With finals week quickly creeping up on us, The Chart spoke with the Student Success Center for some foolproof strategies for having a successful end of the semester.
Juile Christiansen, an academic success coach and coordinator for the Student Success Center gave some helpful insight into not only the tutoring services available at student success center, along with special events running the week before.
Plan ahead
According to Christiansen, it is always a good idea to plan ahead. Having the due dates of any finals you have to take and any final projects that need to be finished is always a good course of action. Create a calendar, or a list if that works better for you, of all the finals and projects and when they are due. This will help to visualize what needs done and have a better course of action when preparing for your finals.
Get plenty of rest
“Getting lots of sleep and eating good meals are always important, but can have a bigger impact during stressful times, like finals.” Christiansen said.
While it can be tempting to pull all-nighters to cram for an exam, but students have better results on exams when they get a good night’s sleep. We all know that getting enough sleep helps us to preform better in life, so it should be obvious that we will both study and take exams better when we get a proper amount of sleep.
“Taking time for brain breaks is always important.” said Christiansen. It’s important to remember that our brains need a break from all the reading and studying, making sure to take breaks every so often can help give your brain a little break from screen time and taking in large amounts of information.
Focus on problem areas
Focus more on the classes and areas that you are struggling the most in. This may seem obvious according to Christiansen, but making sure to give a good amount of attention to the subjects you are having the most trouble in can make a huge difference in the end results. Make sure you know what those problem areas are so that you can receive the help you need and study the correct information before taking your text.
Get some study help
The Student Success Center, in association with Spiva Library, will be hosting a “Destress Fest” for students during the week leading up to finals, Dec. 1-5.
“The student success center always offers free tutoring to all students on campus, but for the Destress Fest event, tutors will be available in the library,” Christiansen said.
The Destress Fest offers a great opportunity for student to receive help from the many tutors available through the center.
The staff at the success center knows how difficult balancing both life and studies can be, which is why they are hosting the event, according to Christiansen. The event is to both let students know about the tutoring services offered through the center, while also offering times when students can drop-in for sessions on their schedule.
Students can access the schedule for tutoring and make an appointment by visiting mssu.traccloud.com, or calling the Student Success Center at 417-625-3165.