Final exam week and the weeks leading up to it can be an especially stressful time for college students.
While some stress may stem from poor time management and preparation, students may also worry about how a low test score could affect their course grade and future goals. Plus, many courses have end-of-term projects due as well, which can make preparing for final exams more challenging.
“That is always an overwhelming period of time, that last month of school,” says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist with the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit focused on helping children and young adults with mental health and learning disorders. “Even for those who are good planners or are planning ahead, there’s still just a lot that’s expected of students in those final weeks. It’s a balance of trying to plan ahead and reduce procrastination as much as possible.”
[Read: What a Good College GPA Is and Why It Matters.]
Stress affects people of all ages, but research has shown that younger adults report feeling higher levels of stress compared to those in older age brackets. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2022 “Stress in America” report, 46% of adults ages 18 to 35 agreed that “most days they are so stressed they can’t function.”
For college students, exams and academics are a major source of stress. In a 2022 survey on stress in college, the American Addiction Center found that exams were the biggest stressor among respondents, with academic pressure being the third-highest factor. More than 89% of respondents said they felt stress from exams, and nearly 74% said studying brought them stress.
Some stress can be healthy and motivate students to be productive, but preventing it from becoming overwhelming requires a game plan, experts say. Here are five tips for how students can mitigate the stress of college finals.
Plan Ahead
Cramming for a final exam may be a time-honored tradition for college students, but experts caution that it’s an ineffective way to prepare. While some students cram as a way to stay sharp on knowledge they’ve obtained, it can contribute to heightened stress levels for students who procrastinated on their studies.
The best plan is to start preparing early.
“To me, it’s a time management issue,” says Andrew Hsu, president of the College of Charleston in South Carolina. “So let’s say your final exam is four weeks away, you really need to start studying and preparing for it now. Your mind just does not retain information very well if you cram everything in during those last couple of hours. You really need to give your mind time to absorb the information and know how to utilize that information.”
The temptation will be there to look at the calendar and not feel urgency about studying, but successful students are the ones who take advantage of that time, says David Chadwick, a former college basketball player and CEO of RealResponse, a platform that partners with colleges to allow student-athletes and others to anonymously report personal and relationship concerns or talk to someone when they feel stressed.
Prioritize studying for the finals that are most consequential, says Chadwick, who learned that lesson quickly as a college basketball player with a tight schedule. This is also true of any end-of-term projects that might be tied to a final grade, as procrastinating can lead to poor quality work, he says.
Create a Schedule and Stick to It
As finals approach, students prone to anxiety might start sleeping later, eating at random times and neglecting self-care and hygiene, Giller says. They may also look to various methods of distraction or escaping to fill their time and avoid studying for exams.
[Read: How to Get Good Grades in College.]
To fight this, students should establish and stick with a routine, experts say.
“Maintain a regular schedule of activities and take care of your usual responsibilities,” John MacPhee, CEO of The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to protect emotional health and prevent suicide among teens and young adults, wrote in an email. “It helps create a sense of normalcy.”
Part of a routine might involve creating and following a strict schedule, Hsu says. For instance, if you block out five hours to study three subjects, be intentional about when to start and stop on each subject. It may help to set an alarm to know when to switch tasks, he says.
“If you have five final exams you have to prepare for, you need to segment your time so that you don’t get stuck with studying only math and then find that you were not well-prepared for physics after three hours,” he says. “You need to force yourself to follow a schedule which, to me, really helps to destress yourself because you won’t have the feeling after five hours that you haven’t done anything else except this one thing.”
Avoid Multitasking
As final exams approach, there’s a tendency among students to do a lot at once, but Giller cautions that multitasking can be less effective. While students might tackle multiple tasks within a time block as Hsu suggests, both Hsu and Giller recommend focusing on each task individually and exclusively.
This leads to more productivity and better health, Giller says.
“So if that’s eating a meal while our laptop is open and we’re creating a study guide for ourselves, that is actually more exhausting for our brain,” she says. “We feel that fatigue, we’re less productive, things take longer and we’re more likely to feel that burnout at this time of the year.”
Rather than snacking on junk food while studying, take time to prepare a more nutritious meal and allow yourself time to relax and eat it without a laptop open or study items next to you, she says.
Ask Professors for Help
Some students are at a point in the semester where the ship has sailed on planning ahead. They’re playing catch up and need to understand the information as well as they can in a short amount of time.
[Read: What Academic Probation Is and How to Avoid It.]
If that’s you, don’t shy away from asking professors for help, Chadwick says.
“I found that a lot of our professors were excited to help us, it just took you being a little more proactive, setting up the meeting and asking the questions,” he says. “I found a lot of success where, prior to exam time, I asked a professor if I could meet with them just to get clarity on some of the questions I had.”
If you run into a situation where your professor can’t find a time to meet, seek out another professor who teaches the same subject or schedule a time with a tutor through the university’s tutoring center. Study sessions with friends or classmates may also be helpful.
Take Mental Breaks and Exercise
With long to-do lists and and multiple tests to study for, final exam season is one of the most challenging times to sleep, eat well and get regular exercise. But prioritizing both mental and physical health in seasons where you’re more prone to stress is crucial to mitigating its effects, Giller says.
Exercise can release endorphins and dopamine, which can help regulate stress levels, and sleep can help you recharge and be more focused.
It’s also good to get away from screens or being in study settings that might feel isolating, MacPhee says. Experts suggest taking regular study breaks to go for walks outside, spend time with friends and family or take part in hobbies.
“Taking care of our physical health is protective for our mental health,” MacPhee says. “Taking some break time, even for a few minutes, to connect with others can help recharge you and is good for our health and wellbeing as humans.”
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How to Deal With College Finals Stress originally appeared on usnews.com
Correction 05/02/23: A previous version of this story misstated John MacPhee’s title.
