Ah, finals. The time of the year where we’re so close, yet so far. The semester is winding down, but our workload certainly isn’t. Although it’s easy to allow yourself to have a series of minor mental breakdowns around this time, resist the urge. If you map out your time correctly, this doesn’t have to be the most stressful month of the year. Here are a few tips for keeping your cool in the weeks leading up to finals.

**Write your work down.** If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the ten thousand things you think you should be doing, make a to-do list and write every single thing down, whether it’s studying related or just the errands you need to run that day. You’ll likely find that you don’t have quite as much to do as you suspected. If it helps you to stay on track, give yourself time constraints and jot down the time you want to get things done, like studying for math at 11 a.m. or going to the store at 2 p.m.

**Take advantage of breaks.** If you find yourself with some time between classes, even if it’s 20 minutes, make good use of that break and look over notes for another class, make flashcards or get some reading done. By doing things in small increments throughout the day, you’re less likely to burn out than if you were to sit down for hours on end trying to memorize vocabulary.

**Sticky-note your readings.** When you come across something memorable or important in your textbook, jot down a quick note of what you read so that if you want to refresh your memory later, you don’t have to slog through pages of information that you’ve already gone over.

**Turn off electronics.** I know, I know. I’ve basically just asked a parent to leave their preteen children unattended at a rock concert. But you’ll be shocked at how much work you can accomplish with your phone and computer turned off for even half an hour. Obviously, some of the work you need to do will require electronics, but if you can do without technology, put it away for as long as you can, preferably in another room.

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The day before an exam is a little bit different than the weeks leading up. Assuming you haven’t been pushing off your studying until 24 hours before your test, here are a few pointers for decreasing any last-minute stress.

**Get some sleep the night before.** While I’m not going to try to disprove the validity of the all-nighter (because frankly, they work from time to time), it’s proven that the sleep you get after studying allows new information to settle into your brain and helps you to remember what you learned more easily than if you’d been studying until six in the morning in a Nutella-induced wake state.

**Eat a little something before the test.** Even if your pre-test anxiety makes you nauseous and eating is the last thing you want to do, it’s important to eat something beforehand because if your body is hungry, your brain’s first priority is getting food, not taking an underwater basket weaving exam. If you’re not feeling up for an actual meal, try eating half a banana or a granola bar. Something is better than nothing!

**Take comfort in the fact that you’re prepared.** You’ve been studying for a good few days now, you’ve done all you can, and you have to be confident that, somewhere, your brain has retained the information you’re about to be questioned about.

Take your test, get the heck out of that room and celebrate a semester well done!