Master Post of Studying Tips (& Then Some)

This is my fifth finals season that I am blogging through, which means that I have been exhausting study tips and finals preparation for years now. However, that's not going to stop me from putting my two cents in here for the fifth time. I have a streak to maintain, you know!

I am not the finals expert, I believe I have said this before, but I am not an expert in anything besides maybe like Harry Styles and myself. Even then, those things are mysteries to me at times, usually simultaneously. I digress, But since I am the number one fan of unsolicited advice, especially when it comes to school, I am back at it again with my bi-annual finals week posts. Since I have done so many posts up until this point with study tips, ways to de-stress, ways to plan out your final  projects and outline ideas for your final projects, this is going to be a roundup of all of my posts up until now, You could say that I'm all about reinforcement (or beating a dead horse) over here on LATF.

1. Finals Week Roundup (includes 12 posts)
2. The Month Before Finals
3. Finals Week Prep
4. Finals Week Life & Study Tips
5. End of the Semester Prep

There's about three weeks until my finals. Maybe it's less for you, maybe it's more, but I find that starting earlier rather than later is always the way to go. I started prepping for my final projects last week, about a month ahead of time, which is pretty typical for me when it comes to gathering my bearings. My first piece of advice is to start before you think you need to. If you think you can do it the week before, give yourself an extra week. Staying on top of things and being prepared is my fool-proof advice for surviving your final exams and making sure that you get a nice final result for any papers or projects.

When it comes to studying, I always use Quizlet to create flashcards for vocabulary, key events, or whatever important terms that I find that I need to memorize. It just saves me time and energy when it comes to handwriting terms on physical flashcards, but if you need to write things down, regular flashcards will do as well! I typically use flashcards because I find them a lot easier to study from than regular notes. It helps me narrow down the most important aspects of whatever subject/exam I'm studying for without cramming my brain with other unnecessary in formation.

My recommendations for getting motivated to study is to pencil it into your day. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to do it, as it's not exciting and who really wants to spend time doing it? But ultimately, if you think about it, you have two to three weeks of painful studying followed by a summer of relaxation. It won't hurt you to take some time away from your schedule to ensure a good mark on your final!

A lot of my classes now have final projects or papers in lieu of final exams, as I take a lot of writing classes for journalism and therefore don't have study material to be tested on. I've talked very recently about preparing for final projects, but I'd like to reiterate that life is so much simpler when you start early. Make sure that you study the rubric and know what your professor is expecting from you before you start working on your projects so you don't forget anything. And double check once again at the end before you submit just incase you catch yourself missing information!

Wishing everyone the best of luck for this upcoming finals season!