Ah, finals!

As finals week approaches, I imagine many of you feel the stresses placed upon us as students. In a Herculean effort to pull together all of our projects, papers and notes, many of us are studying into the wee morning hours.

I’d like to share some tips I’ve learned throughout my college experience that have helped me to stay on track.

One: organizing your notes

If you’re like me, you take notes by hand. Even if you don’t, organizing your notes can really help. The first thing to do is to take all of your class notes and type them out. This will help you remember each lecture in greater detail.

As you do this, try to organize your lecture notes into an outline. The theory behind this is that it’ll provide repetition and make you analyze each specific note and how it fits with the overall lecture.

After the notes are organized in an outline, review the textbooks and notes taken while reading. Look to see where they fit into the lecture notes and add them where appropriate.

Finally, create a brain map for the notes. To do this, take the topic of a particular lecture/text and—without looking at any note—write down whatever you can remember about each point. After this is done, consult your notes to see what you missed and what needs to be expanded upon.

Two: writing papers

I admit I used to be a bad student, hurriedly writing 10-page papers the night before they were due, leaving no time for editing. In fact, I used to prefer this method because I thought it gave my papers more meaning and feeling.

However, I’ve converted to a better way of writing. I cannot stress enough the importance of using an outline. Granted, they can seem like a waste of time because they aren’t seen by anyone but you, but they’re invaluable because they keep your paper focused—not to mention they serve as a really great place to keep quotations you want to use.

The size of some papers can be really daunting; there’s nothing scarier than looking at an assignment for a 10-page paper that’s due in a week and having nothing done yet.

At this point, it can be really helpful to break the paper down into sections, which makes the task far less intimidating.

Writing a two- to three-page paper is far less challenging: All you’ve got to do is to put the sections together.

Also, make sure you leave enough time to have someone else edit your paper. However skilled a writer you are, you often miss your own grammatical mistakes. Others won’t.

The Portland State Writing Center (in Cramer Hall) offers various writing services on an appointment basis. Use them. If for some reason you can’t make it to the center, corner a friend and get them to look over your paper.

Three: managing stress

It’s really hard to find enough time to do all of your assignments, write your papers, study, go to class and have a life, but avoid the temptation to stay up all night in an effort to get everything done.

Your body needs its rest. If you want to remember everything, the best thing you can do is make sure you get enough sleep; there’s no substitute for a well-rested mind.

Also, make sure you eat properly. The body needs nutrition in order for those brain cells to retain what they learned. While I’m no nutritionist, I do know that I find it harder to concentrate if I’m hungry or if I’ve been eating more fast food than usual.

I hope these tips help you do well on your final exams, and I hope to see you on campus for winter term!