finishing the semester strong

Finishing Off the Semester Strong

As the school year is coming to a close, it’s easy to start getting lazy and start getting excited for summer break. It’s hard to stay motivated and focused, even though the hardest part of the semester is usually at the end, due to the pain in the ass final exams.

I used to dread this time of year. Even though I felt like I always busted my ass during the semester, I felt like there was always one final that really determined whether or not I passed the class or not. There were usually more than one class actually, sometimes two or three. These were feelings I didn’t enjoy. They used to stress me the hell out until I started utilizing some tips and keeping some useful things in mind.

Here are those things.

1.) Prioritize

Whether you have a few weeks remaining, or a few days, it is important to make sure you prioritize wisely. If you have a strong A+ in a course, and a D- in another, then it would probably be smarter to focus more of your time studying on bringing up that horrible D-. Even if you’re in a crappy situation where you need to study a whole textbook in one week for an exam, you should still take some time to create a prioritized list on how you plan to do that. I remember I was in this situation before, so I broke the textbook down into sections to fit the number of days I had remaining until I had to take this wack ass final exam. I would dedicate each day, solely to the section of the textbook and really study the crap out of it and download all that information into my brain.

2.)Study With Classmates or Friends

Obviously when you do this, don’t study with your friends that you can only goof around with. Find a group of friends or classmates that you know are dedicated to successfully completing their semester, or dedicated to saving themselves from failing out of college. Studying with a group has many benefits, especially if these people have the same course as you. If you are having trouble understanding a chapter, you guys can collaborate as a group and really help each other get a better understanding of it. Also, it also helps finals time to be less stressful when you have a solid support group around. Again, it is important to make sure you’re not studying with a group of friends that you only goof around with. I spent one finals week, attempting to study with all my funny friends and I almost failed out of college.

3.) Flashcards

This is something that I utilized a lot when I was in college. It might not work for everyone but I really liked using flashcards especially for courses that required a lot of memorizing. I think it helped because of the constant repetition of drilling down vocabulary words. Obviously this might not work for everyone, but if you haven’t tried it yet, you should definitely try. Studies have shown that this does work, so I hope it works for you.

4.) Talk With Your Professor During Office Hours

This is something that you should be doing throughout the semester. If you happen to be failing a course and then you go to your professor at the end of the semester, I’m sure they won’t be too motivated to want to help you. Regardless, if you’re in a situation where you’re worried about a course, you should definitely at least try to speak with your professor about any advice that they might have for you. Maybe you feel that your grade is so low that you will have no choice but to retake it next semester, because you feel like there is no way to get a passing grade. It would be better to confirm that with your professor, rather than assume and give up on the course.

With this being said, if the professor made it clear that they don’t want you to speak with them at the end of the semester if you’re failing, maybe you should steer clear. I remember I had a 40% in one of my courses and I went to my professor during her office hours to ask what I can do to pass the course despite the fact that the following day was the last day of the class. I didn’t have the best experience. I’m sure the professor might have felt a bit insulted as well. She probably felt that I had no respect for her course. So, if this isn’t a helpful tip, perhaps it can be a lesson for the following semester, to really utilize the office hours early on in the semester.

5.) Remember that the hard work will pay off. Visualize

If you’re in a situation where you’re staying up all night in order to cram for a test tomorrow morning, just remember, it’s almost over. Remember that after this final, assuming it’s your last one, you will be on break and able to celebrate and enjoy a great summer. Imagine that feeling of checking your school portal to view your grades, and seeing an A on there. Visualize success and let that motivate you.

This might sound corny as hell, but during the last stretch of finals week, I would usually picture myself as Lebron James or Kobe Bryant, in a Game 7 of the NBA finals. I might even watch clips on Youtube of them really pushing through the final minutes of some of their big games to lead their team to championships. I don’t know why but these clips motivate me during finals week. Maybe you should try it out.

6.) Take Care of Your Mental Health

I know this might be difficult to do during this stressful time, but remember, your mental health is important. I would highly recommend you try to exercise a little bit, despite how busy you might be. Try to eat healthy as well. Junk food can really make you feel like crap. Utilize the school’s resources. I’m sure they will have stress relieving events during finals week, to help with all this pressure. Your mental health is more important than these finals.

These are all personal tips. They might not be helpful or beneficial to you, but they’re things that I kept in mind when I was in college. I hope you kick finals in the ass and I hope you have an enjoyable summer break.