BU Educational Resource Center Blog

It’s that time of year again-summertime. But, before that, we must all get through finals, a torture that we pay the university to inflict on us. This weather certainly is not helping our moods. It just makes me want to crawl in bed next to my heater and waste my day away watching tv. But, alas we must all resist the rainy day urges and drag our butts to study. Here are a few study tips that have seemed to work for me in past years.

1. Make a study schedule. It is highly important in this schedule to take breaks, include ALL of your classes, even the ones on the VERY last day of finals. It’s important to spread your study time out. CRAMMING IS THE WORST THING ANYONE CAN DO! And, cramming does not just include the day before. I suggest beginning your studying at least 4 or 5 days before your exam, and study a little each day.
2. Use you breaks to be productive. During your breaks, don’t just sit down and watch TV, sitting down studying is lethargic enough. But, instead, get up, go do laundry. Doing productive things around your room or apartment will help you feel more accomplished.
3. Go to the gym. I know it is easy to neglect the gym in times of stress. But, these are times that it is every more important to go. You don’t have to do your normal workout routine. In fact, it will probably help you more to do something different. If you normally do the elliptical, run instead. Little changes will help get some variety in this seemingly mundane study period.
4. Go to any review sessions you may have. Even if you have no questions yourself, other students bringing out questions might make you realize you don’t understand something so well, or it might bring up issues with the material that you were not aware you had.
5. Balance your junk food with and equal amount of water and veggies. I am not against stress eating, at times it can help. But, stress eating for a week often does more harm than good. So, every time you eat a candy bar, let the next snack you grab be an apple or carrots with ranch.

These are a few of my suggestions! I hope some of them work for you!
-Katie K. CAS’12