You are slumped over your desk, your eyes hurt from hours of reading, and you feel trapped in the library. You want to stop studying more than you’ve ever wanted anything, but you are only halfway through the material and your midterm is in a week! Rescue yourself before you have a Youtube-worthy breakdown  with some tried and true study hacks.

1. Read Smart

If you have a mountain of reading to get through and a little bit of time, you need to prioritize. You do not need to read all of the material to understand the main points. For novels, most students rely on online summaries. Make sure you find different sources so that you stand out from all of the other students who only read Sparknotes. Don’t forget to read parts of the actual novel so you get a sense of the author’s style. For academic articles, read the introduction, the first and last sentence of every paragraph and the conclusion. Also be on the lookout for keywords like “Thus, In this way, I/We have proven, First, Second, Always”. Based on this, write down some key points and learn them well.

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Question?! Answer: Ask TuffyLuv@collegecandy.com and get your face smashed.

Dear Tuffy Luv,

Help! I’m failing. I’ve always been one of those students who are really vocal in class, good at bullsh*tting in essays, but in my politics final I couldn’t blag through a multiple choice exam and failed it. I’ve got papers and deadlines piling up and I’ve been partying or procrastinating (reading up on study tips from CC as studying); how should I buckle down and start working seriously? I am halfway through college and need to get off my ass. Denial has helped for a while and now I’m in way over my head.

Help please!

Student

Dear Student,

How about this: DO THE WORK.

I mean, honestly, Student, are you flooping with me?! Get your ash in gear and get on with it!!! This is part of growing up, okay? All right, children, can we say “willpower?”

Read More »

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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.

The week after Thanksgiving break can always be pretty overwhelming. If you haven’t started preparing for your final projects, papers, or exams yet, you might be feeling if you’re drowning. And sometimes, even if you have gotten a good head start on your assignments, the fast approaching deadlines can be terrifying.

However, fear not. Even if you feel like the horrificness of your hell week(s) will swallow you alive, don’t panic. There are several steps you can take in order to ensure you get all of your work done on time. Stay calm and read through these tips that will help you survive college hell. Read More »

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since Trader Joe's Honey Greek Yogurt. That is, until midterms season hits, of course.]

So I’m new at this whole midterms thing. The idea that I’ve been more or less lounging around for the past 6 weeks and then – wham! – I’m hit with a test that’s worth 40% of my grade…that’s kind of crazy.

Needless to say, this past week has been an acne-inducing, sleep-lacking, chocolate-eating cram week. But, terrible as it was for my complexion and caloric intake, I have to say that this week has definitely taught me some things about studying.

First, it’s much easier to not stress about midterms if you actually know what’s going on in class. I’ve been going to class, but this was definitely problematic for a lot of my classmates. In a lecture of 400 people about something as non-stimulating as econ, it’s easy to doze off. But unfortunately, while you are dreaming about your next Halloween costume, your professor is actually saying important things. Even though my professor puts his notes online, so many of his notes are things where you have to fill in graphs and equations that you learn about in class. Bottom line, try your best not to fall asleep in class and then have to teach yourself everything the week before the exam. Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, TFLN…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Hot List, Wake Up Dialer, and College Bar Finder) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

Does this scenario sound familiar to you?  You have a 20-page research paper due in just a few days, and you haven’t even started it yet.  You can’t help it, there’s just too much going on in your life!  Between the frat party, roommate dinner, and football game you attended over the weekend, there just wasn’t any time.  And tonight’s Pint Night… and tomorrow your favorite show is on.  You keep telling yourself you have to get started on it, but every time you sit down at your desk and open your laptop, you keep getting distracted.  I’m sure it does–college students are masters of the art of procrastination.

I’m just as guilty as the rest of you when it comes to procrastinating — I don’t think I’ve ever started a paper more than a day or two before it was due — but it’s definitely a habit I’d like to break.  Eventually. Read More »

In elementary school all that was required of us to get decent grades was coloring inside the lines. Middle school and high school introduced to the word “studying” and, soon after, a genuine dislike for the word. But college is where the work is no joke. The classes are hard. The workload is heavy. And the social scene is exploding. So how does a college girl stay on top of it all?

Grab your notebook and furry pencils (or whatever it takes to get you ready to hit the books), because I’ve got a list of things you can do to get on another list: the Dean’s List.

10. Invest in a planner: Good grades begin with organization (and writing down your assignments). Find a planner that works for you, whether it is the one provided by your school or that handy little calendar in your iPhone. Once you have it, write everything in it. Meetings, to-do lists, homework assignments, phone numbers. It is so much easier to manage all your information when it is centralized in one place.

9. Get to class: Self-explanatory. Abide by your class schedule and don’t skip. Though you may laugh in the face o that 8:30a.m. Theology class on Friday morning, remember that professors can and will deduct for absences. It would be a shame to miss that letter grade because you could not roll out of bed to get to your desk in the morning.

8. Get a change in scenery: The library is not for everyone. Some people cannot cram themselves into a desk on the third floor and work until 2 a.m. Others openly admit that the library is a better social scene than a bar on Friday night. Find a study space that works for you, and you ALONE. My personal study space is a Starbucks near my school. I pack up all my books, grab a skim latte and park myself at a table in the corner for hours at a time. Read More »

Over the past three months, I’ve found myself falling victim to a peril of college life that most don’t consider an issue until it hits them. It’s that feeling of uncontrollable anxiety when you realize you have three papers, several long reading assignments, classes, TA sessions, club meetings, play rehearsals, study sessions, and exams (breathe) all happening in a very, very short time span. And in said short time span, you are simply incapable of getting it all done.

Yep, I guess you could say I’ve been experiencing a bit of a time management crisis.

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, since I’m pretty compulsive when it comes to my work and I have a hard time saying no to an extra-curricular opportunity. But, then again, it seems counter-intuitive that I, a devout non-procrastinator, should have trouble budgeting my time. Aren’t procrastinators the ones who usually feel the crunch when 500 pages of reading come crashing down on them at 3 in the morning? Since when does actually completing all the work assigned to me do more harm than good?

On the verge of a meltdown and a stress-induced chocolate binge, I turned to my college-grad-turned-medical-student brother for advice. I told him what my weekly schedule was like and asked what – if anything – I’m doing wrong. Much to my surprise, he told me that I’m actually doing much more than is necessary to do well in my classes.

Huh?? Read More »

Every college library is similar – always too hot or too cold, smells kind of bad but you aren’t sure why, phrases etched into the tables, and a mixed population of students either writing on each others’ Facebook walls or writing 20 page term papers in a single night.

Good times!

I used to be very anti-library (who isn’t), but this semester I have found ways to make it more comfortable, enjoyable and conducive to a productive day/evening/month of work-doing. It’s all about being prepared (for anything) and as long as you have these essentials in that backpack of yours, you can be successful too.

Water bottle: This seems obvious but you’d be surprised. I once pulled an all-nighter without bringing a water bottle and because I was so into the work I was doing, I never felt like going to get water. Stupid mistake! I got tired and sick, and spent my night drooling on my laptop instead of researching on it. The next time I filled that sucker up a few times per hour, got everything done, and felt great the next day. Also, drinking only coffee, tea or Red Bull (or Bawls...) will almost definitely dehydrate you, cause you to crash sooner than without caffeine and probably give you a terrible stomachache (which may explain that weird smell in the libs….).

Personal hygiene products: I’ll admit that I’m a little weird when it comes to hygiene – I carry toothbrushes with me wherever I go – but I highly suggest anyone going to the library for an extended period of time should have at least a toothbrush thrown in their backpack. Some other products that always come in handy for me are hand sanitizer, lotion, tissues, chapstick, and deodorant. Trust me, it’s better for everyone if you smell like a “Satin Pear” (whatever that is) than whatever 10 hours in a dirty library smells like for a 9:35 Italian class! Read More »