Finals are approaching. Projects are getting assigned, concerts are drawing near, and cold dark weather is making it harder for anyone to have any motivation. How can a poor college student do any finals prep with all of this going on??
Like this!
Organize ALL your deadlines. Post-it notes are your friends here. Get a nice chunk of wall and write a post-it for EVERY DEADLINE OR PROJECT OR PRESENTATION between now and break, then put them up in order. Take extreme satisfaction for every post-it you get to take down and destroy. The wall gives you a good visualization of how to prioritize your time, as well as a visual progress reminder. If post-its don’t work for you, then just write a big long list in your planner. Just make sure you know EVERYTHING that’s coming up.
Start every project the day it’s assigned. Or at the latest, now. Seriously, get your projects or “cramming” started now. Tonight. I spent my first full day at home during Thanksgiving break, my anniversary, hauling together a draft of a final that I had hardcore procrastinated. Don’t be me. You will make your life much easier during finals prep season if you start your revision early.
Start taking care of yourself now. On a similar note, start really focusing on getting enough sleep and eating right. That means eating a vegetable and going to sleep before one. Even (especially!) if you know you’re going to throw all that stuff out the window during finals, you’ll feel better if you’ve been taking care of yourself prior to that.
Ask professors for help if you need it. There is no shame in asking professors for help. That’s literally a teacher’s job. Asking about test formats is okay! So is asking for clarification on certain subjects! As long as you’ve double-checked that the information isn’t in the syllabus, feel no fear when you go to a professor’s office hours. It shows that you’re doing your best!
You’ve got this!