Time to Study

It’s that dreaded time again; finals week. This week is so stressful because there is so much resting on the last grade for the class to find out if you will be able to save or drop your GPA. Although I prefer taking a test over writing a paper, either option is stressful. Finals at St. Michael’s College start Friday, and if you haven’t started to stress or study, here are some tips to help during this awful week.

On to the Tips:

• Take a break to allow your mind to absorb all of the information you just learned.
• Start your work early so you don't feel stressed right before it's due.
• If your professor doesn't give you a study guide for an exam, look through the syllabus to summarize the most important terms from each day.
• Find a buddy to study with and quiz each other to help remember the material better.
• Read through the book, then take notes so you don't get distracted.
• Some studies say to chew cinnamon gum to get better test grades. If you don't like gum, do something consistent for studying.
• Start to study for exams early so you are able to retain more information during the exam.
• When the academic buildings are open, study in the room you learned all of the information in. You are already familiar with the environment.
• Take some time to spend by yourself when you aren't studying or taking breaks. You'll find that when you do this the studying becomes easier. I usually enjoy longboarding.
• Use the resources around you to help de-stress from this week. It is crazy for everyone and there are people to assist in getting away from the stress.

I don't often chew cinnamon, but I do enjoy gum.

With the weather so bad and having no time I had to resort to longboarding inside.

When I first heard of finals in eighth grade, I cringed at the fact that I would have to remember everything I learned the whole year in a period of a couple of hours. I still sometimes cringe at that fact. This year, with the classes I have, I only have two in-class sit down finals. One is on Friday, the first day of finals, and the other is on Saturday. I don’t mind having a final on Saturday because that means I’m done much sooner and the stress will be over.

The other added stress of finals in the spring semester is packing up your room to go home for the summer. If finals weren’t stressful enough, by 6 p.m. the day of your last final you must be moved out of your room. This summer I am staying up in Vermont for an internship and a job working for the Applied Linguistic department for St. Mike’s. I need to pack for three different ways: clothes I need to bring home for the summer, clothes I need to have accessible for the summer in Vermont, and clothes and everything else that don’t need to be out until the fall semester. This will be fun packing everything up by then.

As I said in last week's blog it was P-Day (click here if you want to read it), this year I couldn't follow all of my tips because the weather was not as great as in previous years. It was overcast and raining most of the day, but that didn't stop me from enjoying a large part of the day. Instead of using sunblock, I used a clear garbage bag made into a poncho. I still enjoyed so much food especially the Ben and Jerry's ice cream, I had three cones worth. Every day can be a great day even if it's raining, it's the amount of fun you put into it that makes all of the difference.

Clear ponchos still allow to see the awesome shirts. Happy Birthday Jennifer.

In this picture left to right: DJ Q, Lauren, Cait. 

We all still enjoyed the day even though the weather tried to stop us from enjoying it.

One Last Thing:

If you couldn’t tell by the information about finals, this is going to be the last week that I am at school and the last blog for the semester. I hope that all of you enjoyed reading the tips for this semester with the new format of having all of the tips related to one another in some way. It has been fun thinking up tips to share, but it is not as much fun as telling them over the radio and explaining how they have related to my life. What I’m trying to get here is that I want to do my show next semester. I am going to try to my best to have my schedule and homework allow for me to come back to you live from the WWPV studio. I cannot guarantee that my classes will allow for it, but I will do my best. For now, have a wonderful summer and hopefully you’ll hear my voice again soon. 

Keep SMCing,

DJ Q