Avoiding the Finals Bug
Finals finals finals. It’s all that everyone’s been talking about lately because they’ve become our lives. At least they’ve become mine. I’ve gone through two semesters of finals so far and have gotten sick both times. Most of the time I get sick from a combination of stress and not taking care of myself. If I get sick early in finals week, studying for the rest of the week can be rough. So this time I was determined not to! Also, I got sort-of sick the week before finals so I was already in get-well-quick mode. Here are my tips on how to ace all your finals AND not get sick.
1. Sleep. Depending on the person, this can mean different amounts. Last year taught me that as much as I want to be one of those people who pulls all-nighters and is perfectly fine the next day, I need my eight hours. For me, it can be reallyyy tempting at 1 AM to keep studying the material that I haven’t covered yet. But I’ve learned that if I don’t get in at least seven hours the night before, I’ll end up less focused and unable to regurgitate all of the other material that I’ve learned.
2. Take your vitamins! Seriously. I have a ton of types of vitamins in my room, all of which are chewable, because they’re obviously better that way. Vitamin C is what I take the most during test weeks and it always makes me feel better. I’m a huge fan of Halls Vitamin C drops. Plus, those inspirational lines on the wrappers actually inspire me after a few too many hours in Central. Also, new to me are the Emergen-C packets that you add to water. They don’t taste the best, but they have like 1667% of your daily Vitamin C dosage, so nothing can compete.
3. Try not to stress yourself out. It can be really easy to get caught up in the “what grade do I need to get on the final in this class?” chaos, but I’ve learned that it’s better to just spend your time focusing on the material to be learned (and getting off Facebook). I try to approach it as less of a stressful activity and more like a learning opportunity like “today, you’re going to learn all the steps of glycolysis!” (that actually happened two days ago…).
I’m still downing bottles of water and getting nothing less than 8 hours of sleep per night while I get over this cold, but it’s almost gone! Well it’s off to study circuits I go. Good luck everyone!