StudLife’s Declassified Finals Survival Guide

Here we are. The last week of classes. Your Monday/Wednesdays have been forever laid to rest. Now it’s time to turn to those pesky finals on the horizon. You know, those ones on the other side of reading week that you pretend are imaginary and don’t matter? Yeah, you probably need to start studying for those. If you read that last sentence and started to whine loudly, you should consider taking advantage of Student Life’s guaranteed to be helpful finals tips.

Hole yourself up in a 24-hour Wi-Fi-equipped establishment (a la Peacock Diner) and ignore all forms of cyber-communication. There’s no better preventative measure for a mental breakdown than knowing you can order fried food at any time, and the pressure of conforming to appropriate public-space behavior means it’s less likely you’ll start sobbing and get distracted from your studies. — Megan Magray, Editor-in-Chief

Break your problems into tiny little pieces. This works especially well if you have several major projects looming over your head that you can’t bear to confront. Make a list of all the steps, effectively turning those giant boulders into tiny dust. Now gather the dust and get to work, one speck at a time. — Noah Jodice, Associate Editor

My advice for studying is to migrate from time to time. I find that when I spend too much time in a specific place like Bauer Hall or Olin, it gets much easier to goof off. Finding new places to study keeps you on your toes, and a fresh environment keeps the crushing fear of finals at bay. — Aaron Brezel, Sports Editor

Download StayFocusd for Chrome (and if you aren’t using Chrome, then you’re already lost). Block Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Disney.com, etc. Otherwise you’ll end up stuffing nasty cup noodles into your face-hole and crying because you have “no time left to study” despite the fact that you spent the last 526 years of reading week on Migaloo’s Twitter. — Sarah Hands, Managing Editor

If you get to the point where you feel like your brain is about to explode, take a 20-minute break to do something that’s low-key but still productive and focused. Paint your nails. Make a recipe. Clean your room. (DON’T watch Netflix.) Actual studies have shown that these are good ways to de-stress. — Katharine Jaruzelski, Managing Editor

Take humanities classes. They usually have essays instead of finals, so you can spend your last week-and-a-half eating cookies and laughing at all of your friends’ pain. — Wesley Jenkins, Forum Editor

Figure out where your exam room is. Seriously—it sounds self-explanatory, but you don’t want to be the kid who assumes the exam is in your regular classroom when it’s actually in LabSci 300. And all the studying in the world won’t do you any good if you spend the first 20 minutes of your test time frantically rushing about campus trying to find that random physics building you’ve never seen before. Not that this advice comes from personal experience or anything. — Zach Kram, Longform Editor

Get enough sleep. The parade of late-night events might encourage you to stay up late until your flashcards start to blur, but if you’re sleep-deprived, you won’t retain as much of that information. Plus, you run the risk of sleeping through a morning final. — Manvitha Marni, Managing Editor

Okay, so this is a two-step finals tip. First, make a to-do list. Make it detailed. Organize the things you need to get done in order of priority, make a timeline, do whatever else is useful to you, etc. Then, take a nap. That way, you’ll feel like you’ve at least done something with your time, and you have a better idea of what you’re doing when you wake up! Plus, naps are great for inspiration. Do you know how many papers I’ve written based off of half-asleep thoughts? A lot! — Rima Parikh, Scene Editor

My best advice for doing well on finals is to be as efficient as possible. If there’s a friend you always goof around with, don’t make plans to study with them. If there’s a place where you know you’ll fall asleep while studying, don’t go there. You would think this would be self-explanatory, but alas, here we are. — Lindsay Tracy, Copy Chief

You know what they say: Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things. Make a list of the big things that you absolutely have to get done, and don’t let yourself procrastinate by doing smaller, non-essential tasks. Prioritizing is your friend! I have no idea how the second part of the phrase applies to finals. Stay away from the rec center, maybe. — Maddie Wilson, Managing Editor

And if all else fails:

Like Master P said, “Make ‘em say UNGGGGGGH (UNGGGGGGH) Na-nah na-nah (na-nah na-nah) / Make ‘em say UNGGGGGGH (UNGGGGGGH) Na-nah na-nah (na-nah na-nah).” — Mark Matousek, Cadenza Editor

Sign up for the email edition

Stay up to date with everything happening at Washington University and beyond.

Subscribe