Top Tips for Finals Season from Your UTA Student Housing

Finals season is upon us once again, residents! The end of the semester is just a few days away, and soon students will be hard at work on all the studying, writing, and other preparations of finals season (we bet a few of you have gotten started already!). This time of year is often stressful and anxiety-producing even for the most organized students, so we’d like to suggest a few tips that can help you crush it this finals season.

Share this post with all your friends and neighbors in our UTA student housing at 848 Mitchell who could use a little help getting through finals season (and let’s face it, who couldn’t?). Demanding seasons like these are so much easier if we all help each other out! For now, set yourself up for success by having a quick read through our top tips for finals season!

Schedule Your Studying

You may have put all your finals and due dates on your calendar (if you haven’t yet, do that too), but have you actually scheduled when you’ll be studying? It can feel odd to put unstructured, open-ended tasks like “Study for English Final” on your calendar, but setting an expectation for yourself (and others) about when you’ll be studying and when you won’t help you be more productive and less burnt out with your study schedule. Be realistic about the time you need for breaks, sleep, and self-care, and schedule those in as well. You’ll feel more productive and have higher endurance for the studying process when you’re intentional about studying and about meeting your other needs too. You are merely human, after all. Take care of yourself, body and mind.

Dissect Large Projects

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you try to focus on every aspect of a large task all at once. It can feel impossible to get enough done when you have something big hanging over you, and that can prevent you from even getting started. Take some time to enumerate separate tasks that are necessary parts of completing the larger task and then put those smaller tasks on your to-do list. Working on these smaller tasks feels more achievable, and will give you that helpful feeling of making progress, even when there’s still a lot of work to do. Breaking large projects into smaller tasks like this also makes it easier to manage your time effectively and schedule your work out on a calendar. In fact, this is a good habit to get into for all your projects, academic and otherwise!

Form a Study Group

Sometimes when we work alone, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, or procrastinate as a way of coping with stress and fatigue. Studying with others helps us feel motivated and allows us to draw on the strength of others in areas where we don’t feel as competent. Being accountable to others and getting their help in return can make all the difference, especially when our notes have blank spots, we don’t understand a particular concept, or we’re just having trouble keeping to a good study schedule.

Utilize Every Resource

Universities, and your professors specifically, often provide lots of resources you can take advantage of around finals season. Take stock of what’s available to you and don’t resign yourself to doing everything entirely on your own. Attend those optional review sessions, visit your instructors during their office hours, and get help at the Writing Center (they even offer online appointments for when you’d like to get help from the comfort of YOUR student apartments in Arlington). Make sure you’ve communicated with your instructors about disability accommodations too, if applicable.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Seriously, sleep is important. It helps you store the memories you need and stay focused during those long study sessions. And as tempted as you may be to pull an all-nighter the night before a final, it’s particularly important to get a good sleep before your exams. If you’re having trouble getting good sleep, check out our post from last month where we discuss 4 Tips for Better Sleep!!

With these tips, we know you’ll crush it this finals season! Don’t forget that 848 Mitchell’s student apartments in Arlington feature a 24/7 Work Lounge with private study rooms, coffee bar, printer, and computer work stations that provide perfect places for group study sessions or a simple change of scenery while you work on that big paper. That’s just part of what makes 848 Mitchell one of the best community apartments UTA students love to call home in Arlington Texas!

Make sure all your friends and neighbors who are hard at work this finals season get to see these tips too! And be sure to bookmark our blog page so you can take advantage of all our tips and recommendations to come! Finally, be sure to follow us on Instagram so you aren’t missing any community updates, events, and special offers! We’ll be back with another blog post in a few weeks, but until then, happy studying and good luck! We’re rooting for you, students.