Amanda Fanelli

Staff Writer

At this point in the semester, many students feel like “Can it just be over already?!” Staying motivated can be dif cult especially when major projects are due and the semester is quickly winding down.

A helpful tip to keep students focused is keeping your eye on the prize; the diploma! Remember what you are in school for, building a career. Manage your time, plan out when you are going to do assignments and study. Make a list of everything you have to do and check it off as you go.

If you have a 20-page paper due, break it down and do a little at a time to relieve some of that workload. Take some time for yourself, if you’ve been studying all day take a few hours out and enjoy yourself, maybe get lunch with some friends or just relax and watch TV. Stay positive and don’t get discouraged.

If you have the mindset of “I’m never going to get this done,” chances are you won’t.

In her senior year as a liberal studies major with an early childhood concentration, Francesca Murad manages her workload by using her time wisely. Murad uses a planner to stay organized.

“I write down all of my assignments and due dates and try to attack one thing at a time,” Murad said. “[Murad is] always trying to achieve the best GPA as possible because she wants to get into a good law or grad school when that time arrives.”

She reminds herself of her end goal, and that makes her work harder throughout the semester. Murad’s advice to overcome this stressful time in the semester is to look forward to something. For example, the holidays are coming up and thinking about making it to Thanksgiving helps to break up the semester.

Alexandra DeMarco, a freshman biology major, uses time management to portion out her work/studying hours during the week.

“To keep myself motivated I think about the grades I want to get,” DeMarco said. “With my major, I need to have good grades to get into grad or medical school after my four years at Utica College.”

DeMarco’s tip to students would be to “get as much work done in advance as you can and to stay updated on your current and past notes from class.”

Senior Joseph Massoud, a criminal justice/pre-law major says he likes to get ahead with his assignments, so he doesn’t fall behind.

“I use graduate school acceptance as my motivation. I de nitely feel like this point in the semester requires the most work (especially papers) before nals.” Massoud advises students not to procrastinate and to also “knock assignments out as they are given” so students will not be overwhelmed.