Twas the week before finals, and all through the house, not a roommate was sleeping - they were yelling and crying and screaming and dreading instead. Every semester I tell myself that this will be the semester where I turn my work habits around. I won’t procrastinate on animation projects, I’ll start studying early, I won’t cram at the end. And every semester I’ve found myself losing sleep but gaining stress the week before finals.
Don’t get the wrong idea by my opening remarks. I’ll finish everything on time, and (not to toot my own horn) I’ll probably receive good grades. I’ll go home for intercession and forget all about how terrible procrastination is until next semester. That’s not a good system! You’ve seen on TV, movies, and the news how students stress over their studies in college, especially finals. But are the tests that hard, or are we just not properly preparing? Most of the time, it’s the latter of those options. The biggest hindrance on my studies is my extracurricular involvement. I’m working four jobs this semester, so my weekdays don’t leave a lot of time for homework. I rely on my weekends to get the majority of my work done. But what if the clubs I’m involved in are having events? What if my friends invite me out for (my one true love) pizza? I’m a social person so I have to feed that side of myself too. Whatever your hindrance may be, you’ll think of some reason to justify it. For me, I always tell myself that there’s plenty of time to work on my assignments, and at the beginning of the semester that’s true! But when it’s the week before finals and your projects are all due on the same day (like mine) that excuse doesn’t really hold up anymore.
So what I have to ask from you, dear reader, is that you start preparing now. Be honest with yourself and identify whatever your hindrance might be. Once you’ve done that, start training yourself to fight it. One thing that’s helped me recently is working in the Academic Support Center’s social media team. When you spend 10 hours a week in the school’s tutoring center, you learn a few things about academic strategies. College can be hard for a lot of different reasons, but a lot of the issues we face, including academics, can be solved with just a little realism.