"WHY AREN'T THEY UP YET?!"

Your stomach has been churning since you walked out of your last exam. You know the grades are curved, but you also know that leaving the last essay blank is not going to bode well on your overall score. You talked to your friends in the class and compared answers. You’ve flipped through your notes again and again. You’ve attempted to calculate your score in your head.

And now you just have to wait.

You pack your bags to head home. Then you check your grades online. Nothing.
You take a cab to the airport. Then you check your grades from your phone. Still nothing.
You check them again as soon as you land.
And again after you kiss your mom hello and drop your laundry in the laundry room.

Still nothing.

You know that there is no way the professor is going to get the tests graded in the next few days so you attempt to forget about it. You don’t want to think about grades anymore, anyway. You’re on break, the test is over and there’s nothing you can do about it now, dammit.

And then you sit down to dinner with your parents and before you can say “Pass the ketchup,” your dad turns to you and asks, “How did finals go?” Read More »

You set your alarm for 8am, then check it 3 times to make sure it’s right. Just to be safe, you set your phone alarm too. Everyone knows the urban legend about the time the power went out and that poor student slept through the exam that was worth 50% of her grade. That’s not going to be you.

You climb into bed a good 3 hours earlier than you normally would, determined to get a full 8 hours before the big test. Then you lay there staring at the ceiling, mentally rehearsing your answers to the potential essay questions the professor hinted might be on the exam.

When your alarm(s) goes off in the morning, you jump out of bed. The exam is in 2 hours and you need ample time to review the notes one last time, suck down at least one cup of coffee and get some brain food (read: Lucky Charms) in your belly. On a normal day you’d still be sleeping, hitting the snooze button over and over. But not today. Exhausted, you wash the sleep from your face, throw your hair up into a ponytail, and put on your lucky t-shirt. Even after countless hours in the library you need all the help you can get.

You flip through your now-tattered note cards as you shovel cereal into your mouth. You’re feeling good. You know this stuff. You’re gonna rock this exam!

There’s still about 30 minutes until test time but you want to make sure you get a good seat so you pack up your bag. Pencils? Check. Pens? Check. Notebook/note cards/anything else you can possibly review one last time before the professor puts that Scantron on the desk in front of you? Check.

It’s time to rock and roll.

When you get to class, you find your perfect seat (not in the front – that’s too close to the prof; not in the back – that’s too far of a walk to turn that sucker in; not in the middle of a row – you don’t want to be climbing over those slow test-takers to get the hell out of there when you’re done). You unpack all your stuff and flip open your notebook to run through the information one final time. Only you’re sick of studying. You know everything you’re gonna know and you just want the test to start already. Where is everyone? Where’s the professor? Why can’t this all be over with already so you can grab your dirty laundry and head home for winter break!? Read More »

The last few weeks of the semester can get a little stressful. And not because you just can’t seem to find the perfect present for everyone on your list (or in my case because you keep getting distracted by Macy’s shoe department and never get around to buying those other presents), but because of finals. Remember those? Probably not.

If you’re a freshman you have absolutely no idea what horrors await you, and if you’re an upperclassmen you’ve more than likely blocked out this horrific experience. But yet, here you are. Professors are bombarding with you deadlines and dates, final papers and exam study guides and more information than you could possibly handle while you’re still recovering from your Thanksgiving-induced food coma.

Ten-page papers?
Cumulative finals?

You can’t even pronounce half the stuff on you history study guide and those calculus questions might as well be written in morse code for all you can deicer. It’s okay. Take a deep breath. You can get through this.

And I can help.

As a senior taking on her (second to) final finals week, I like to think I have this studying thing down. For a while there I kept getting it confused with napping, but I’ve since cleared things up, and I’m willing to share my infinite wisdom with you. So before you do anything else you need to… Read More »

The following is a guest post by our (nerdy yet totally helpful) friends at Hack College. Check ‘em out for all your techy needs. They’re like the nerdy boyfriend you never had but always needed.

When the hell did November get here? That is what I want to know. Seriously, just yesterday I was telling y’all how to prepare your brains for August and get back into the school mode. And now it’s November. How did that happen and how can I make it stop?

Well, okay, so I can’t stop the furious, oncoming train that is November. I also can’t stop December, with all of its final papers and exams and projects, from hurtling right after it. You might be thinking, “Don’t be silly. December is an entire month away! I have a whole other month before I have to start worrying about things like that. I’m not gonna worry about that ’til after Thanksgiving.”

That is where you are wrong. Let me break this down for you. Including this week, there are two more weeks until Thanksgiving. Exams start a week and a half after Thanksgiving break. Can you study for all of your exams, write multiple 15-page papers, and put together various end-of-the-semester projects in a week in a half?

Answer: no.

The solution to this post-Thanksgiving crunch is to use these two weeks that we are given to start planning ahead for finals season. I know, it may seem excessive. But if you put off preparation for your end -of-the-year work until right before or even after Thanksgiving break, you will have wished you used that two week grace period to do some of that work. Trying to organize the next month of your academic life is daunting to say the least. But with a few tips, you should at least create yourself a nice cushion of accomplished work to allow you to not completely lose your mind in the post-Thanksgiving crunch. Read More »

Fall is in full swing. The pumpkin spice lattes are a part of your daily ritual. You’ve broken in your new fall boots. You’ve given up that whole turning over a new leaf idea – you know, the one that involved getting your homework done on time. And hey, just in time for midterms too.

Mid semester exams are inevitable. And annoying. Just when you’ve started to think you could get away with not doing any of the reading for your classes and getting all of your notes online (from the comfort of your futon), midterms rear their ugly heads.

Essays?
Quotation identifications?

You are not prepared for this. Time for some serious studying, right? Not just yet, there are a few things you really need to do first…. Read More »

We’re well into another new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back the fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like stupid group projects or, everyone’s favorite activity, procrastinating. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

You’ve spent the past 4 nights in the library flipping through your tattered notebook. You’ve highlighted and re-highlighted all the most important sections in the textbook. You’ve answered the sample review questions your T.A. gave out and the entire review packet distributed at the review session.

Hell, you went to the review session.

And now, on the eve before the big blue book exam, you feel ready to go. You’ve done everything you can and now it’s time to show that little blue book who’s boss.

Before you climb into bed at the ripe hour of 11 p.m., you pack your messenger bag with two blue books, 2 pens (in case one runs out of ink), a few pencils (in case that is what the teacher prefers), White-out, gum, tissues and a bag of Sour Patch Kids (for a post-exam celebration). You set your alarm and snuggle into your Twin XL to get the required 8 hours before the big day.

Except you only got 5 hours. The other three were spent staring at the ceiling freaking out.

“Oh God. This exam is 50% of my grade. 50! I can not eff this up. What is an example of Intrinsic Motivation? What are the symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder?! Why am I still awake?!” Read More »

Whose lunatic idea was it to throw National Teacher Day in May, when finals are looming and we’re more stressed out than Kanye when he pulled the mic from T-Swift!?

I mean seriously, I just cannot devote any of my (precious) time to appreciating teachers today. Sorry. Nope. Not gonna happen. Not when I’m  running on little to no sleep, am elbow-deep in research papers, and my blood caffeine content is higher than my average BAC on mug night. We stretch ourselves so thin trying to be perfect for teachers, studying so we can get an A, then promptly forgetting all the material. We really make the most of our education, don’t we!?

Nope. But at least there’s one professor, at one school, that knows what’s up.

According to Duke University’s Cathy Davidson, “I can’t think of a more meaningless, superficial, cynical way to evaluate learning than by assigning a grade. It turns learning into a crass competition: how do I snag the highest grade for the least amount of work? How do I give the prof what she wants so I can get the A that I need for med school? That’s the opposite of learning and curiosity, the opposite of everything I believe as a teacher, and is, quite frankly, a waste of my time and the students’ time.”

You go girl…er…woman! Read More »

Pulling all-nighters, running on coffee and 5-hour-energy shots, and making the library your new permanent residence? College is already hard enough! Then, at the end of every semester, we have to deal with EXAMS.

And, of course, studies show that women are at a higher risk for stress-induced eating and consequent weight gain. Blame it on cortisol – probably the suckiest hormone I’ve ever heard of. It’s a stress-related hormone that’s linked to weight gain (especially in your abs!). Cortisol also makes your metabolism slow down and increases your appetite. It ALSO leads to a tendency to consume high-fat foods. Ugh.

There are ways to avoid weight gain and unhealthy habits even when you’re scrambling to finish that paper at 4am the night before. What does a girl gotta do to stay healthy and avoid gaining weight during these super stressful times?

Build a support system.
Friends and family are there for you – feel free to vent! Unloading your stress and frustrations will keep you focused… and prevent you from stress-eating.

Snack smart.
Avoid sugar and caffeine. They’ll seem like a good choice… until you crash a few hours later! And when you’re making your 2am food run, keep healthy snacks closest (front of the cabinets and fridge) so that’s the first thing you see and grab. If you have time to cook, put food away right after you make it so you’re not mindlessly eating seconds and thirds while studying. Also, no matter what hours you keep during exam week, try to keep your eating schedule as close to normal as possible. Eating when you should be sleeping increase your chances of gaining weight. Read More »

Got some college questions? Unsure of a decision? Getting ready to head off to college?! (Lucky…) Just wanna chat it up with some really awesome chics? We’ve got the girls for you. Hit them up in the comments or shoot them an email with the subject “College Q&A”! They’ve got all the answers you need, no matter who you are.

Question:
I have been reading your advice for awhile now and I really like what you say. I’ve taken a lot of it in my own life. So here’s my question that maybe you can help with…. And don’t judge me for it, please. So finals are coming up and I really need to do well. I sorta slacked for the past couple of weeks and I need these tests to bring my grades up. My friend offered to give me some Adderall to help me with the studying. I am tempted to take it… I need all the help I can get… But I’m sorta scared? I dunno. Have you ever tried it? Would you do it?

Thanks,
Freaked About Failing Read More »

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, people! For those of us who can’t pour one out for our favorite Saint (well, besides Reggie Bush) thanks to a full day of classes, we need a little something else to get us by. And what “something else” is better than some “Would You Rather”?

With exams, Spring Break and, of course, green beer on the mind, give a little thought to this situation:

Would you rather get guaranteed A’s on all your finals without having to study OR get a free week-long trip to the destination of your choice for Spring Break?

Things to Consider: your future, your bank account, your tan lines.