Whoa, boy did this semester move by quickly. Next thing I knew, it was already over. At Michigan State, everyone is heading into finals week, and boy are people stressed out more than ever before. Some people have 4,5, or even 6 exams! With as many as 3 in the same day! It’s understandable that you might stress out a bit, so here’s a few tips and ideas to surviving through the week.
1. Don’t Stress! Relax!
Not enough people take this seriously, so here’s a cool mind trick. There’s only 1 thing in this world that you can control, and that is YOU! You can’t control who grades your exam, you can’t control what other people will think, but only what YOU think and what YOU do. If there’s one thing I knew about studying, it’s that stressing out about it never made it any easier, so keep that in mind, when you stress about putting something off. Just don’t do it!
Mind you, some stress can be a good thing. Positive stress is what gets you to actually STUDY when time is running out. That’s the pressure of having to get something done in a LIMITED amount of time, so here’s tip #2
2. Create a false sense of urgency
It blows my mind how just about everyone I’ve ever met in college always waits to the last minute for everything. Well, actually, I’m exaggerating quite a bit, but when an essay is due the next day, and you go to the library, and see numerous classmates there, well then, you realize just how mediocre we’ve all become, JUST KIDDING! But why stress when you can get something done sooner?
Set a False Deadline! Set for something to be done a few days before it’s actually done, and make that NEW deadline, your sense of urgency. Odds are, you will probably run out of time, much like I have numerous times, but this time, when you past your deadline by just a little bit, the paper doesn’t suddenly become late or past due, like during the actual deadline. Plus with the extra time, you can go back and make sure it’s stellar, rather than missing many grammatical errors from not proofreading carefully enough.
With regards to studying math, by letting what you learn sit in your head a few days, you remember more of it! Calculus includes EVERYTHING you’ve learned before. So why just put it into short term memory, when with a few days notice, you can get that math remembered forever, so you won’t make silly mistakes in your more advanced course work? That’s what I call building the proper foundation.
Need help with any Math tutoring? Feel free to send me an E-mail. I even use my webcam, and will answer ANY of your questions, guaranteed! I charge only $15/hr, which I consider to be quite a bargain compared to any kind of tutor store, or especially Princeton Review, or Kaplan, which charge $1000s for their little Standardized test courses. You be the judge, send me an E-mail with any questions at bachelis@msu.edu
Leave comments too! Whaddya think?
