We are getting to the end of the school year and ready to go into the warm-summer months. Along with the amazing feeling of school ending soon, there are sadly finals. If you don’t have finals, I imagine you have some sort of big project to make up for the dreaded tests. You can never start studying too early when it comes to finals. 

Finals are overwhelming, scary and time consuming. To help with those factors, starting to study early can never hurt. I recommend doing a little each day. Instead of cramming for hours the night before, go to the library or find a quiet place to study for an hour a day. If an hour is too much, study for a half hour. Breaking the time down not only helps you concentrate but also makes obtaining the information easier and less overwhelming.

If you need a quiet place to study I personally love booking a study room at the library on campus. If you live in an apartment building near campus most of them have a place to sit down and study. If you don’t need it to be silent as you study you can go to a cute coffee shop or sit inside one of the halls on campus. I’ve noticed that they’re are a lot of study spots within lecture halls that I didn’t even know about. 

When it comes down to studying, I like to use a planner to keep my classes and plans organized. I color coded mine so that I can easily look at my monthly layout and recognize which dates I have things due on and for what class. This helps me visualize what is due. This also helps me not forget any important due dates. BlackBoard can make it hard to find due dates sometimes so by using a planner and planning your schedule ahead of time, you can hopefully stop possibly forgetting due dates. 

Lastly, to motivate yourself, give yourself a reward. Maybe every time you study for a few hours you go buy yourself a coffee. Maybe after you get a good grade on your finals you buy the pair of shoes you’ve been wanting.

I know whenever I do school work I use it as an excuse to get matcha from Starbucks. It gives me something to look forward to. No one’s going to look forward to an economics project. Instead, associate it with getting a coffee or a snack instead. Or you can write down how many more days we have left until school is out. That keeps me motivated.

Who doesn’t love summer? All in all, give yourself some credit. Studying is not easy, let alone fun. Finals are approaching and you’ve got this. Soon enough, it will be summer and you will be able to be stress free from school. Hang in there and remember you’ve got this.