When I first got to UT Austin, I did not know what to expect. I knew it was going to be a lot more difficult than any of the classes I ever took in high school, but I don’t think I was truly prepared for what was coming my way. If I am being honest, I did not know how to properly study for my exams, and I most certainly was not expecting my exams to be as hard as they were. I still remember showing up for my first midterm ever at UT, and halfway through the exam I already knew that I had not done as good as I was hoping to. My first semester in college was extremely rough for me academically, mostly because I was definitely not ready for all those extra hours of studying that I was going to have to do in order to actually succeed in my classes.
That semester, as you can already guess, did not go as I was hoping it would, but I decided that instead of feeling sorry about my failures, I should take it as a lesson for the following years to come. I am now in my third year of college and I can truly say that I have learned so much about how to better study for my exams. I am not going to sit here and tell you that now I get perfect scores in all of my exams, but I have definitely improved from those first rounds of finals I ever took. Now that I am almost done with my finals for this semester, the biggest advice that I can give is to start studying ahead of time! You will learn that in college, studying for your finals the night before is not going to get you the grade you are aiming for. I had to learn that sometimes you are going to have to pull all-nighters to truly understand all the material, and that you have to find the perfect study habits that work best for you, whether that is crating flashcards, a Quizlet, re-reading your textbook, or just simply going over all the lectures again.
I know this might sound a little bit intimidating because most of us are not used to letting go of sleep to stay up and study for an exam for hours, but I promise it is not as bad as it sounds. This semester I did have to pull a couple late night study sessions, but thankfully I had a lot of friends who also needed to study late, so I had company for the most part. The beauty of having friends in college is that they will always be there to motivate you to study, and some will even stay up with you because they are going through the exact same thing as you. My first two years of college consisted of staying up really late in the library and going over my Quizlets for hours trying to make sure that I really understood all the material for my final exams. This semester was unfortunately so much different from all the other ones, but I still had a lot of studying to do. Being stuck at home during finals has been quite a struggle, but being able to live with roommates who are also in college trying to pass their classes has truly helped me stay on track. This might sound a little corny, but I have really enjoyed bonding more with my roommates as we all sit in our dinning table with our laptops in front of us, listening to our favorite relaxing music in our tv, staying up past midnight, and just trying to study for these finals. This is the time when we all make those last minute coffee runs and hope to end the semester strong. You will soon find out that finals week is usually “dead week” for everyone, but just remember that you are in the final stretch of the semester. You have already learned everything you need to know throughout the whole semester, so hop on zoom and take those finals with confidence!