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Students need to prioritize time to study for finals  Annemarie Beede With exams coming a week from today, some Mississippi State students are feeling the anxiety that comes with procrastinating. The counseling center and Ty Abernathy of the Athletic Academic Office have a few suggestions that might help to ease the pain. Although progressive studying throughout the semester is the best cure for the inevitable stress that builds at the end of every semester, there are a few study tips that may help the last minute cramming be somewhat successful. Set priorities. Make sure that you make time during the day for that special someone in your life as well as for friends, but make sure you also set a definite time and place to study. "Take one hour, no more but no less, at the beginning and the end of the day to study," Abernathy said. He also said doing that makes it easier to find time in the middle of the day to put in a little extra study time. "The morning and night are the best times to study because your head is the clearest then," he said. Some students find making time to study difficult due to a time-demanding lifestyle. The book Student Success by Tim Walter and Al Siebert suggests several ways to make time in even the busiest of schedules. Talking on the phone, daydreaming, watching television, sleeping, drop-in visitors, reading and worrying are unnecessary time consumers during test time. In order to budget your study time in with everything else that is important, Student Success suggests students make a personal schedule which includes time for personal responsibilities, time for leisure activities and necessary time to study for each exam‹including the dates and times of examinations. "Stick to the schedule and reward yourself for having achieved your study goals in allotted time," Walter and Siebert suggest. "Don't be afraid to ask your teachers for study guides," Abernathy said. Students will probably find last-minute studying easier if they have a general idea of what the professor will be looking for. Abernathy also said that although asking a teacher to submit a guide may not work, the teacher will probably be more inclined to tell you specifically what to expect. Use study groups. "Use study groups to polish what you've learned, not learn what you've missed," Abernathy said. If the panic never seems to set in until the actual test time, there may be a different problem that needs some attention. According to the counseling center, test anxiety causes an added barrier in trying to get a high test score. Forgetting information that was previously learned, having a difficult time concentrating and experiencing physical discomfort are all symptoms of test anxiety that occur while a student is taking an exam. According to the counseling center, anxiety is created by expectations about what is likely to happen when taking the exam. To help cure the anxiety, the center suggests that students go to the examination room about five minutes early, but not any earlier because that can cause the anxiety to grow. If test anxiety seems to be the problem, there are ways to overcome this problem. The University will be holding free screenings for anxiety to anyone interested on May 3 in celebration of National Anxiety Disorders Screening Day. For more information on the anxiety screening day, call Tom Woodruff in the counseling center at 325-2091. For any more study tips or questions, call Ty Abernathy at 325-0595. |
