Finals. While high school cared enough to only dish ‘em out once a year, we’re no longer so lucky. “So I’m supposed to remember everything since August? Is this cumulative? IS THERE EXTRA CREDIT?!” (Sidenote: Who else is psyched that EC opps still exist in college?). So what’s a girl to do?

Simple. Start now. And follow these lovely (simple, and rewarding) steps to prep yourselves for hell week.

The 6.5 Steps to Finals Success:

Get papers out of the way: Papers are majorly lame. Are they going to get you an A on a final? Nope. So knock them out of the way first in order to focus on the heavily-weighted 100 short-answer exam you have coming up in your Psych class.

Breaks: So important. Has your mind gotten clogged up with calculator functions yet? Take this opportunity to f*&k s#!t up at the gym between 3-page increments of that research paper.

Hard work (Dedication!): Keep your eyes on the prize. By now, you have a ballpark idea of what your final grades could be. Let there be no slippage! And hey, coming home with a 3.5 (or better, obv) before Christmas will definitely boost your chances of seeing a shiny 4S under the tree (or by the light of your menorah)!

Rewards: Finally turned in that research paper? Good job. Treat yourself to a re-run of the VS Fashion Show or a well-deserved blackout!

Outlines: Get this crap out of the way ASAP. Literally… just re-type those study guides your professors gave you all the time and build up this study skeleton with a healthy dose of factual meat. So mindless, yet so helpful.

Sleep: Awkward that I need to remind you… but I guess that’s what happens when you move outta momma’s house. It’s been scientifically proven that you’ll be 100% more alert if you sleep before an important exam or project than if you pull an all nighter. (And I didn’t even need to research that! Thanks, common sense.) It’s more efficient to do a bit of studying before bed, say 11:30ish, and rise half an hour earlier to put in that much more effort. You’ll retain the information better because it’s being repeated at another time, and you won’t wake up ugly. Win-win!

Rewards: Yeah, there’s the other .5. Go rage again, you deserve it. Or be mellow and buy a holiday latte. Your call.

Good luck, fellow freshies! Break is right around the corner.

Leah is a freshman at the College of Charleston whose hobbies include underwater basket weaving, painting hopscotch blocks for inner-city schools and harassing unfaithful celebs and politicians via Twitter (@leahsparagus).

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