Written by Mary Beth Hills

smooth mornings

Late nights, 20-minute power naps, empty food packages littering your room…all signs of finals week. On top of doing papers and projects, professors expect you to study for their finals. When you’re staying up all night trying to cram everything in, you need as much sleep as you can get. Read on to get the most amount of sleep and still have a stress-free morning.

Revert to kindergarten: Prepare your backpack the night before and lay out your clothes. Yes, this includes coat, hat, mittens, and scarf for when you’re trekking around campus in the freezing cold. The last thing you want to do is rifle through everything in your (probably messy) room at 7.30am when it’s pitch black and your roommate is still sleeping. Get your backpack and outfit together before bed. “Sometimes I’ll sleep in leggings and pull jeans on over them in the morning so I’m not so cold when I walk to class,” says Abby, a sophomore at Aquinas College.

Don’t worry about looking nice: “You can tell who is an underclassmen during finals week because they look gorgeous and waltz around the library, not at all stressed. Upperclassmen are too busy focusing on finishing 300- and 400-level papers and projects to bother with luxuries like nice hair and makeup,” says Tiffany, a senior. Perfectly coiffed hair, flawless makeup, and stunning outfits go out the window during finals week. Your top priority is finishing papers and projects and studying for tests.

Print out your papers/projects as soon as you finish them: In case you miraculously finish your paper the night before it’s due, print it out ASAP. This ensures: (1) That you have enough paper, (2) your printer has enough ink, and (3) you won’t forget to print your paper before your dash to class if you oversleep. If your printer decides to not cooperate (and come on, we’ve all been there), you have a chance to use a friend’s printer or head to the library to print.

Eat something: You may think you’re too nervous to eat, but try. Your brain needs fuel to function properly, and food is its number one energy source. Look for something with fiber or protein: whole grain toast, cereal, or granola bars are great choices. Resist the urge to stuff a pop tart in your bag; the sugar will make you crash toward the end of your test.

Finals week is only one week in the grand scheme of things. You can make it through!

Written by Mary Beth Hills

Finals week is quickly approaching, and the last thing anyone wants is to be sick during December. Between holiday celebrations, homework, projects, and final exams, no one has time to slow down (least of all a college student)!

Study College Finals

But there isn’t just one kind of “sick”. To stay healthy, you need a successful balance between mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. These three are so intertwined that if one is off balance, the other two will most likely fall out of line.

Emotional wellness is to be aware of your feelings and accept them, or take action to change them. Make a commitment to have a positive attitude about life, but recognize that there are days we are simply down in the dumps. In this case, find ways to pull yourself out of your sad mood! To stay emotionally well:

• Chat with friends and family
• Write in a journal or blog
• Do something you find relaxing for a twenty to thirty minutes each day (reading, knitting, drawing, etc.)

Physical wellness means your very basic needs (food, water, shelter, space, and air) are met. You feel safe and comfortable in your environment. It also means eating right and exercising. To stay physically fit:

• Experts recommend exercising 30 minutes five times a week
• Eat raw, natural food instead of the over-processed junk that comes from a package
• Call campus safety or let a Resident Assistant know if something is amiss on campus.

Mental wellness may be the hardest to define. It does not just mean the absence of a mental disability. Everyone knows how it feels to have an overloaded brain; mental health means managing that and dealing with it in a positive manner. To stay mentally charged:

• Take study breaks
• Make to-do lists and cross things off (so satisfying!)
• Organize your desk, your bed, your room—something If you prove to yourself that you have control in one area of your life, it’s easier to take charge and tackle difficult tasks like a huge term paper

Some students are so eager to get home that they book their tickets to leave the day of their last final. Although it gets you home quicker, it could send your stress level way up. The night before a final, you want your mind set on what you have to study, not about what you have to pack and if you forgot anything. Nor do you want to feel rushed or unprepared. Instead of adding the extra stress, make sure you leave plenty of time for yourself between your last final and when you go home. This will give your mind time to focus its energy on studying and less about what shirt will go with your boots.

I wrote last week about how to survive finals week; I hope those tips helped. My finals week wasn’t as rough as I predicted. I focused on studying and also gave myself time to spend with my friends and did something fun. It’s not always going to be like that, though. Sometimes life likes to throw extra curveballs at us when we are the most stressed, like during finals week. When a crisis happens as you’re supposed to be studying for your tests, it’s hard to keep your head on straight. If you can, assess the situation, see if you can find a solution or if it needs your immediate attention and act accordingly. If it is something unavoidable and serious, just make sure you email your professors and fill them in; they’ll understand.

It can also be hard to go shopping for your family and friends for holiday presents with no extra time. You don’t necessarily need to do much shopping. Most of us surf the web for numerous hours during the day, even when we shouldn’t be. However, if you shop online, it might actually save you time if you’re a good multi-tasker. If you don’t have the money, (as many college students don’t) you can always use your creativity to come up with something to make your friends and family. These things can be as simple as putting your favorite photo in a frame or making a spiffy card to making a scrapbook or something else.

Usually the time you have before Christmas comes is limited. Many of you might be very religious and go to church with your families or practice something else. Sometimes, with everything else going on, I find it hard to believe it’s almost Christmas. Although the commercials and merchandise in stores and the lights on houses remind us it is the season, sometimes it’s hard to feel it. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year, not because of presents or because of the actual day, but because of who I am with. My family being together and healthy is why I like it the most.

Not to mention, I live 30 minutes from Manhattan and the infamous Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Two weeks ago, before finals, my “college family” and I went to go see the tree. It was amazing. I’ve seen it every year since I’ve been in school, but each time it still gives me the same feeling of hope; the hope that this feeling could last forever.

Happy Holidays!

-DeAnna

Finals week may be one of the most stressful weeks of the semester, but slowing down and making sure you take care of yourself will help with your stress level. Whether you go to college or you’re still in high school, these tips will help keep you calm, cool and collected!

One of the first things I’ve learned throughout my years of taking tests and surviving college final week is: getting plenty of sleep before your test. Although I may be a hypocrite, because I often don’t get enough sleep, I do believe getting a good night’s sleep will help you stay focused as well as improve your memory. This is one of the things they teach us in high school- sleep is always the answer.

Keeping your body healthy is another way to improve your mental health and doing well on your exam. If you don’t get sleep and you don’t eat in a healthy way, your body becomes weak and your mind often focuses on these weaknesses.

• Don’t change your eating habits during finals week.
• Always take time out of studying to continue your meal routines.
• Always try and have breakfast before you take your test. I can’t tell you how many times I have been distracted or have felt hurried while taking an exam because I was hungry.

Studying for four or five exams in one week may be tough, but if you manage your time well, you’ll be able to keep your mind intact and successfully prepare yourself for the major exam.

• First off, make sure you know your finals week schedule- what day and time you have your finals. Knowing this in advance will help you map out your studying schedule.
• Estimate how much time you should spend on studying for each final and stick to that plan.
• Also, find a nice quiet place, where you feel comfortable and focused, to study. Doing this will help you retain the information you’re trying to remember and learn.

One of my biggest problems is procrastination. I tend to save papers and studying for the last possible seconds. I have learned from these mistakes. This will not only make you completely stressed out, but it will also alter the integrity of your studying. Don’t let this hurt your grades! You’ve worked hard all semester; you’re on the last stretch, so keep yourself focused.

Although this may be one of the most stressful weeks of the school year, you need to be able to keep yourself calm and confident. Some college students can’t take this much pressure and often feel like it’s impossible to go on. Don’t let that be you. Some of the best tension and stress breakers involve doing things with your friends. I’m not talking about partying. I’m talking about doing little things that will help you relax and have fun! You don’t have to be serious 100 percent of the time. Some of the things I enjoy doing with my friends are:

• Watching movies together
• Playing board games
• Just hanging out and talking
• Going out to dinner or breakfast
• Studying together

Sometimes you need a break from the books and your friends offer the best support and fun, so take advantage of that.

The pressure of doing well may become overwhelming at times. At colleges, it becomes dangerous because there are a lot of other releases that are tempting. Stay away from alcohol and drugs that help you stay up at all hours of the night. Although we may not like to think such drugs exist or that students take them, they do and you have to be careful not to let the pressure get to you.

The number one thing I recommend is to take breaks. Don’t beat yourself into the ground. Make sure you take care of yourself; that’s the most important test you can ace!