The FINAL Weeks of the Semester: How to Push Through

By Lauren Beizer

We are finally in the last few weeks of what has probably felt like the longest academic semester of our lives. At a rigorous institution like Villanova, it is hard to stay on top of all your tasks, schoolwork, and extracurriculars without any break. But this is exactly what we have done as a collective student body this semester. We have been put to the test of attending college during a pandemic and we have successfully prevailed. 

I want to help provide useful tips and tricks in order to push through the final grind of this unprecedented semester. Although we all deserve a much-needed break, we first need to complete all our work for the semester. 

Tip 1: Socializing and Communicating

During the final weeks of the semester, it seems so easy to want to lock yourself in a study room or in the library for hours on end in order to crank out assignments. It is important to grind out your classwork, but you have to remain cognizant of your human needs. This includes keeping up your personal relationships and socializing with others. Even when you are in the library or in a study room, take a break every hour or so and go say hi to someone you know. Human conversation and communication will provide a great stress relief in the midst of all the intense studying that you will do during finals season. 

Tip 2: Taking Breaks

One of the most important things to do while studying for long periods of time is to take breaks. Our brains become increasingly tired the more and more we focus on purely one task for an extended period of time. Especially with the amount of time we are spending on our computers and phones these days, it is crucial that we give our eyes a much-needed rest so that we can continue being productive. Taking breaks while studying also allows us to rest our mind and reset our mental state before we delve back into rigorous material. Resting our mind, soul, and body is so crucial for efficient and effective studying. 

Tip 3: Finding the Motivation

At the end of the semester, I barely feel motivated to push through to the very end. It seems easier at first to let all the weight of your accumulated work just bury you. This is never the right answer! The best way to look at it is to have the perspective that you have made it this far—why would it be smart to give up now? The truth is that we have all worked so hard this semester. Giving up and trying to skate through our finals is senseless, and it never pays off in the end. We have to finish off strong. The best part about a strong finish is that we will feel even better going into our much-needed two month break! 

I hope that these tips and tricks are useful for everyone in the last couple weeks of the semester. It is so important that we finish off strong and on a good note. As Villanova students, we have persevered through one of the most difficult and challenging academic semesters we will ever experience. Good luck to everyone as we close out on this interesting semester. Finals can’t stop us!