With finals around the corner, how do you prepare?

Devonte' Dillion, Staff Writer

The moment we’ve all been waiting for! It’s getting to the time of year that all college students dread.

This is where students can make or break their grade; you see students who never come to class, mysteriously appear.

Exams essentially have the biggest effect on what your final grade will be, so it’s self-explanatory as to how stressful it could be on a student.

Exams do vary though, some are written, while others are in a project form.

The ways that students go about monitoring their stress level differs.

Asking students around the campus of American international College about the methods they take with controlling their stress level was interesting in its own way.

Corey Acosta is a senior who runs track here at AIC. He talked about how he goes about final exams.

“I try not to cram when it comes to studying, I like to schedule out the times I’ll study and that leaves me enough time to relax/workout or even check with my professors if I need to,” Acosta said.

Professors are extremely lenient with allowing students to stop in to go over the exam study sheet or answer questions past that. How the student uses that convenience is solely up to them.

Every year the school has a midnight “breakfast break” where all students are welcomed to attend to essentially relax and socialize among themselves before finals start.

Malik Lee who is a junior here at AIC said of the midnight breakfast, “it’s a good change of scenery to be able to have access to the Dining Commons right before finals, especially because everyone is already awake trying to study, with letting us have food at this time when its normally closed and be able to socialize with other people with the same worries as you makes it a little better.”

The stress that comes through finals is natural; every person who’s attended school could agree that at some point you worried about an upcoming test/exam.

Nevertheless though, there are ways to combat your concerns.

The ‘Sara Laughed’ blog ‘Ways that can help reduce stress during final times’ listed the methods of: having an effective study guide, sleeping enough, laughing, not abusing caffeine, unplugging your phone when its actually study time, exercising, and keeping perspective with realizing that these days will soon come to pass.

These methods may work for some people but not the other. Everyone has their unique way of studying but these are concrete methods that can be overlooked even though they’re truly a difference maker.

Ashley Felix who is a senior here at AIC had an interesting take on this.

“This is my first year living off campus so it’s a hassle to go back and forth to campus if I have concerns to my professor, but my method to all of this is to utilize my time while I’m on campus if I have questions,” Felix said. She also went on to add, “When it usually comes to finals I really don’t feel pressure, I just set aside time to study and then I’m good to go. As long as you don’t cram you’re fine.”

Final exams are taken throughout every college/university, so students have to utilize their time and properly take care of themselves physically and mentally to remain sane by time the exam comes around.

With that being said, good luck to all students during final exams, and pressure is self-doubt when you’re unprepared.