Written by Evelyn Dunn, Staff Writer

Finals are just around the corner and it is the point in the semester where a boat load of assignments are due before the exams. The amount of work and time it takes to get everything done can be very stressful for most if not all ,students. Managing stress is not difficult when the right method to keep it at bay is applied. With finals just around the corner, stress is inevitable, but should not take any serious toll on studying and taking exams.

Plan your time

One of the best and most helpful ways is to master the art of time management. There is nothing worse than to realize you have a ten page paper due the next day or five quizzes you just remembered that need to be taken. Procrastination is one of the worst things you can do to yourself during finals time. Planning out your assignments for each week should do wonders on those stress levels. This way you can do one small task at a time throughout the week. The last minutes occurrences and the quality of your work will improve with this method.

Get to bed

Whatever you do, don’t pull an all-nighter, especially during finals week. They just don’t work. Sure, you get tons of last minute work done, but at the cost of a sleepless night? Sleep deprivation does not improve work, it makes it look sloppy, and professors can usually tell when something was done the night before. And on top of all that, the stress on your body after not getting any sleep is more harmful than good. Our bodies need sleep to stay functional, and a sleepless night actually puts ore stress on your body.

Start a study group

Starting up a study group with friends and classmates can also do great things for performance, and it will keep your stress levels low. Studying with friends can make the work feel less overwhelming and boring. Plus, if you are with people that have the same class, you can work together and figure out hard questions. The group can divide up work to each person and develop a study guide, so you will only have to worry about one thing at a time and still study the same amount.

Work out

Exercising between study sessions can help keeping the stress at bay. Sitting down and hunched over a desk for long periods of time can actually hurt more than help when you are trying to memorize definitions and formulas. Getting up and doing a few jumping jacks can help relieve pressure and stress and get the brain kick-started back into high gear.