{"id":7229,"date":"2021-12-01T03:38:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T20:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/?p=7229"},"modified":"2022-04-21T01:51:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T18:51:25","slug":"your-finals-survival-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/your-finals-survival-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Finals Survival Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Graphic by Kate Korepova<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story by Gloria Nguyen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Pete Ramirez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finals season is here. It\u2019s time for us to push through the last few weeks of the semester and finish off in a positive way. 
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With final projects, essays and tests to worry about, this time of year can be extremely hectic and stressful for students. It can be daunting to find motivation during finals week when all you want to do is cuddle under a thick blanket and drink hot chocolate, but don\u2019t let yourself off the hook just yet! 
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To help you survive finals week, we\u2019ve gathered tips and preparation advice from Austin Community College students and academic coaches. 
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ACC student, Victoria Regalado, keeps the studying habit of slowly exposing herself to the content of her class over time. 
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Regalado likes to run through the materials posted on Blackboard before class to become familiar with what her professor is going to talk about. This practice keeps her engaged with the materials that may appear on future tests and lessens the burden of cramming in all the concepts at the last minute. 
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Like most students, Regalado has had some difficulties preparing for her finals in the past. Last semester was Regalado\u2019s first semester at ACC and she admits she did not know how to prepare for exams or what to expect during finals. 
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\u201cI was in a class where we weren\u2019t given that many details about what would be on the final, so I had no idea what to focus on,\u201d Regalado said. \u201cI was freaking out.\u201d
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To push through that difficult time, Regalado reached out to her classmates to exchange the information they had about the finals. She also looked over past exams to try to identify the professor\u2019s testing style. 
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\u201cIt\u2019s kind of comforting to know that many people are on the same boat with you,\u201d Regalado said. \u201cWe helped each other and the final results turned out well.\u201d
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Being an engineering major at ACC demands Alya Mansoor to be a strict planner. Mansoor says she works on school work from the afternoon until evening time. 
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Alya Mansoor, engineering student at ACC, studies for an upcoming exam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA big thing that I do to keep the balance between my work life and study life is to create a structured schedule,\u201d Mansoor said. \u201cAt the beginning of the school year, I\u2019ll get a big calendar and write down all of my deadlines for homework and exams. As time goes on, I\u2019ll fill in things that pop up too\u201d 
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This calendar helps her keep track of due dates and allows her to plan out her work ahead of time. 
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To study for finals, Mansoor formulates a study plan catered to each class based on previous exams and the professor\u2019s formatting. If she has an upcoming textbook-heavy exam, she will focus on her textbooks and support her studying by reviewing notes and homework. 
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\u201cIf I have an exam that relies on homework and practice, like Calculus, I\u2019ll work through problem after problem and review my notes again.\u201d 
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For a cumulative exam, Mansoor takes a different approach. \u201cThat’s a longer process and I have to start ahead of time and pay close attention to the course materials from the beginning of the class,\u201d Mansoor said. 
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Because Mansoor says she fidgets frequently and is not good at concentrating for long periods of time, she uses the Pomodoro technique to study productively. 
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Using this method, you break down your working time into 25-minute chunks (pomodoros) separated by five-minute breaks. After about four pomodoros, you take a longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes. This technique can help anyone who feels distracted or overwhelmed to focus their attention on the task at hand. 
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\u201cI\u2019m using the Pomodoro method and I\u2019ll keep using that,\u201d Mansoor said. \u201cIt helps me keep my concentration better, especially for something big like finals.\u201d
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Sherry Yang, an academic coach at ACC, notices that a common mistake students make when studying for finals is procrastination. 
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\"An
One of ACC’s many academic coaches, Sherry Yang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome students didn\u2019t plan ahead and didn\u2019t know how much time they needed to prepare for finals,\u201d Yang said. \u201cIn worse cases, some students barely studied until the final days.\u201d 
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This habit of barely studying leads students to cram all the information at the last minute and results in poor retention of the material and lower test scores. 
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\u201cIf you try to stay up late to memorize as much as you can, usually you\u2019re going to feel tired the next day and not going to remember a lot of information,\u201d Yang said.
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When students come to Yang for advice, she recommends at least two weeks to prepare for a big test. 
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\u201cLet\u2019s say if they have a test on Friday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., we recommend students to study in the afternoon from 2 or 3 o\u2019clock for the two weeks before the final,\u201d Yang said. \u201cThat way, you can get used to doing those kinds of subjects in that time frame. On the actual test day, you\u2019re not going to get super anxious and stressed out.\u201d
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This semester, ACC has been hosting a mix of in-person and virtual classes. For either type of class, Yang recommends familiarizing yourself with the environment you are going to be in during your exam. 
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\u201cIf you\u2019re going to take your test in front of your desk, you\u2019ll want to study in front of your desk a while before the exam day,\u201d Yang said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to take a test in a class, it might be better to study in a library or a public place. If you get too comfortable studying at home, taking a test in a different environment with people around may make you feel anxious and overwhelmed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Preparing for your final exams can be overwhelming, especially during the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. If you have had difficulty studying for finals, book an appointment with ACC academic coaches at their website<\/a>. Academic coaches are available on several campuses district-wide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck to everyone with your finals!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graphic by Kate Korepova Story by Gloria Nguyen Edited by Pete Ramirez Finals season is here. It\u2019s time for us to push through the last few weeks of the semester and finish off in a positive way.  With final projects, essays and tests to worry about, this time of year can be extremely hectic and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4103,"featured_media":7230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1135,12],"tags":[1005,1004,38,1242,100,1010,822,1239,1240,1244,1243,1056,1241],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-academic-coach","tag-academic-coaching","tag-acc","tag-alya-mansoor","tag-austin-community-college","tag-finals","tag-finals-week","tag-gloria-nguyen","tag-kate-korepova","tag-pomodoro-technique","tag-sherry-yang","tag-study","tag-victoria-regalado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}