Hello Sailors! As we approach Christmas Break and the end of semester 1, the most stressful time of the year for most students also awaits us. Finals at Marymount amount to 15% of your grade, and many students, including myself, find this extremely stressful to prepare for. You may be asking yourself, ‘How could this article miraculously help me overcome my fear of finals?’ While this article may not help you memorize everything you need to know for biology, or help you write an LEQ for AP World, or how to conjugate verbs in Spanish, it does have some useful tips for every student out there to prepare yourself for studying and taking your finals so you can enjoy your break! To quote Kamaran Ihsan Salih, “Study to learn, do not study to pass.” Hopefully, this message will carry you through your finals prep and the days leading up to your finals and instill you with the message that the most important outcome of this final is not the grade you receive on it, but the verification that you understood the content of the class.  

• Start preparing and studying for finals early. It is important to get an early start on all of your finals preparations. It may even be helpful to create a daily schedule for studying for your different finals and allotting time in advance for studying for each subject. When studying for your finals, give yourself lots of time to study for the classes that you find most difficult, and review the material daily to make sure you jog your memory. 

• Study with friends that are in your classes. Studying can be a very long and taxing endeavor to complete on your own, therefore collaborating with people to make study guides, quiz each other, and motivate one another can be a useful tip when preparing for finals.

• Meet with your teachers and utilize your class time. Meeting with teachers to discuss areas of a subject that you are confused about or need extra help with can be extremely beneficial when it comes to preparing for finals. All of your teachers would be more than happy to help you in the instance that you don’t feel confident about something, so make sure to meet with your teachers! In addition, asking valuable questions in class and staying on topic in these next couple of weeks is also extremely useful when preparing for finals, as you never know if something from one of the lectures will pop up on a final question!

• Find useful and creative ways to study for finals. Making slideshows, flashcards, Quizlets, and Kahoots are all extremely useful and effective ways to jog your memory and study for finals. Memorizing and re-learning a whole semester’s worth of material can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task, but using fun and stimulating methods of studying rather than cramming and blunt force memorizing can allow you to better prepare for finals. 

• Find a comfortable place to study. Make sure that when you are studying, you can find a spot where you can be free of distractions and allow yourself to completely concentrate on the task at hand. Studying is enough of a workout for your brain, but adding loud noises, talking in the background, or other distracting noises can make the process all the more difficult. When studying, find yourself a comfortable, (but not too comfortable where you’d fall asleep) quiet place to make sure you can lock in the information you need for finals. 

• Reward yourself! Make sure you take time to take care of yourself while studying! Overdoing your study time can have the opposite effect on your test results if that means you are becoming fatigued or not taking care of yourself, so make sure you take time in between studying to go on walks, eat healthy and stimulating food, and enjoy yourself! 

Here are some activities you can try when taking a break!

• Yoga/meditation
• Going for a run or a walk
• Doing something like drawing, cooking, or a sport that makes you happy
• Take a quick nap
• Spending time with friends and family 

In this list, you’ll notice that none of these activities involve the use of an electronic device. Try to stay off electronic devices when taking a break to allow your brain to truly have the break it deserves and needs to thrive.

• Get enough sleep. This is probably the most important tip you will receive on how to prepare for finals. Many people in your life will tell you that this is the most important thing to do when preparing for finals because sleep affects your performance, your mood, your energy, and so many more hugely significant factors that play into how you do on your final! Try to get at LEAST 8 hours of sleep and allow yourself to truly rest and regenerate for the days ahead! 
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• Eat healthy. Maintaining a healthy diet before finals is extremely important. Eating junk food can negatively impact your studying and therefore your performance on the final. Try instead to make your snack breaks full of healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins, and healthy fats to allow for a productive study time! Take good care of your health! 

• Help others prepare for finals. To quote Napoleon Hill, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” This quote surely rings true when studying for finals, because quizzing other people and assuring them of their knowledge can help increase your knowledge and confidence as well. Making sure to help your Sailor sisters out is key in this stressful time! Even if you are not in their class, remember that everyone is dealing with this stress as well and that you are not alone. Think about how you might feel if someone denied you the help that you needed to prepare for finals, and make sure to help everyone around you. 
• Don’t stress yourself out! Trust in your abilities and believe that you will be alright on the final so long as you follow all of these effective preparation tips. make sure that in times of stress, you take time to meditate and focus on your breathing, especially in the days leading up to the final. Remember, this final is only worth 15% of your grade, and you have been learning about the things you’re going to be tested on all semester. Your teachers truly want you to succeed, so make sure to utilize them as well as your peers to get the most out of your classes. If you stress yourself out and deny yourself the affirmations that you will be okay and that you are going to do well on the final, you will go into the final feeling less confident and that will affect your performance. Therefore, going in confident and assured in your abilities is important when taking the final.