Finals week can be stressful for many, especially if you procrastinated to the last minute to study for your exams, write your papers, and rehearse your presentations.
As an avid procrastinator and a current academic coach, I have learned many ways to avoid and remedy the last-minute assignment stress.
The #1 mistake people make when studying in general is trying to cram and study for every possible class at once.
Your brain is not wired to understand all five finals within an hour.
The best method is to start chunking your time and subjects.
This means studying one subject for 30-45 minutes at a time, taking a 10–15-minute break, then moving onto studying another subject and repeat the cycle.
If your brain doesn’t have time to recharge, then it won’t have the ability to process the necessary information.
Tackling research papers can be tricky when you have a few days left to research and write it all.
First, format the entire paper with headings, subheadings, cover page, and cite all your references as you research.
Getting the tedious parts out of the way makes the process more interesting, and hopefully, you chose a topic you’re interested in writing.
Research presentations can be daunting for many, and stage fright make it scarier.
Eye contact can be hard to maintain when you don’t want to look at the audience, so look directly above their heads and guide your eyes across a fixed point along the back wall.
Your speech will likely run shorter than practiced if you have stage fright because you’ll talk faster to get it done faster, so practice going slightly over time and cut if you need during your speech.
Overall, self-care is the best way to survive rushing through assignments because, at the end of the day, you cannot perform your best academically if you aren’t at your best physically or mentally.
