How to Make It Through Finals to Your Well-Deserved Winter Break

By Ian Donnelly

The air is getting crisper, and the days are getting shorter, which means that Winter Break is almost here! The last day of the semester is so close you can almost taste it, but there’s still one last hoop that every student has to jump through—the dreaded finals week.

A brutal bombardment of exams and due dates is nowhere near the top of anyone’s holiday gift list, but that won’t stop your professors from dishing out a hefty bulk of papers, presentations, and exams that will have a significant impact on your final grade. You’ll need to be on your A-game to ace all your final assignments, which is why we’ve put together a sure-fire strategy that will get you through finals and have you kicking back on Winter Break in no time!

Know Your Plan Like the Back of Your Hand

Every college coordinates its finals week differently. Your Psychology exam may be scheduled at your usual class time, but it could be scheduled on a different day, or hour, or in a whole new classroom.

It can get a little confusing, so it’s best to sit down and lay out your exam schedule ahead of time. Write out your schedule, then write it out again on a sticky note. Then write it again, and again, and put those little reminders up wherever you’re sure to see them. Remember—missing a final is the easiest way to fail your class and throw away a whole semester’s worth of hard work.

Take the Time to Prioritize

Once you know when and where your finals are scheduled, you can prioritize your studying. Keeping deadlines in mind, it’s always good to start final papers, presentations, and projects early—they can quickly become a long-term behemoth of work if you don’t get a handle on them from the get-go.

For exams, be sure to give yourself enough time with each subject. When you’re planning out your review schedule, take a quick look over your syllabus, notes, and study guides for each course. They will give you an accurate estimate of how much study time you’ll need to ace your final.

Perfect the Technique

There’s studying, and then there’s effective studying. The difference between the two depends on your individual learning habits, but there are a few guidelines that are universal for hitting the books. No matter what your personal study routine is, it’s important to work in a quiet environment that has minimal distractions. Try to find a place that you can go every time you study—the more you habitually use the same spot to review, the easier it is to find your concentration.

If you haven’t quite pinned down your personal studying technique, a tried and true review method is the “Read it, Write it, Say it” rule. It’s the best way to commit information to memory, and it’s easy to simple to your study routine. When you’re reading over your notes and course materials, pull out the key points of a subject and re-write them. Next, say them out loud. This helps cement important information in your memory, making it easier to remember when you’re trying to answer a question on your final exam.

When the Going Gets Tough, Take Breaks

It may be hard to believe, but studying non-stop isn’t helpful. Straining your brain makes it harder to retain information, and if you don’t take breaks to eat, sleep, and get some exercise, you won’t be able to recall anything come exam time.

You don’t have to take our word for it—just Google “study break,” and you’ll find countless studies that demonstrate the importance of giving your mind a well-deserved breather. In order to truly grasp information, the brain needs time to absorb what it’s learning, so make sure you structure your study schedule to accommodate a short break every hour or so to keep you focused and fresh.

Switch Into Ghost Mode

Staying off social media for an entire week may send a chill down your spine, but it’s on our list for good reason—for most students, social media is the biggest studying distraction. It’s just so easy to take a peek at your feed and get lost in an endless scroll of posts and pictures. If you can muster enough willpower, keeping away from your profiles during finals is the best way to keep your studies on track. We personally recommend temporarily deleting all social media apps from your smartphone.

That being said, we know you live in the real world, and social media is fact of life nowadays. If you’re not ready to give it up all week, you can still limit it by turning social media usage into a reward. After a day of productive studying, give yourself a set time for scrolling. For example, allow yourself ten to fifteen minutes of social media downtime before you turn in for the night. Be aware of “just for a moment” syndrome. If you don’t stick with your timed reward system, it can lead to an entire sleepless night of watching cat videos or scrolling through thousands of memes.

And there you have it—all the tools you need to tackle your finals. As long as you stick to the plan, and put these strategies into practice, you’ll be basking in the glory of your Winter Break before you know it!

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