i’m going to keep this short-ish and shitty and un-proofread because i only have like 6 followers but it’s finals week and i keep seeing these awful study tips everywhere that are like “drink water” and “don’t get distracted on the internet” and other unrealistic stuff like that, so here is a REALISTIC students guide to pulling ur semester together, written by a truly apathetic student still clinging onto the deans list (me). enjoy and share as u wish
1. make study plans with a distant acquaintance who you think is cooler than you. do you want their first impression of you to be 20 minutes late, saying “oops i just realized i haven’t taken notes all semester?” no u want to impress them! knowing a complete strangers opinion of you is on the line, you can use this to find the strength to make a great looking study guide, or actually add to the google doc instead of just reading what everyone else wrote. bonus points if you make plans to meet at 10am.
2. fuck the “stay focused” app. if you are anything like me you know it takes about 15 minutes max to download a new browser and you’re back to doing the same exact thing you were before, but on firefox instead of google chrome. plus, we all have cell phones, so blocking tumblr on my computer just means i have to look at smaller pictures. WHAT U HAVE TO DO is find a person you trust, preferably your parents or someone in another state/country who you can’t hound in-person and who WILL. NOT. CRACK. u give them your login information for your social media apps (i do this every finals week with Facebook and tumblr for at least a day or 2 or before my hardest exam) and you have them change your password. it’s life changing.
3. look at gifs of hermione granger and rory gilmore. literally role play as them, dress like them if you have to. they just have it so together!! how!!
4. before you leave your dorm ASK YOURSELF “do i reaaaallyyy need my computer?” and if you don’t need it to study, don’t bring it with you. don’t bring your phone either unless you need music. i am an international relations/art history major and the answer for me personally is “no” 99.9% of the time because all my exams are based off readings/in class notes. the next step is to go to the library, or wherever you study, and bring nothing but good old fashioned papers with you.
4b. if you have readings to do print them out. i kill about 8 trees per semester by printing off hundreds of pieces of paper and while environmentally i feel sort of guilty about it, it’s the actual only way i can read anything without my eyes glazing over, or ending up on style.com looking at Diors F/W 2002 collection. plus you can ~highlight~ and annotate better.
5. white noise is your best friend. rainymood.com and white noise generator are 1000x better than the most mellow spotify playlist, imo, or at least work really well in the background. (personally i don’t like studying to music with vocals because the words distract me but if white noise isn’t enough u can do sigur ros or instrumental music) however, when it’s the early morning hours and you feel like you’re about to crash show tunes can and will keep you going. i recommend “you can’t stop the beat” from hairspray and anything from mamma mia.
6. if possible, make friends with someone who has a car. burger king can make or break you at 2am.
7. TREAT YASELF. i never eat healthy during finals week and i don’t trust people who do. but if you actually get up early to study you deserve the largest dunking donuts or most expensive latte. and if you are up at 3am, yes you not only can but should get 3 different chip bags from the vending machine. (i swear crunching helps me stay awake anyways)
8. nothing is a better break than a walk outside. this is not an opinion this is a fact. even if you just go stand outside and take 10 deep breaths. or lay in grass for 2 minutes. and if it’s a nice sunset go let yourself watch it.
9. do not “dress for success,” wear the most comfortable clothes that you own (but not pajama pants or ur fucked. ANYWHERE is a bed when u r wearing pajama pants, in personal experience). also, something to get your hair away from your face/eyes (like a bandana or something stretchy though not a hard headband) is a GAME CHANGER
10. you would be surprised how not-rude people are if you mass-email your class with questions or in need of assistance. whether you need to borrow the book or missed a day (or 5) of notes, throwing an email into the wind usually won’t fail you!! *bonus tip: offer to bake cookies or buy food for who ever helps you. it will make u seem cute/friendly/thankful/desperate and they will NEVER actually ask u to follow through. i once got like 5 days of missed notes AND a girl lent me her flash cards by doing this.*
11. do your bibliography as you research!! there is officially no worse feeling than finally finishing a paper at 3:47am and then realizing you have to add in your citations and make your works cited. save yourself.
12. don’t go out less, but go home earlier. instead of skipping a party or movie night or general get together with friends completely, go from 11pm-1am. it gives you the literal entire day to still study, if you get back at 1am you can drink a gallon of water and watch a 22 minute episode of something, be asleep at 1:30am and still wake up at like 9:30 the next day to keep working. those are the best hours of any party anyways and you don’t have to miss out on the memories just for some shitty number grade.
13. if you decide to take a napping break, do it on a couch or futon with all the lights on, not in your bed. you get ur horizontal time in but it’s much more difficult to actually sleep for an entire night in this position, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally not waking up.
14. if you get really stressed look up facts about how big the universe is and how small and short lived and tiny humans are in comparison. or a ted talk about how grades can’t measure intelligence, or about how all humans are meant to be artists. OR watch an episode of BBC planet earth. this always comforts me for some reason.
i am struggling to come up with more, so there’s my realistic study guide for all my fellow students out there. enjoy finals, and remember!! 2 years after graduation employers consider it “juvenile” to include your GPA on your resume :)
kianamaiart
dededos
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
