Tionna De Freitas, Staff Writer 

Ah, finals week, the most stressful time for a student. As the week you don’t want to face slowly approaches, college students around the globe prepare for sleepless nights full of caffeine, cramming and regret for waiting until the night before to begin studying for their 8 a.m. final or their research paper due. There’s nothing like starting the summer by living in complete worry and fear for your grades. Finals week brings out the worst in some of us, and most of us aren’t that great with coping with this suddenly overwhelming amount of stress. And many of us are aware of stress-reducing techniques and study tips, yet we hardly ever use them.

So much to do with so little time is the perfect way to describe this week from Hell, said biology major and senior Jenna Condes.

“School in general stresses me out because I’m so worried about doing good and juggling work and extra-curricular activities make it so much harder,” Condes said. “With finals in the way it gives me anxiety especially because they count for so much of your grade, it scares me.”

Coping with stress during finals week may seem like the unthinkable and will put you over the edge if you don’t take the time to actually sit down and breathe. Many people acquire stress from taking on too much at once. Taking the time to sit down and actually plan out everything of what you need to do it and save it for a designated day will make everything go by so much smoother.

Bridget Hogan, a freshman and chemistry major, reveals her tips when studying for finals.

“A major tip for studying is with friends. When you study with a group of people that are in the same class as you, it helps obtain different perspectives,” Hogan said. “You have different ideas and beliefs to feed off of, which helps a lot when trying to understand the material at hand.”

There is no secret that studying is a process and is something that one can actually enjoy. All-nighters might be a college “norm” but they don’t often help much. You may think you can cram everything in all at once, but you can’t. You will fry your brain. Stepping away from studying helps more than anything and is super helpful for long strenuous exams. A helpful guide is to study something different each day. Alternating through each concept and reviewing the old one helps understand the material better.

With the weather getting nice it is almost a tease and a curse for those stuck in the library wishing they could be anywhere else, doing something other than school work and studying. Being stuck in door rooms, academic buildings and the dining commons for months don’t help either. So going outside and hanging out with your friends is what seems like the logical thing to do. Designate certain times to getting work done and if you have a lot to do, nothing says that you can’t sit outside and do it. But you have to actually get it done. Separating yourself from everyone for a little bit to get work done benefits you a lot more than you actually think.

“With the nice weather and the end of the semester near, my motivation is slowly dwindling,” Hogan said. “You have to remember to finish strong and not forget that even though it is the end of the semester, you have to still do everything you can to review for finals. Motivation is taking it day by day. You have to set goals for certain things to be accomplished during the day and get them done. Soon your list of 100 things dwindles down to finally being done, and you can enjoy your break for a couple months before it strikes again.”

All in all, finals week is the leading factor in breakdowns, contemplations and stress overload, but you have to take them one at a time and give yourself credit for actually doing what needs to be done.