Counseling & Testing Center’s finals week survival guide

“This major can be very stressful when finals come,” Bowling Green senior John Perry, a graphic design major, said. Perry’s finals started this week because of projects he must work on for his exam.

Counseling & Testing Center

Take this advice, just not literally! This is a somewhat humorous attempt at sharing helpful ideas for your upcoming finals week. 

Give up now!! Give up the idea that finals are horrible exams that must be tolerated. Some students actually find finals week to be exciting. Kind of like an athlete that looks forward to getting into the game; students can be excited about getting into an exam and showing off their skills.

Drink heavily!! Drink a lot of water and juice to stay hydrated and to get your vitamins, anti-oxidants, etc.  Watch out for too much caffeine. Too much caffeine interferes with memory, comprehension, sleep quality and can also lead to irritability and lack of concentration. 

Goof off!! As much as you are studying you also need to be playing. Recreation and exercise improve your capacity to concentrate, they help you manage tension and anxiety, they are good outlets for social support, and they improve your stress tolerance. 

Knock yourself out!! Good sleep is vital to finals week.  Start getting good sleep before finals week and keep it up during finals week. Pulling all nighters may seem like a normal thing to do but most students that are successful in college figured out a long time ago that it is better to study ahead of time and get your sleep. 

Cheat!! Don’t wait until finals week to study, sneak in some study time now. Lay out all the material that you have that will be on the test. Spend 15 minutes a day going back over it and reminding yourself what is was about. A little studying each day now will be a whole lot better than doing it all in the last week.

Throw away your highlighters!! Highlighting your textbooks does nothing but make the pages look shiny.  To learn something you have to use it; coloring it yellow doesn’t count. Put a checkmark next to the words, sentences, charts, etc. that are important and then go back and quiz yourself. Don’t repeat it back to yourself, tell yourself a story about what you marked. Rote memory might have worked in high school, but in college you have to know the stuff.

Get a big head!! Now isn’t the time to doubt yourself.  You made the cut when you were admitted. College can be challenging but thousands of people graduate every semester. Calm down, think about how far you have come so far, and imagine being one of the thousands that graduate. All you have to do is study, know the stuff and show off on the test. Imagine you are the instructor when you are taking the test and let your answers be like your lecture, imagine you are explaining your answers to a class of students, tell your story about the material. 

Do: laugh, share, talk, eat chocolate, work out, study each day and eat good foods.

Don’t: freak, withdraw, rely on stimulants, count on luck or think that you work better under pressure.

This was sent to the Herald from the Counseling & Testing Center. The information is part of a handout they use to help students have fun with the idea of getting ready for final exams.