Finals season is upon us once again and although it may look different this semester, it’s certainly no less stressful. The end of the semester is just days away, and soon the future residents of our Austin student apartments will be hard at work on all the studying, writing, and preparing for finals season (we bet a few of you have gotten started already!). This time of year is often stressful and anxiety-producing even for the most organized students, so we’d like to suggest a few tips that can help you crush it this finals season.
Share this post with all your friends and neighbors at your Austin student apartments who could use a little help getting through finals season (and let’s face it, who couldn’t?). Demanding seasons like these are so much easier if we all help each other out! For now, set yourself up for success by having a quick read through our top tips for finals season!
Schedule Your Studying
You may have put all your finals and due dates on your calendar (if you haven’t yet, do that too), but have you actually scheduled when you’ll be studying? It can feel odd to put unstructured, open-ended tasks like “Study for English Final” on your calendar, but setting an expectation for yourself (and others) about when you’ll be studying and when you won’t can help you be more productive and less burnt out with your study schedule. Be realistic about the time you need for breaks, sleep, and self-care, and schedule those in as well. You’ll feel more productive and have higher endurance for the studying process when you’re intentional about studying and about meeting your other needs too. You are merely human, after all. Take care of yourself, body and mind.
Dissect Large Projects
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you try to focus on every aspect of a large task all at once. It can feel impossible to get enough done when you have something big hanging over you, and that can prevent you from even getting started. Take some time to enumerate separate tasks that are necessary parts of completing the larger task and then put those smaller tasks on your to-do list. Working on these smaller tasks feels more achievable, and will give you that helpful feeling of making progress, even when there’s still a lot of work to do. Breaking large projects into smaller tasks like this also makes it easier to manage your time effectively and schedule your work out on a calendar. In fact, this is a good habit to get into for all your projects, academic and otherwise!
Form a Study Group
Sometimes when we work alone, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, or procrastinate as a way of coping with stress and fatigue. Even during COVID, there are ways to leverage the benefits of studying with a group, whether that’s over a Zoom call or just through a text thread where you and your friends vent and show support. Studying with others helps us feel motivated and allows us to draw on the strength of others in areas where we don’t feel as competent. Being accountable to others and getting their help in return can make all the difference, especially when our notes have blank spots, we don’t understand a particular concept, or we’re just having trouble keeping to a good study schedule.
Utilize Every Resource
Universities, and your professors specifically, often provide lots of resources you can take advantage of around finals season. Take stock of what’s available to you and don’t resign yourself to doing everything entirely on your own. Attend those optional review sessions, visit your instructors during their office hours, and get help at the University Writing Center (they even offer online appointments for when you’d like to get help from the comfort of your UT Austin student apartments). Make sure you’ve communicated with your instructors about disability accommodations too, if applicable.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Seriously, sleep is important. It helps you store the memories you need and stay focused during those long study sessions. And tempted though you may be to pull an all-nighter the night before a final, it’s particularly important to get good sleep before your exams.
With these tips, we know you’ll crush it this finals season! If you’d like to see any future tips and recommendations from us in the future, make sure you bookmark our blog page for easy access to upcoming posts. Finally, if you don’t want to miss out on special promotions, community updates, and events at our apartments near UT Austin, follow us on Instagram!