Surviving Finals Week: Proven Strategies for Acing Exams and Minimizing Stress

Everyone feels anxious about finals week for students, no matter how well you prepared. It can be a rough time with everyone scrambling to cram in a semester’s worth of information in a short period. This leads to the classic late-night study sessions, getting through 6 packs of Red Bull and causing undue amounts of stress and anxiety at the same time.

Yet, if you take a moment to strategize and make sure you pencil in some self-care, you’ll be able to not only ace your exams but also reduce the week’s stressors. This makes it a much more easy time during and after finals week.

Get organized and create an appropriate schedule

The best course of action is to make sure you develop a realistic schedule that you will end up sticking to. You want to be able to put aside time for all the subjects and break them down into specific sections and material. This helps give you a bird’s eye view of everything you need to know and breaks it down into more manageable pieces to achieve. Also, simply by writing everything down, you’ve already begun studying by reviewing what you need to know.

Take it a step further and include in your schedule the number of exams you have, when they are, and the difficulty of each exam. You also want to fully understand the amount of material that needs to be covered for each exam. The only hard part here is being honest with yourself, knowing your learning style, and sticking with it.

Once you’ve developed your rough schedule with all the meticulous points outlined, you can break it down even further. You don’t need to study the whole day before an exam and cause yourself a burnout. Instead, you can study for around thirty to fifty minutes at a time with a 10-minute break in between. This will give you a chance to relax and slowly absorb the information that is needed.

Overall, ensure you’re managing your time as effectively as possible. This is a time to stay level-headed and focus only on what is in front of you: your week’s exams.

Understand and use effective study techniques

To be more specific, make sure that you try out several types of study techniques that will specifically be effective for you. Here are some common options to try and see what works best for you.

Practicing problems can be a very helpful method, and if you put yourself in test conditions with these obstacles, you won’t be so nervous come the actual test day. You want to be able to work through all the issues that may come up on an exam, and this will help to test your understanding of the core concepts of the subjects.

Flashcards are still an effective way of learning that can help keep facts, concepts, formulas, and definitions fresh in your memory. Even producing the flashcards themselves will have you reviewing the topics more intimately, helping you with memorization and conceptualization.

Study groups can also be effective while helping you build out your teamwork skills. You’ll stay motivated and engaged and have a pool of people to speak with in case there’s a problem or a concept you’re having difficulty reviewing.

It’s also a place where you can quiz each other on topics and get more insight into the ideas you’re learning. The collaboration you engage in will help you learn and assure you that you’re not alone in your situation.

Make sure you’re taking care of yourself

This is a big one that people often forget, especially as those exam days are approaching. We feel that we’re still young and our bodies can ‘handle’ anything we throw at them, but that’s far from true. In fact, this is when you need to ensure you’re getting adequate sleep more than ever. Aim for at least a full eight hours of sleep per night, and you’ll start to feel not only rested but also that your cognitive function is vastly improved, rather than trying to pull an all-nighter to learn everything.

On top of that, you also want to ensure that you’re not just reaching for whatever tasty food you can find but eating healthy when possible. This means getting your daily dose of fruits and veggies and maintaining a well-balanced diet. This will ensure you have proper energy levels during your studies and examinations so you never miss a beat. It also means you won’t experience any brain fog from and your mental chemistry will be sharp.

Exercise can help keep your body healthy, reduce stress, and pump you full of positive endorphins. That means you’ll feel more relaxed and be able to study more effectively. Try your best to schedule a fixed amount of exercise each day.

Keep yourself in the right mindset

That means staying positive during finals week. You want to know that no matter what, you put in a lot of effort throughout the semester and that you were able to learn a lot. While exams are important, and so are the grades you receive on them, you need to be proud of what you’ve been able to accomplish regardless. This week will pass, but the knowledge you get can be with you forever.

That also means you need to incentivize yourself to stay motivated, which means rewarding yourself. For example, after you finish each exam, take a break from your studies and do something for yourself only. Take a break and sit back for a moment as you rightfully deserve.

In the end

Exam week will come and go and once it passes it will mark the end of a milestone for you. That means no matter what intense schedule or routine you built for yourself, you can unwind and relax when it’s all over. You’ll be able to enjoy the rest of the semester but also reflect on your academics and on what your areas for improvement are when the next finals week comes around.