It’s finals week and we all know what that means.  The seniors roll in at 7:55 late to their morning Beaverlodge, but that doesn’t bug them.  As a seasoned finals week goer (7th time’s the charm!) here are the dos and don’ts of finals week.

DO give yourself a break after school.

After your finals and you get out at noon, do something you want to do! Watch an episode (or four) of your favorite TV show before you go and delve into your studies again. We’ve all been in the state where we’re in the midst of studying, but truthfully you’re so tired that you’re not computing any of the information that you’re studying.  Allowing yourself to have a break after school before studying again will make it easier for you to retain information.

DON’T waste your time.

I’m serious about this one.  Regardless of what I said about relapse time, that doesn’t mean you should watch a The Lord of the Rings marathon or take a nap so long that you’re confused as to why it’s dark out.  I am one of the worst procrastinators I know. I’ve been writing 40-minute in-class essays before I was even assigned a single in-class essay. Finals is the only time that I don’t procrastinate and honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air and something I can only muster during one out of 52 weeks of the year.  If I can do it, so can you.

DO eat breakfast before drinking coffee/highly caffeinated drinks.

This one is for the caffeine rookies who aren’t used to the side effects of the drug that fuels your tank this time of year.  If you drink coffee or a rebel on an empty stomach you’re going to have anxiety, your stomach will be upset, and your heart will feel like it’s going to burst out of your chest. There’s a certain amount of acid in your stomach that breaks down food, if you add coffee to that without food, it’ll most likely cause a stomachache.  Also, you’re going to be super dehydrated and nobody wants that.

For the people who typically get a medium blended rebel once in a while from Dutch Bros., I would highly suggest that you do not buy a 32oz. blended rebel in preparation for your final: that’s $6.50 you spent on a glorified Slurpee that you’re never gonna get back.  Also, that’s gross.

DON’T go in without a strategy.

This is especially important for those taking math finals. Don’t spend all your time on one question, check the clock regularly to make sure you’re still on track for answering all the questions.  If you know there are 80 questions and you have 60 minutes to take the test, you should know that going in you shouldn’t take more than 48 seconds to answer everything.

If you’re writing an essay, make an outline, bullet point what you want to talk about beforehand, it will take you 10 minutes tops to lay out what you want to write about and will make writing the actual essay so much easier.

As for scantrons, if you’re in the situation where you have NO IDEA what the test is even covering: stick with B or C and go through with it the entire way.  Instead of trying to figure out a pattern, your chances of doing mediocre and sticking with one letter are actually better.

Before you go into your final, know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to execute that.  Otherwise, we’d all look like chickens with our heads cut off.

May the odds be ever in your favor.  Nobody likes finals week, but hopefully these dos and don’ts made this hell of a week less rough.