{"id":46,"date":"2020-12-07T09:24:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T14:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/?p=46"},"modified":"2021-03-26T13:52:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T18:52:15","slug":"preparing-for-my-first-ever-college-finals-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/2020\/12\/preparing-for-my-first-ever-college-finals-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for my first ever college finals week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last week of classes begins tomorrow, and then I’ll just have a few finals to complete before my first semester of college is finished. As a high school student, college finals week seemed profoundly intimidating, like an academic marathon, but so far I haven’t been too stressed about them.<\/p>\n

Two of the classes I was enrolled in this semester ended months ago, so I only have finals for four classes. Not all finals are created equal, so this weekend I planned out what I have to do for each class.<\/p>\n

If you are a college student trying to get organized, or a high school student curious about what to expect from finals week, here is how I organized all the information I need to know before finals week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I organized my notes in my bullet journal, but if you like to have things digitally, a Google doc or Google sheet would work well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For each class I wrote the date of the final<\/strong>, as well as how long I have to work on it<\/strong>, since it varies from class to class. In one class, I have an exam that starts exactly at 12:30pm, but for another final exam the test is open between 10am and 10pm, though I’ll only have two hours to take it once I open the test.<\/p>\n

One of my finals is just an essay, and another is a combination of multiple elements, so I also wrote down what format each final is in<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I also wrote down which days I will spend studying for tests and drafting essays<\/strong>. Closer to finals week, I will block off specific time for preparing for finals on my Google calendar.<\/p>\n

Luckily, I don’t have any cumulative exams, which has also relived some of my worries about finals week. I have one essay that encompasses the whole unit, but I can choose what I want to include to support my thesis. The tests I am taking in finals week only cover the most recent units of my classes. I noted what information will be covered for each of my finals<\/strong> as well.<\/p>\n

Finally, I wrote my current grade<\/strong> in each class to remind myself of how I am positioned grades-wise before the final.<\/p>\n

I originally wrote out all this information on a Google doc, which is fine if you want easy access to your notes online. However, I keep a bullet journal where I organize my school work, so I transferred these notes to physical paper, which helps me see what I need to do visually. I also left a portion of the paper blank so I can add any extra notes or tasks that come up later.<\/p>\n

It can seem overwhelming to think about all the work you have to do, but I find that just breaking the tasks down and organizing them is an easy first step that can make the work ahead seem more manageable.<\/p>\n

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

The last week of classes begins tomorrow, and then I’ll just have a few finals to complete before my first semester of college is finished. As a high school student, college finals week seemed profoundly intimidating, like an academic marathon, but so far I haven’t been too stressed about them. Two of the classes I … Continue reading Preparing for my first ever college finals week<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[40,39,38,37,33,32,42,41],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-photos","tag-essays","tag-exams","tag-fall-semester","tag-finals-week","tag-first-semester","tag-first-year-student","tag-freshman-year","tag-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/natalie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}