Madison Long
Staff Writer
Stress, anxiety, tears, tests, and a steady stream of contemplating dropping out. Oh, the joys of college.
Monday, May 5th, the official start to finals week, is looming just overhead, ready to swallow us in papers, tests, and overwhelming projects. Now, I am by no means an expert, just a freshman trying to win over her second finals week. However, after multiple crash-outs last fall, I decided to try out and share with you four trending study hacks that might save your grades, too.
HACK #1: Quizlet Block Blast!
Quizlet just came out with a new Block Blast game where the goal is to match and clear away as many blocks as possible from the board by filling full rows/columns. Every three blocks you can place, you get a new flashcard question to answer. You have three tries per question before being forced to move on, and you continue to do so until you can answer a question correctly. From what I can tell, the game ends only when you run out of moves with the blocks. I like this technique for vocabulary-heavy courses or testing your ability to match an example to a term. However, you don’t get hints or skips, so if you’re stuck on a term, you basically have to time yourself out.
HACK #2: Pomodoro Technique
As someone who enjoys the “lock-in” and constant working without distraction, I do not enjoy this hack. Essentially, you study for 25 minutes and then take a five-minute break. After four cycles of 25-5, you increase your breaks to 15 or 30 minutes at a time. This is a good hack for avoiding burnout. However, I found myself wanting to keep working during the breaks because I had built up steam. Additionally, I found it hard to have the timer in front of me because I felt less motivated to start anything new when I only had five minutes to go. However, Charmaine Lowe, a sophomore majoring in social work, uses this technique almost religiously.
“I really like using the Pomodoro technique for when I’m taking on a big project or paper,” says Lowe. “It makes me take a break and step away from the material, which helps me in staying focused and sharp when normally I stop caring about halfway through the project.”
HACK #3: Scribble Method
To try the scribble method, you’ll need to grab a piece of paper and pen in your non-dominant hand and start doodling while listening to the material you’re trying to learn. If you get distracted easily, this is a quick counterbalance. However, I had a hard time focusing on the content and worried more about how awkward it was to hold the pen in my left hand. Also, if you like to take notes during lectures or videos, you’re pretty much out of luck. But, when used in class, it can be very helpful. I found myself listening directly to the professors and not getting distracted as easily.
HACK #4: Gamify Everything
This is by far my favorite hack because I’m a sucker for avoiding boredom. This hack mostly depends on you and your preferences. You can create point systems for tasks where the points increase for time commitment and difficulty, create time-based challenges like answering 15 flashcards in under five minutes, tracking your progress on a giant board, competing in a flashcard duel, assigning tasks as quests and side quests where you need to complete three side quests before a main quest, and – everybody’s favorite – getting yourself a sweet treat after completing a big project! I enjoy tracking my progress on my planner by highlighting completed tasks, and for bigger projects, I set aside quests and side-quests.
Before you explore too many hacks, though, I suggest you start with a broken-down list of assignments and work from there. Lowe likes to time out her assignments and how long she’s willing to spend on them each day, while others like Elan’i Gorostiza break down the material into sections.
“Honestly, I’m nervous, but not too stressed,” says Gorostiza when asked about her feelings going into stress season.
Now that you’re starting finals week with a few tips be sure to grab yourself some caffeine, rest, and food to buckle up!