Finals Week Prep!

Well I know its not the thing everyone wanted to hear but the most terrible time of the year is fast approaching ....

FINALS WEEK!!!

The dreaded hours of studying and prepping for a few hours of your life that will make or break an entire semester of class! 

We have all been through it on many levels depending on if your in middle school, high school or college

No matter what level you are you still know how stressful this time can be, especially now that break is also so close you can almost touch it! 

Well I'm going through it too and ill give you some of my tips that may help you make this time just a little less stressful (or ATON LESS!!!)

First off make sure you are going to all of your classes! 

I can't stress that enough! 

This probably is only something that pertains to college students because its a lot easier to skip classes but try your best not to!

You should not be skipping many classes at all but towards the end of the semester it is more important because your teachers and professors will be giving you a lot of information as to what may or may not be on the final. Also many teachers will start to give out extra credit opportunities and that is something you will definitely want to miss! Also many teachers like to give out quizzes to test and see where people are and how much help they need before taking the exam. 

You want to have all the information you can to help you study for the finals as much as possible! 

No one wants to go into the finals and realize they just studied the complete wrong thing! 

Next tip is get a tutor!!!!!

This is so helpful and important!

Yes you can do study groups and if that works for you then great but if your like me then study groups do not help at all! But a one on one tutor will be able to help so much! 

Now when I say tutor I don't mean a friend who is taking the class with you, I mean someone who is being paid or is getting credit to teach you everything!

These peoples soul purpose is to sit in a room and teach a student everything they need for there class! Usually these people are people who got a extremely high grade in the class and understand it more than most people! It will help you so much! 

Most schools only give you so many free tutoring hours but don't let that keep you from a tutor! 

I say this because I know my school has a Student Success building and this building is all about tutoring! They will have certain times when a bunch tutors are scheduled to be in a room and you can just go in and get free tutoring! 

This is something that every school I have been to has had but they do not advertise it because they want you to pay! So you may need to find it! 

Start studying at least two weeks before your final if not three weeks! 

These are going to a lot of things from previous test so if you can you should be studying what was on the previous tests as your going through the semester! 

Most professors like to use similar questions just rewording!

Now things to help you through the stress! 

Do not burn yourself out with studying! 

Yes you need to study a lot but not to the point that that is all you are doing! 

You need to take breaks and put your mind on other things it is the only way you will start to retain what you have studied! 

Also a AMAZING stress reliever is coloring! 

Yes I did say coloring! 

You can find the adult coloring books almost anywhere now a days and they are the best purchase you will make! It is amazing how much it can calm you down when you are feeling extremely stressed, plus you get to color which just makes you happier in general! 

Next and last tip for now is keep yourself healthy and happy! 

Eat right and keep yourself out of negative things!

If you do not do those things no matter how ready you may think you are for a final you will be sitting in that final thinking about whatever drama or stress is in your life and not the questions on the test!

The last on is something you should always be doing because no matter what is going on in your life it is always going to get better! always put yourself in a good situation not a bad one because it will make everything in life, especially school 1000000 times easier!!!

Got other ideas that you may do when it comes to exams or finals week I would love to hear them! Comment them below because who knows your tip may help someone ace their finals! 

Is it to late to change ..

Ive always been an indecisive person .. like seriously one of the most indecisive people on the planet most people would probably agree. This was true when it came to sports, schools, clothes, pretty much anything to do with my life I could never choose what I wanted. 

Ill let you know this is probably what makes my life so stressful but when I finally decided what I would want I usually had a breakthrough moment and everything turned out the way I would want them to. 

This is no different now that I am in college .. 

many people go through high school knowing exactly what they want to study when they move on to college, I was no different. I went through a career tech program during high school in hopes to help with my dream of becoming a sports reporter for ESPN. That was until my senior year when I realized that wasn't for me, although I still had a HUGE passion for sports it was not something I could see myself spending my life doing. 

Flash forward to choosing colleges. I decided going to a community college would be the smartest approach to planning what I wanted to do (not to mention the cheapest). I went through an entire year doing general classes figuring out what I liked to do. I decided that I loved planning events and especially loved weddings and thought this could be a perfect career for me to go into! After finishing a year and a half of classes and only having one semester left I realized I'm not sure if this is what I want to do. That means onto deciding what to do next.. 

Throughout my life I have always had a love for the ocean, so with that I decided marine biology would be perfect for me! I found a school that offered marine biology and decided to go through with it. I loved everything about this school and the program the only downside was 50,000 dollars is way to much to be paying for one year of school. Plus I was so far behind I would have been there for three or more years.. not something I wanted to do on the price. So with that I started looking into other schools that had marine biology programs. This was hard seeing as I did not want to leave the state and we are no where near a beach. 

I ended up at a school that was right by my house and WAYY less than the price of the last school and ended up working for my degree in biology. After a year and a half of going through this program I hit a road block. 

Your probably thinking to yourself "why is she rambling on about her life, where is the tip part of this whole speel?" Well to get to that you have to see what changes I've been making to get to this point. 

Now I am a semester behind and all my friends have graduated and have "big people jobs" and I am still struggling through college..

I decided to talk to my counselor about what is all going on and here is where the breakthrough happened .. 

I started crying in his office because he made me fill out a paper of why I am struggling so much, he then showed me and I realized I am not doing what I want to be doing! I don't want to do biology I wanted to do marine biology or anything to do with the ocean! THATS A HUGE DIFFERENCE! 

Well as soon as next semester starts I will be a business student! 

Again your saying "and this has to do with anyone else because... " 

Well let me tell you ..

People get so far into something then realize they do not like doing that anymore. They think I spent so much money and time on this I can't just quit or move to something else.

YES YOU CAN AND YOU SHOULD!! 

I say this because I know from experience that yes it will push you back but 

ask yourself this .. 

"Would I rather be save money and time but be stuck doing something I hate for the rest of my life?" OR "Would I like to spend the money and time finding out something I love and love what I'm doing!" 

PICK THE SECOND ONE!! PLEASE 

You should never make a decision that will make you go through life thinking is this really what I want to do. Because if your asking yourself that then your probably making a bad decision. 

It took me finally breaking down to make an appointment with my counselor or advisor to then go and have him show me I was making the wrong decision. 

If you have any doubts TALK TO SOMEONE it may show you that you are doing something wrong! 

Also don't let anyone pressure you into staying where you are at (IE PARENTS). My mom told me I was making a horrible mistake every time I changed what I wanted to do .. Well NEWS FLASH its your life not theres! 

All I hope is that this post helped one person change there lives for the better when it came to school or even a career! If anyone has further questions I would love to help them!

XOXO Carissa Ann