Early
If you begin studying before you think you need to, you can go at a more relaxed pace, increasing the possibility that you’ll retain what you learn. Because the stress response can make it more difficult to remember certain facts, avoiding the stress of cramming can help you learn more efficiently.
Have a Study Area
If you do most of your studying in the same place, you not only reduce the risk of losing important papers, but you can condition yourself to be more ready for learning when you sit down there. Be sure to pick a place that’s quiet, distraction-free, and clutter-free.
Create Efficient Notes
If you condense the most important pieces of information on a set of note cards that you create for yourself, the act of creating the cards, as well as the ease of using them, can help you to retain the information more easily.
Study Tip #5 - Choose Study Groups Wisely
A study group can provide an enriching experience where everyone shares notes, helping one another to remember important tidbits; it can help you gauge how prepared you are, and adjust your study strategy accordingly; it can push you to remember more, and break up the monotony of hours spent studying. It can also be a muted version of a party where not much gets done and you’re left with less time to get the same amount of work done afterward.
The key to study group success is to choose wisely: Pick the most focused, "together" classmates you have available, and really work at it. You want someone who will know most of the right answers, and push you to reach the same level of preparedness. Quizzing one another while you work out, having snacks on hand, or playing music in the background can keep things interesting and make the session a little more fun, but be careful not to let things slide in to the gray area of gossip, loud music, and other traps that sap the "studying" from the session. Choose a focused, committed group of people to study with will help, but if you find yourself in a study party that has turned into just a party, don’t be afraid to be the one to bring the focus back to academics — or go home and study solo. There will be plenty of time to party after finals — as you celebrate your good grades!
GBU
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